So, you’ve just put in a brand-new layer of asphalt down over your driveway, parking lot, or road. It’s a beautiful, crisp black color, and its surface is smooth and easy to drive over. Unfortunately, though, without pavement sealing, this like-new feeling might be more fleeting than you would think.
Although asphalt is durable, it is susceptible to wear and tear from the elements, like rain, snow, sun, and even oxidization, as well as man-made stressors like oil and gasoline. With pavement sealing, you’ll be able to protect your asphalt in a few ways:
- Pavement sealing will protect your asphalt from oil and gasoline. Because the binding used in asphalt is oil-based, any oils that fall on it will effectively join up with the binder, making the asphalt softer and less strong.
- Pavement sealing reduces wear on your asphalt and protects it against skid marks. Skid marks happen when the fine parts of asphalt are scraped away — but with a protective seal over your road, tires will not only have more traction, but they’ll also leave fewer marks on it.
- Pavement sealing keeps water out. As with anything else, keeping water from damaging your asphalt will greatly improve its lifespan. Due to how pavement sealing works, not only will it create a protective barrier over your asphalt, but it will also seep into any hairline cracks starting to form in your asphalt, essentially patching them up at the same time that it protects them from widening.
These are just a few of the benefits to sealing your pavement. The next time you install your pavement, we hope you consider us for all of your sealing needs.