Paving Project of the Month February 2011 Pepe’s Fullerton, Ca.

February 25th, 2011

Paving Project of the Month: Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant

This month Empire Parking Lot Services’ paving project of the month goes to Pepe’s Mexican restaurant, located in the city of Fullerton, California. Bordered by Anaheim, Brea, and Placentia, Pepe’s is an amazing Mexican restaurant that is located just a block east from Cal State Fullerton on Placentia Ave. If you have ever been there, you know it is hard to walk by this restaurant and not go in. The smells coming out of Pepe’s in the morning are amazing. The reason this concrete and asphalt paving project was selected as our job of the month is because the work looked great, the customer was very pleased, and the job is a local landmark restaurant with a great reputation. But the main reason it was chosen is that I’m hoping to score some free breakfast burritos from Pepe’s (call me guys) …….Just kidding of course.

 

 

 

A Word about Quality….

Now, as a marketing professional working for Empire Parking Lot Services, I know a great deal about how companies want to appear to the general public. They say things like “we are the best” and make claims like “number one in customer satisfaction” blah, blah, blah. After awhile, it simply becomes just words you read. However, there are indicating factors that show when you truly are a quality company. Take a look at the screen grabs below from Google maps. Pepe’s is very consistent in the reviews they have received. By contrast to say Taco Bell, and no offense to them, as I love their food as well, Pepe’s receives quality reviews.  Furthermore, notice the consistency in the reviews at all of the Pepe’s restaurants. They are consistently (4 stars) and (5 stars). This is hard thing to pull off, unless you are the real deal.  This isn’t a company with a 4 million dollar advertising budget, this is a small chain of restaurants that truly focuses on quality and it shows.

I must admit, before Empire Parking Lot Services was awarded the asphalt paving contract for Pepe’s, I was already a fan. Pepe’s breakfast burritos had become a habit of mine a long time ago. To call it a breakfast burrito doesn’t really do it justice, though. It should be called a breakfast, lunch, and dinner burrito, because it is technically large enough to feed 1 person all day long, or at least a small family of 5 for breakfast. It’s really big!

About this Asphalt Paving Project in Fullerton Ca.

When Pepe’s called us they were receiving bids from several paving companies for making asphalt & concrete repairs related to their handicap parking area. They needed to provide their disabled customers with clear access to their restaurant and it needed to meet all of the local and federal requirements set forth by the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). The bid was to consist of concrete removal and replacement, as well as some asphalt patch back, plus seal coating, and parking lot striping. Furthermore, ADA signs needed to be installed in the handicap stalls, as well as the entrance to the parking lot, and lastly, they needed truncated domes where the new concrete ramps had been installed. The owners received their proposals and ended up choosing Empire Parking Lot Services. The pricing was tight, and that is always a good sign for the customer that all the contractors are bidding the same scope of work. When the smoke cleared, however, Empire Parking Lot Services got the job. With the bidding process being over, the paving work was scheduled and completed.

Empire Parking Lot Services performs asphalt and concrete removal at Pepe's restaurant Sidewalk Repair Fullerton Ca. Curb construction and repair in fullerton ca. 877-760-2757

We started with asphalt and concrete removal, especially where it met up with the existing curbs. Additional asphalt removal needed to be done up against the sidewalk and would be paved back in after the installation of the new concrete sidewalks. Next, we did the concrete side walk demolition.  The removal of that area took approximately two hours. With the old concrete sidewalks out of the way, we started the next phase of the project, which was the forming and pouring of the new concrete sidewalks. The new concrete sidewalks needed to be built in such a way that they didn’t exceed the maximum slope allowed by the ADA of 2%. Once all of the concrete curbs and sidewalks were installed, we turned our attention to the asphalt. All of the asphalt patching that was up against the concrete curbs was installed as well as some skin patching. Skin patching is a light surface patch that is used to raise a small area of depressed asphalt that is still mostly intact. The skin patches were installed to control water flow in one area, as well as evening out the walkway that lead from the handicap parking area to the front of the restaurant. The next part of the project was the application of seal coating and the painting of the parking lot striping. With the area blocked off we applied a thick coat of slurry seal to the entire work area and waited an hour for it to dry. Once that was done, it was time to paint all of the line striping and handicap striping back up to the new ADA codes. Lastly, we needed to apply several truncated dome mats. These mats are used to communicate to visually impaired people that they are walking into a path of traffic and to be careful. These mats actually had to be installed a week after the concrete sidewalks where repaired because the concrete had to cure  enough to allow the mats to adhere to them.  The whole project from start to finish was done in four moves. One move for the concrete, one for the asphalt repairs, one for the seal and striping, and lastly, one move for the truncated domes that were installed.

Parking Lot Maintenance Orange County

Challenges on this Paving Project

The biggest challenge that we ran into on this project came during the concrete removal process. Once we started demolishing the concrete, it became clear to us that one of the previous contractors that worked at Pepe’s before us had installed a water pipe, as well as an electrical line in conduit through the existing concrete sidewalks and paving. Not under the sidewalks, but in the concrete sidewalks themselves. This is a very large “no-no” in the construction industry, as it can get people killed. Luckily for us, our bobcat operators are always on the lookout for these issues and spotted it right away. Once we removed concrete from around the pipes, we let the owner of the restaurant get his electrician and plumber to move the pipes underground where they belong. We even trenched the earth for them to allow the pipes to be safely placed underground. There ended up being several hours of downtime, but it was important to get the problem fixed before the new concrete sidewalk was poured.

About Empire Parking Lot Services

Empire Parking Lot Services is an Orange County based asphalt and concrete paving company that specializes in the repair and maintenance of parking lots. Our main goal on every project is to make sure that our customer’s expectations are met or exceeded. Our customers range from small business owners to large property management companies, with many types in between. Like Pepe’s, our customers recognize that Empire Parking Lot Services is not your typical paving contractor. We take a lot of pride our work, as well as providing you good service and quality workmanship that is unmatched in the industry. Our paving contracts are always done correctly, they are always bid fairly, and our customers are always satisfied. Empire Parking Lot Services can provide you with a free estimate anywhere in Southern California.

Just give us a call toll free at 877-760-2757

or

Check us out online at www.Empirepls.com

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Asphalt Paving In Torrance, Ca.

February 3rd, 2011

Asphalt Paving with Safety in Mind

When you are performing asphalt repair in a parking lot a lot can go wrong. However, when you are paving holes at a gas station even more can.

So what paving contractors do environmental companies call to patch back their holes on their jobs? You guessed it, Empire Parking Lot Services.

They don’t call us because we are huge, they don’t call us because we are cheap, and they don’t call us because we are nearby, they call us because we have control. Control is one of the best commodities our company posses. We have the control to speak with our employees the night before, or day of the project. We have control to sit employees down and go over safety procedures. We have the control to keep a manager on a project, when it is absolutely necessary. Big pavers, lazy pavers and old pavers often lose this control over time, but we haven’t. Communication for us is the key factor, and in terms of priorities, it is matched only by safety. We believe there is a market for this, and our customers show us this every time we get another job from them.

About this Asphalt Paving Job in Los Angeles

This project in many ways is like most of our asphalt paving jobs. Show up, prep the work, and install new asphalt, concrete or whatever medium we are using that day. However, it was different in some ways. This project consisted of patching back asphalt that had been removed to do some repairs on some groundwater wells in Los Angeles. Since the customer had to open up the asphalt when they did their drilling, they needed us to close the asphalt back up with some patches. Our crews not only needed to be on their best behavior in terms of safety, but we needed to be prepared. That meant hard hats, safety vest, steel toe boots, safety glasses, and several other accouterments of the paving contractor industry. We arrived at the project around 9 am and the area was blocked off and ready for asphalt. The project itself was located in the city of Torrance, and located on the cross streets of Crenshaw & Rolling Hills Ave. (yeah that was us causing some traffic backups…. sorry). The install went smooth, and without a single hitch as it should be. We where please with the work and the customer was happy too.

Take a look at the pictures for the rest of the details.

About Empire Parking Lot Services

Empire Parking Lot Services is a Southern California asphalt paving contractor. We have been in business since about 2008. Our services include asphalt paving, asphalt trenching, asphalt overlays etc. We also offer concrete repair services, sealcoating, and line striping. All services are handled in house and quality and safety show in our work. Call Empire Parking Lot Services today if you have a asphalt paving project located in Orange County, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, or San Diego County. We are available for all paving services.

Call us Toll-Free at 877-760-2757 or See us Online at  www.Empirepls.com

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Not Just an Asphalt Paving Company

January 19th, 2011

Empire Parking Lot Services Can do More than Just Pave Parking Lots

So as you may know Empire Parking Lot Services does a lot of asphalt paving and maintenance services such as sealcoating, striping etc but did you know we also offer a whole list of warehouse services. Services such as warehouse striping, warehouse sign hanging and warehouse surface treatments. Though these services are much different than parking lot maintenance services we still do them with the same quality we put towards our asphalt paving projects. This week we performed one of these projects in Carson California. This city is on the south end of LA in an area known as South Bay. Surrounded by the cities of San Pedro, Torrance, Gardena, and Long Beach, Carson is probably most famous for California State University, Dominguez Hills. The Home Depot Center Sports Complex is also located there. This week Empire Parking Lot Services was called out to do some warehouse floor striping there, and the job went great.

About This Job:

This project was for an international tile company that specializes in very high-end products. They needed to move their distribution company to a new location, but before they moved into that new location it needed to be cleaned and striped for their product staging. That’s where we came in. We were hired to clean the warehouse floor using our mechanical scrubbers and brooms. Basically these machines are like small street sweepers that can sweep up the dirt or mop up the dirt and grime that builds up in a warehouse over time. They cover large areas quickly and this job was over 30,000 linear feet so they came in handy. Once we swept and cleaned the warehouse floor we started the line painting process. The work actually consisted of 4400 linear feet of 4” yellow line in 2 part epoxy. After the lines where painted we also painted number stencils on the concrete using the same paint type. We installed 510 (8”) number stencils that indicated where there pallets belonged. Warehouse manager have been using these systems to track and manage product for years now. The technology we use to organize your product and inventories has become very easy to afford. Many companies have been using our warehouse maintenance services as well as our asphalt paving services at their facilities. One call gets it done and that convenience can save you time and money, while getting a truly superior product.

About This Asphalt Paving Company

Empire Parking Lot Services has been maintaining asphalt and concrete surfaces for only a short time, but our team here is made up from industry veterans. Our experts have come from very diverse backgrounds. They are some of the best asphalt paving experts, concrete experts, sealcoating experts as well as parking lot striping & warehouse striping experts. Most of our employees have been employed in there industry for over 15 years. If you have a warehouse striping project, paving project or any project that involves asphalt or concrete give Empire Parking Lot Services a chance.

You won’t be disappointed!

Call empire at: 877-760-2757

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Emergency Asphalt Pavement Repairs in Hacienda Heights

January 12th, 2011

Emergency Pavement Repairs in Hacienda Heights

Hacienda Heights is located in the eastern San Gabriel Valley bordering La Puente and West Covina to the North, Whittier to the West, La Habra Heights to the South, and Rowland Heights to the East along the Pomona Freeway – Route 60. Hacienda Heights is a predominately residential neighborhood. Hacienda Heights is also the birthplace of “Fergie” from the Black Eyed Peas.

There is another thing that Hacienda Heights is home to, and that was this small hole in the ground. The owner of this shopping center was getting some plumbing repairs done that required digging a large hole in the front parking lot. After the plumber was done with his repairs he left this beauty behind.

About this Asphalt Paving Project

Basically what we were dealing with was a simple asphalt paving issue that was complicated by the rain. Typically these projects are too small to write about but this brings up a good point, and that’s to stress the need to do small repairs correctly the first time.

A small hole needed to be dug, to accommodate some plumbing repairs which in return needed to be patched back with new asphalt paving. However, once the earth below the asphalt was allowed to get wet from a series of storms that hit the Southland last month, the project became slightly more complex. Nothing major, but basically we needed to remove the wet soil and replace it with dry soil.  Some contractors will pave over mud and take their chances with time.

Small projects tend to get treated with less concern than the larger ones by contractors. The way we look at small paving issues like this is the same way a dentist looks at a small cavity. Fix them while there small, and fix them right.

If an area of loose earth gets paved over without gaining proper compaction, what tends to happen is that the new asphalt pavement on top of that loose earth will sag and create a birdbath. Once enough time goes by the bird bath will become a pothole. If water was allowed to get into that area before the pothole was able to form, than a sink hole is born. Remember, small problems fixed the wrong way today are your big problems for tomorrow.

About Empire Parking Lot Services

Empire Parking Lot Services is a full scale asphalt paving contractor that services the Southland including Hacienda Heights. Our service area covers Orange County, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Parts of both San Diego and Ventura Counties. Our services include paving, concrete, sealcoating, parking lot striping. In addition to these main services, Empire Parking Lot Services offers ADA upgrades including truncated domes and Handicap signs, Installs  traffic signs and concrete bumpers(wheel stops) and installs steel bollards.

Call  today toll free: 877-760-2757

Empire Asphalt Paving Company

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