A Guide to Planning Effective Asphalt Maintenance

(A Parking Lot Maintenance Series Part 3)

When it comes to parking lot maintenance there are four distinct types of maintenance considerations. The seen, the unseen, the emergency damage, and code changes. In this blog we will discuss the differences in the different types of maintenance planning and how they should be used in creating, managing and building your asphalt parking lot maintenance budget. Read more below about "the emergency damage considerations".

The Emergency AKA |Unplanned Parking Lot Maintenance

Parking lot maintenance emergencies should be expected throughout the course of a year.  With that being said budgeting for them should be done as well.  Now whether this comes in the form of a general emergency fund or a specific parking lot maintenance emergency fund doesn't really matter.  What is most important is that something is set aside for the little unexpected things that happen in life.  What can go wrong in parking lots is typically going to be plumbing or electrical by nature.  Also, you may have a fire or flooding that ends up requiring some asphalt or concrete repair as well.  A typical example of this would be when we had one of our customers call after a fire was set in a parking structure that not only destroyed a vehicle, but ended up doing a tremendous amount of damage to the structure.  The customer ended up spending nearly 15 thousand dollars getting the structure restored to its safe and clean original appearance.  The accident was unforeseeable,  but you can almost always count on something to this degree happening. Here are a few surprising scenarios that can crop up and end up costing you money. Be prepaired for them and there not so scarey.

• Irrigation Leaks: Irrigation leaks contribute more to damaging asphalt and concrete than any other scenario listed here.. Every property manager and owner should take annual walks through their parking lot to look for irrigation problems. One broken or leaking sprinkler can lead to tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage.

• Structural Damage: Sometimes caused by vehicles and sometimes more natural causes. IE earthquakes, etc. structural damage to asphalt and concrete can cost property owners and managers a lot of unforeseen expense. With California being built on

• Trench Work: When there are problem with plumbing and electrical issues they can often result in a need to run a trench through the parking lot. Regardless of asphalt or concrete the repair can be a large cost that is unplanned.

• Fire: This is not a common issue that property owners and managers need to deal with but it does come up. And when it does it can be very costly.

• Flood: In California floods and fires have a season.  When the seasons hit you can almost always expect to see business in California affected by it.  Mudslides, washouts, and flooding can cause a tremendous amount of damage in a matter of minutes. In many parts of Southern California the infrastructure is aged and in need of repair and rehabilitation.

• Tree Root Damage: After sprinklers tree roots can be the most costly factor in emergency damage. Trees root systems can be amazingly difficult to control. Every year they tear up thousands of acres of asphalt and concrete in Southern California alone. The best defense against tree roots is a proactive defense.

• Chemical Spills: This is another one of those "once in awhile" scenarios. Chemical and solvents that pour on to our roads and parking lots literally eats away at the asphalt and concrete like sugar does to our teeth. Oil, transmission fluid, and chemicals can dissolve asphalt and concrete and are often the beginning factor in parking lot break down.

• Graffiti: Graffiti on asphalt and concrete is rare but when it happens it can be expensive.  The only reason it is even listed here is that we have had to remove graffiti from curbs and parking lot roads before.  So much that it forced the customer to have to spend thousands of dollars on curb painting that wasn't in the budget.

About Empire Parking Lot Services

When it comes to asphalt repair and concrete repair no other contractor cares about you and your property the way Empire Parking Lot Services will.  We give you more quality and value than any other asphalt contractor hands down. We always leave our customers happy and satisfied or we don’t leave at all. It is absolutely imperative for us to do the best we can do on every asphalt and concrete contracting project that we take on. If you have an asphalt repair, concrete repair, seal coating, or parking lot maintenance project that we can assist you with than please give us a call.  We would love to serve you today.