The Best Terms to Use When Searching for Quality Parking Lot Maintenance Contractors

When you're looking for a parking lot maintenance contractor, you want a company you can count on: one that will take care of all the details of putting in a new parking lot or maintaining your existing lot. Do you know how to properly search for a parking lot maintenance contractor? Using the proper search terms can go a long way toward helping you find the ideal fit for your needs. 

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Why Use the Right Terms?

Like most customers, chances are, you do your initial search for a parking lot maintenance contractor on Google. If you're flipping through the phone book and making calls--or, in some cases, chatting with friends and family members to get a recommendation--chances are, your search terms aren't that important. On the other hand, if you are doing an online search, the right search terms can make a big difference in the contractor you pull up. Consider:

Professional parking lot maintenance contractors will use industry terminology. Instead of using slang or common terms, they will use industry-specific terminology in their blogs and on their service pages. Not all of them will use common vernacular alongside the industry terms. As a result, if you're looking for a professional website, you'll want to use the correct industry terms. 

Knowing the right search terms will help you better understand what you're looking for. In many cases, if you don't know what terms to use, you may struggle to understand the material you're reading or even to understand the cost breakdown offered by many contractors. When you take the time to understand industry terms, on the other hand, you'll have a  better idea of exactly what to look for, making it easier to compare services. 

The Terms You Need to Know

Ready to embark on your search for an experienced, professional contractor to take on your parking lot repair job? Make sure you have a solid understanding of these key terms. 

The Sealcoat

The sealcoat is the protective coating that extends the life of the asphalt underneath. Think of it like sunscreen for asphalt: it helps extend the life of the product beneath and prevents it from experiencing sun damage. Over time, the sun's rays and even exposure to oxygen can break down asphalt, leaving your parking lot vulnerable to more damage and less likely to stand the test of time. Without the sealcoat, the asphalt is more likely to become brittle, which can increase the risk of cracks. Once it cracks, water often finds its way in, which can cause even more damage to the parking lot. Generally, you should add a fresh sealcoat to your parking lot every three or four years. Not only will it keep your asphalt safer, it will give you that familiar black color, making your parking lot look cleaner and more professional. 

Asphalt Overlay

When your contractor performs an asphalt overlay, they grind down a couple of inches of an asphalt area, spray a tac coat, and lay new asphalt up to the previous level. Instead of tearing up your entire parking lot, an expensive and time-consuming proposition, the contractor can take off the top couple of inches of asphalt, then use the remaining concrete as a base for the future parking lot. Often, this can add several years' life to your parking lot. While you'll have to replace it sooner than a completely fresh layer of asphalt, you'll find that this method can help extend your existing asphalt and allow you to work a new parking lot into your budget over the next several years. In some cases, an asphalt overlay can even extend the life of your existing parking lot by 15 years or more.

Striping

Do you need parking stalls laid out in your parking lot? Whether your existing lines have faded away or you need to put in fresh new lines to help mark off new parking spaces, the process of adding lines to the parking lot is called striping. If you're searching for a professional parking lot contractor to take care of this task for you, "striping" will pull up a better list of local contractors able to handle that task. Using this term, rather than "painting on lines" or some other search term, can help get you more professional, more highly-qualified contractors who are in a position to put professional-quality lines in your parking lot. 

Laying Down Asphalt

Unlike concrete, asphalt is a solid, not a liquid. Therefore, asphalt is not "poured" into the parking lot; rather, it is laid down. This sounds like a trivial difference in terms, but it's one that can make a big difference in the quality of your search results. When you're looking for a contractor, you want to use "laying down asphalt" rather than "pouring asphalt" to get a high-quality contractor who will help ensure that your parking lot really looks its best. Not only that, if you do a search for "pouring asphalt," you may not be able to pull up some of the best, most professional parking lot contractors in your area. 

Searching for a parking lot contractor doesn't require extensive knowledge of the subject, but it does require a basic understanding of how to use the right search terms to find the parking lot contractor you're really looking for. By learning a few basic terms used commonly by professional contractors, you can narrow down your search and increase your odds of getting a professional contractor who uses the right keywords. Once you've completed your search, look for a contractor with the right licensing and insurance to take on your job. Then, ask for recommendations, reviews, or a look at their work. You should be able to easily take a look at local businesses that the contractor has worked on in the past, allowing you to see the quality of their jobs. Since you've already narrowed down your search for a professional parking lot contractor by using the right search terms, you should see high-quality professionals who are experienced and ready to take on the challenge of your parking lot. 

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