When budgeting for parking lot repair and maintenance, what generally gives me the best bang for my buck?
The answer depends on the current state of health of your parking lot. If the lot was well constructed and is not showing significant sub-base failures (more than 5% of the lot) then the best option usually is to start a maintenance and seal coating program. This involves filling cracks, cutting out and replacing severely deteriorated areas with full depth asphalt, seal coating with 2 coats of a good cold tar sealer like Amguard, and restriping. This should be done every 3 – 5 years, depending upon how much traffic your lot has. You will find that over time, the amount of patch work (which is the most costly component) will go down. For lots that are not structurally sound, your best bet is to have a complete pavement analysis done. Chamberlain’s Pavement Profile System is the most fool-proof way to get the information necessary. Sometimes the only flaw is that too thin of a layer of asphalt was put over a good sub-base. In this case, patching and overlay is a viable option. If subsurf
