Why and when to seal your asphalt

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Coal-tar based sealers are designed for use on off-highway asphalt. As such, sealcoating is the lowest-cost weapon in your asphalt maintenance arsenal. When used properly and in a timely manner, asphalt sealer can also be the most cost effective option.
Pavements should be sealed as soon as possible after a new asphalt surface has been constructed. But “as soon as possible” means different things in different areas. That’s because newly placed asphalt mix must be allowed to cure – the asphalt’s oils must be allowed to dry out – before a sealer is placed on top. Sealer applied too soon will look great and will be effective in protecting the pavement, but it won’t last as long as the he oils trapped beneath the sealcoat will eventually work their way out, and the sealcoat could wear prematurely. Time and weather have the greatest impact on how quickly your asphalt pavement cures, so your contractor will have the best insight into when newly sealed pavement should first be sealcoated.
Once it’s sealcoated the first time, it’s important to continue that process. Air, weather, sun and traffic all work to wear sealer away, so generally sealcoating every three years is recommended. But in some locations – high-traffic roads, exceptionally busy parking lots, bank and fast-food drive-thru lanes – sealer might wear more quickly and might need to be sealcoated more frequently. Applying an additional coat (or even two) of sealer to these heavily trafficked areas is one way to protect them longer, and your contractor can best make that recommendation for you..

 In the process of driveway sealcoating, we start by greeting the customer to ensure that all expectations are met prior to beginning the job. We then begin by with edging the driveway or parking lot as well as clean all cracks with a crack cleaner to fully expose the asphalt. The asphalt surface is then thoroughly cleaned of all dirt and debris. We will then start to apply sealer to the asphalt . All asphalt edges will be cut in by hand using brushes.  Once the cut in is far enough away from the home or any other objects along the driveway, sealer will be applied using brushes.  After sealcoating is complete, the driveway will need to dry for 24 hours.