Monday, June 2, 2014

How Driveway Repair Somerset County Contractors Can Help You

How Driveway Repair Somerset County Contractors Can Help You

By Nora Jennings


You may use gravel, concretes, shell, or asphalt in constructing your driveways. Each of the different materials has its own pros and cons. If you have installed asphaltic driveways, the pavements will deteriorate and develop defects such as cracks, upheavals, sinkholes, potholes, and depressions. A driveway repair Somerset County contractor would be of great help in maintaining pavements. Cracks will form when the asphaltic material dries and hardens.

The asphaltic driveways and parking lots are designed using rock particles, asphaltic cement, sand, and binders, which make the structures flexible and durable. A newly installed asphaltic pavement is by far the most flexible since it retains light hydrocarbon oils. Crushed gravel stones make up the base of these pavements where the asphaltic material is laid.

Aggregate stones promote stability of drives and parking lots. The gravel should cover a depth of about five to eight inches where asphalt is placed on top. Asphalt material will oxidize during its life. You should make sure you regularly inspect the road structure to find out whether there are damages occurring due to the oxidation or other factors.

If you have a more dense asphaltic mix, it will not oxidize as fast as a coarse and open pavement. Having a thicker lift of the pavement can help in keeping its life longer than when you have a thin one. In addition, heavy trucks create dangers on pavements by spilling over gasoline and oils that soften the asphaltic material leading to its breakup.

The crack fillers need to be applied as soon as you see the cracks. In most cases, cracks become more pronounced in late spring. When they are not dealt with immediately, water continues seeping down the driveways and erodes the soils under the pavements. With time, you will have your asphaltic structure forming mini sinkholes in areas where soils have been eroded.

Water seeping down pavements brings another set of problems. It loosens the sub base material making your structure unstable and not able to support the heavy weight of vehicles. The water may be trapped inside and freeze during the winter months thus further enlarging the cracks. When the iced up water finally unthaws, it leaves behind empty spaces beneath sub base material leading to collapse of blacktop surface.

There is a variety of these fillers, and your paving contractor will advice you on the best quality to use. The type of applicator to be used will be determined by the width and depth of cracks. The fillers come in two broad categories, which are the hot applied sealers and the cold applied emulsions. No matter how good your pavement is constructed, it will not last forever. This implies that at some point, you will say bye to your structure and have to install a new one.

A majority of cracks form on asphaltic driveways due to insufficiently compacted base. If the gravel material is not compacted using industry grade rollers, it remains unstable and could cause shifting of the materials and the structure. The ground underneath your driveways may freeze and form bulges that make the surface uneven. When frozen water unthaws in spring, it causes defects like potholes. A paving contractor can assist in repairing cracks before they develop into potholes.




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