If the surface of your asphalt parking lot is showing its age, you may want to consider hiring a paving contractor to come and resurface the lot and restore it to new condition. The asphalt paving contractor can take off the top of the asphalt, replace it with new material, and remove the imperfection in the surface relatively easily, making the lot look brand new.

When To Resurface Your Lot

Asphalt parking lots are durable, but over time they can start to wear from the weight of vehicles driving on them and the constant exposure to the weather. Often the damage may be small holes that appear, cracking in the surface, and damage from gasoline or oil that has leaked onto the asphalt surface. 

Working with a paving contractor to resurface the lot is an excellent solution, but determining how often to do it can be challenging. There is no magic number that defines how often the lot should be resurfaced, so it is usually just a matter of assessing the condition of the asphalt and redoing it when there is damage that needs repairing. 

Often, large parking lots are done in sections, so the entire lot is resurfaced over a few years. Each year a section is completed, and by the time the entire lot has been done, the first section will be ready to be resurfaced again. Using a rotation like this allows the business or property owner to budget a small amount yearly for resurfacing. The work will be ongoing to ensure the surface is always maintained and in good shape. 

Removing The Surface

Resurfacing the asphalt parking lot around your business often means removing the top two inches or so of the old material with a grinding machine. The paving contractor will run the machine over the existing asphalt leaving the surface grooved and raw.

Prepping the asphalt allows the new material to better adhere to the existing asphalt and ensures the height of the lot remains the same as it started. The height of the finished lot may be critical to road transitions, loading docks, and other areas of the lot, and if it is too low, it can create dips in places over time that become extremely noticeable and sometimes problematic. 

Paving And Striping

Once the old material is ground off, the new asphalt can be put in place and carefully rolled smooth. The asphalt is commonly put down in one layer when resurfacing a parking lot, and the material flows nicely so the paving contractor can create a high-quality surface. 

Once the asphalt is down, the paving contractor can subcontract parking lot stripers to come and replace all the markings on the lot for you.