Repairing potholes
Potholes are the types of asphalt damage that we are most often called in to repair and it’s easy to understand why.
They are unsightly – whether in a commercial parking lot or out on the driveway in front of your home they are ugly, they fill with water after rain and with dead leaves in the fall. They are a blemish on the asphalt! More that that however, they are also dangerous. They can cause serious damage to cars and other vehicles that drive over them, and they can be a real hazard to people walking over your driveway or in your parking lot who inadvertently step into the pothole. It’s easy to understand then why people are so keen to get pothole repair completed at their property. We currently serve all of Hampton Roads to include Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Hampton, Newport News, Suffolk as well as Northern Virginia. Give us a call for your free estimate today! |
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Stop them from Happening
What’s slightly less easy to understand however is why so many people let them develop in the first place!
Most pot holes start off as simple cracks in the pavement. Over time, these cracks will widen and allow more and more water to penetrate the surface. Once this water reaches the base, then it’s Game Over, man!
The base layer will be compromised by the water and over time will crumble and collapse, taking with it all of the material above and forming a pothole.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! By performing routine maintenance on your asphalt, it will be easy to spot and repair these cracks. Please see elsewhere on this site for the various repair techniques and services that we offer.
Also - please see the section on this site relating to sealcoating your surface. This is another service that we offer, and there is nothing else out there that will help to prevent potholes forming better than sealcoating. It provides the material with the protection it needs to stop small cracks even forming in the first place.
What’s slightly less easy to understand however is why so many people let them develop in the first place!
Most pot holes start off as simple cracks in the pavement. Over time, these cracks will widen and allow more and more water to penetrate the surface. Once this water reaches the base, then it’s Game Over, man!
The base layer will be compromised by the water and over time will crumble and collapse, taking with it all of the material above and forming a pothole.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! By performing routine maintenance on your asphalt, it will be easy to spot and repair these cracks. Please see elsewhere on this site for the various repair techniques and services that we offer.
Also - please see the section on this site relating to sealcoating your surface. This is another service that we offer, and there is nothing else out there that will help to prevent potholes forming better than sealcoating. It provides the material with the protection it needs to stop small cracks even forming in the first place.
Do It Early
Once a pothole forms, it is important to get it repaired as soon as possible. For one thing, asphalt is designed so that the top layer, once dried, provides protection to the lower levels and the base. With a hole this protection is suddenly removed, and water (and freezing temperatures) can easily get down deep into the pores.
This is, unsurprisingly, bad news and the damage will spread rapidly after the initial pothole forms. The larger the pothole, the more labor time and materials are required to put it right – so fix it early and keep the end bill lower.
Secondly, the asphalt immediately around the pothole is also going to be more prone to damage as vehicle wheels drive over it. Again, this will quickly help to spread the damage and increase the repair costs.
Once a pothole forms, it is important to get it repaired as soon as possible. For one thing, asphalt is designed so that the top layer, once dried, provides protection to the lower levels and the base. With a hole this protection is suddenly removed, and water (and freezing temperatures) can easily get down deep into the pores.
This is, unsurprisingly, bad news and the damage will spread rapidly after the initial pothole forms. The larger the pothole, the more labor time and materials are required to put it right – so fix it early and keep the end bill lower.
Secondly, the asphalt immediately around the pothole is also going to be more prone to damage as vehicle wheels drive over it. Again, this will quickly help to spread the damage and increase the repair costs.
How is it Done?
Repairing a pothole is very similar to having a filling in a tooth to repair a cavity. The hole has been caused by water penetrating the surface and it's pores and, over time and many freeze/thaw thermal cycles, slowly expanding and contracting, it is eating away at the material inside and at the base of the paved surface.
Like with a tooth cavity, we first have to remove all of the compromised material. From there, this is replaced with fresh blacktop that is tamped down with a special machine.
Finally, the hole is sealed with a fresh “plug” of hot patch.
It is quite a similar process to an asphalt patch – which is another type of blacktop repair that we offer, and which has it’s own page on this site.
However, unlike a patch a pot hole repair is more involved undertaking. With a patch, we typically just pour or shovel the material into a crack, tamp and seal as appropriate.
A pothole repair is typically a permanent repair.
Repairing a pothole is very similar to having a filling in a tooth to repair a cavity. The hole has been caused by water penetrating the surface and it's pores and, over time and many freeze/thaw thermal cycles, slowly expanding and contracting, it is eating away at the material inside and at the base of the paved surface.
Like with a tooth cavity, we first have to remove all of the compromised material. From there, this is replaced with fresh blacktop that is tamped down with a special machine.
Finally, the hole is sealed with a fresh “plug” of hot patch.
It is quite a similar process to an asphalt patch – which is another type of blacktop repair that we offer, and which has it’s own page on this site.
However, unlike a patch a pot hole repair is more involved undertaking. With a patch, we typically just pour or shovel the material into a crack, tamp and seal as appropriate.
A pothole repair is typically a permanent repair.