When you’re keeping up with your asphalt lot, it’s important to know the different types of damage that occur. You may think that issues are generalized and are easy to fix, but different types require different methods. Cooper Paving, asphalt contractors in Glen Burnie, explain some of these different pavement issues.

Potholes

This is one of the most dreaded types of asphalt damage. If cracks and fissures aren’t taken care of right away, water gets in them. As the water expands and contracts, it breaks open these cracks and turns them into potholes. If you have a lot of traffic and get treatments with salt for snow removal, it can make potholes even worse.

Over the winter, it’s easy for potholes to be concealed. Snow and ice get packed in them and they can be less noticeable. But when spring starts to roll around, they’ll become a lot more noticeable. They’re hazards for both pedestrians and cars. If something happens to someone’s car or they hurt themselves in a pothole, you may be liable for the damage.

Fixing potholes depends on how severe they are. With some, they can be packed with asphalt and rolled so that the patch is seamless with the rest of the lot. But if the damage is too bad, the entire section may need to be cut out, removed, and replaced.

Cracking

If you take care of cracks and stay on top of them, you can stop them from turning into potholes. There are multiple different types of cracks:

• Block cracking involves squares or circles of cracks
• Edge cracking appear along the outside edges of pavement
• Fatigue or alligator cracking has many small cracks in a specific, localized area
• Linear cracking happens along the joints of the pavement
• Reflection cracking happens on the surface and is usually straight or form a grid. This is because it mirrors issues in the sub-layer
• Slippage cracking makes it appear as though the asphalt is slipping off of the pavement surface

If you have any one of these issues, we can provide repair or sealcoating to take care of it. We can come to take a survey of the cracks that are plaguing your asphalt. With our years of experience, we can make sure to get these cracks mended and save your asphalt.

Grade Depressions

These occur when certain areas of pavement settle lower than the surroundings. If you didn’t have proper grading when the asphalt was laid, you can have issues with water pooling. It’s very noticeable when it rains, and water laying can make things more likely to crack. Grading the lot properly is essential.

Your Asphalt Contractors in Glen Burnie

If you’re having any of these problems with your lot, we can take care of them. Call us or contact us online.