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Keeping their paved surfaces in good condition is at the top of their priority list for business owners and facility managers. A well-maintained parking lot acts as the first impression visitors have of you, and having a space filled with uneven surfaces, potholes, and other hazards can create a bad first impression. One of the ways that you can give your parking lot a fresh look is through asphalt milling.
Asphalt milling is the process of grinding the topmost layer of your paved surfaces, churning it up, and keeping the leftover millings. This leftover material can be used for future projects by the Stanley Paving team, but when compared to gravel, does it represent a truly viable environmentally friendly solution?
What to Look for in Paving Materials
When it comes to finding the right paving material for your project, you want to look at various factors to help determine the best fit. Comparing pavement milling to traditional gravel solutions comes down to identifying the differences in cost benefits, durability, maintenance needs, and seasonality.
Cost Benefits
One of the most significant components of choosing a paving material always comes back to the total cost. How much does making the material cost, what does the labor look like in making the raw material, and what about the transportation? Gravel involves a labor-intensive process to create and then transport to a new job site where a business can use it to create new asphalt pavement. However, asphalt milling provides both cost-effective and eco-friendly production costs.
Since the milling process takes the top layer of asphalt and recycles it after it’s gone through the milling machine, you cut out a large chunk of the production process that you see in gravel. By recycling the existing asphalt and repurposing it for future paving projects, you can help cut down on the total carbon footprint and the final costs.
Durability
When it comes to your commercial property’s asphalt surfaces, you want to ensure that it has an excellent chance of holding up over the long haul. The durability of your surface gets impacted by the number of cars that drive on it each day, how effective your maintenance routine is, and the year-round weather.
Recycled asphalt taken from millings has proven to be highly durable and can hold up against harsh weather conditions that contribute to your surface’s wear and tear.
Maintenance Needs
Gravel surfaces tend to require regular sealcoating and other maintenance tasks to keep them in good condition. When you utilize asphalt millings, you don’t have to seal coat your pavements as often. In reality, instead of the bonds in the millings weakening and separating over time, it does the opposite. Asphalt millings tend to get harder and stronger over time and make it harder for things like water infiltration to cause problems in the future.
Standing Against Seasonal Weather
With the changing of the seasons come potentially severe weather conditions that can impact your pavement’s condition. Heavy rainfall, snow, ice, and even extreme heat can affect the quality of the paved surface. Snow and ice tend to melt quicker when on a milled surface, and with the stronger bonds, potential runoff won’t seep into the underlying levels of your pavement.
Is Asphalt Milling Right for My Lot?
Your commercial asphalt parking lots go through a significant amount of wear and tear over the years, and keeping it in good condition requires a mix of the right materials and a good maintenance routine. Choosing to perform milling on your pavement instead of a total replacement can help save the amount of manpower and materials used; the subsequent milling material can be utilized in future projects and help the environment.
If you are interested in seeing if asphalt milling is right for your lot, contact our team today!