Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Prevent Damages On Driveways By Applying Asphalt Sealcoating

By Cornelia White


Sealcoats are preservative procedures, which help restore the quality of pavements and prevent damages caused by weather elements and gasoline products. With asphalt sealcoating, this process helps in restoring the black color of blacktop, preventing direct heating of pavement by ultraviolet rays, and protection from action by water. Asphalt, though a durable materials, it has its own weaknesses too.

Sunlight releases ultraviolet rays, which heat asphaltic material breaking it down. The molecular structure of asphaltic material is highly damaged by the ultraviolet rays. In order to prevent such damages, you have to protect the pavements. Ultraviolet rays increase the oxidation rate of asphalts leading to increased drying and unraveling of the material.

With time, the blacktop changes its color and small stones become loose on the surfaces. Those stones break away due to the deteriorating binding property of blacktop material. The adhesives in asphalt will deteriorate and become weak with continuous exposure to ultraviolet rays. The effects of sunlight are more when the surface is not protected. If you protect blacktop with a sealcoat, you prevent the sunrays from reaching and baking the blacktop surface.

This proactive barrier helps in minimizing premature damages that occur due to effects of things like sunlight and rainwater. The formation of small hairline cracks on asphalt materials indicates that you need to sealcoat the surfaces. The small hairline cracking are not a problem as such because they can be restored with use of sealcoats.

However, if tiny hairline cracks enlarge, they should first be repaired before the sealcoat is applied. Sealcoating is not a curing or repair technique but only a preservative produce. It cannot be used to cure surfaces that are damaged. Sealcoats are applied after allowing the initial asphaltic pavement to cure properly.

It may take several months or up to a year before the surface cures properly. It is only after this curing that you will apply the sealcoat. After the first coating, you will have to maintain a routine coating after every 2 to 5 years depending on how the previous coat performs and lasts. Using the coating also prevent damages caused by things like salts.

If however, you fail to take precautionary measures, and do not sealcoat the surfaces, then the small cracks continue widening. As cracks widely, water finds its way inside the subbase layer, and this is when you begin to deal with large problems. A sealcoat helps restore the beautiful black color of pavements. When asphaltic pavement material fades, it turns grey and looks unattractive.

Applying sealcoats can prevent the driveways and parking lots from suffering potholes, alligatored cracks, upheavals, or other damages like fatigued cracks. With use of asphalt sealcoating products, you can enhance the quality of asphalt pavements and increase their lifespan. The coating forms a barrier at the top of pavements, which prevents water, salts, UV light, and gasoline products from causing damages on blacktop.




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