Prepare Your Parking Lot for Winter

It’s cooling down fast now—temps at night are below freezing and wintery weather will most certainly arrive at some point. Is your parking lot prepared to withstand the pressure? If not, there’s still some time and good weather left in the forecast. Contact Espina Paving at (703) 491-9100 if you still need to check any of these parking lot winter preparation checklist items:

1. Sealcoating and crack filling

Have you kept up with the sealcoating and crack filling maintenance schedule for all of your parking lots? If so, that’s wise. If not, you still have time to schedule your parking lot’s winter-weather saver. Sealcoating does so much to protect your asphalt investment:

• It seals small cracks before they can turn into big, pothole-starting cracks.

• It bolsters your asphalt against the relentless and damaging freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw cycle we go through every winter.

• It darkens the parking lot so that it holds more heat, which helps melt light snows and ice a little faster

After sealcoating, new, brighter parking lines are applied that are also easier to see in low light levels to improve visibility and safety for everyone using your parking lot.  

2. Schedule the snow removal team

Make sure you’ve contacted a reputable snow removal team and are paid up so that they are ready to come and dig you all out when winter’s worst hits. Choose a snow removal company that has a good track record and lots of experience safely clearing snow without causing damage to curbs and asphalt.

Also double check what sort of ice melt they use to ensure it’s the least corrosive type for your asphalt. For example, ice melts that are made with ammonium (or common fertilizer ingredients) are especially damaging, but calcium-based snow melts do the job with far less damage to the asphalt and environment.