Our Process

Our process starts with one of the most crucial steps. Cleaning. Without proper cleaning it doesn’t matter if you use the best products in the world, the sealer will still fail prematurely.

We start off cleaning the asphalt surface with wire brooms and power brooms. Once all the dirt is loosened we blow the surface clean. There are occasions when we will opt to pressure wash an area that has a substantial amount of ground in dirt and debris that wouldn’t be removed with just wire brooms and blowing.

Oil spots will be cleaned prior to sealing with wire brooms and any excess oil will be absorbed with rags. Once cleaned, the areas will be sealed with an oil spot primer, prior to sealing. This is the best way to try and prevent the oil spot from bleeding through the sealer. There is no guarantee with oil spot priming. The only guaranteed way is to cut out and remove that section of blacktop and replace with hot asphalt. Most of the time the oil spot primer does its job and there is no bleeding through.

The next step is dealing with any cracks in the asphalt. Before any cracks can be filled they must first be cleaned of any dirt and vegetation. We accomplish this with the use of wire brooms and blowers. On occasion hot air lances are necessary to clean and dry cracks prior to sealing. Once the cracks are clean they are ready to be filled.

We fill the cracks with a commercial grade, Sealmaster hot tar that meets all federal specifications. The blocks of tar are placed into kettles to be melted down to approximately 375°. Once the tar reaches a liquid state at 375° it is poured into the crack where it fills in the entire crack and is then flattened to the surface creating a water proof seal. A slight depression in the crack is normal. On residential driveways while the tar is still tacky, black sand is spread over the tar to help improve appearance

If patching was necessary we would make those repairs prior to sealcoating. We would start out by saw cutting and removing the failed asphalt. Once removed we will grade and compact the sub base prior to installing 2.5”-3” of hot asphalt to grade and compacting.

Sealcoating Begins when Asphalt is Clean & Repaired

At this point we would be ready to sealcoat the driveway or parking lot. We start out sealcoating by edging around all perimeters including Belgium block curbing, concrete, walkways, aprons, etc. We are very careful to make sure we don’t get sealer on anything but the driveway. Once the edging is complete we would use broom squeegees to work the sealer into the asphalt driveway. One coat of hand applied sealer is sufficient for a residential driveway. If it were a commercial job we would spray the sealer using a two coat application and backer boards to prevent spray from hitting curbing or adjacent structures.

Once the entire job has been sealcoated we would block off the entrance with a barricade and cones if necessary. After 48 hours you could remove the barricade and place it on the lawn next to the driveway, and begin using your driveway.