Most of us have likely learned over the years that if you want something to last, you need to take care of it. This is true in many areas of life, as well as in business.
Whether it’s a marriage, a home, a car, a lawn or whatever the case may be, the more care and attention you give something, the better chance you have of it being viable for many years to come.
And if you have a retail establishment or office building, maintaining your asphalt paving areas can be extremely important to your long term success.
When new commercial space is initially constructed, it usually comes with the need for a parking lot, ramps and other areas that are commonly paved with asphalt. Parking lot paving projects have a very unique process in the beginning, but later can have issues if not maintained correctly.
But the problem many business owners make is having these areas initially paved and then essentially forgetting about them, at least until problems arise that need to be addressed.
A good business plan, however, often includes ways to periodically inspect and repair, as necessary, these high traffic areas.
This not only makes good business sense, but it also makes good common sense. You need your customers or clients to feel welcome at your place of business, and what message does it send if your parking area is filled with cracks and potholes?
Having a good preventative maintenance plan in place is a way to keep your paved areas looking smooth and user-friendly. This can be as simple as having employees routinely checking on these areas to look for damage, or as complex as inviting a professional paving company or contractor to your property to inspect and patch things up as needed.
But like many things in life, catching problems early can save you a lot of time, money and headaches. Those long cracks and deep potholes don’t become that way in the course of a few hours but usually form after many weeks, months and even years of neglect.
Realizing the importance of a solid maintenance plan for your paved areas is extremely important, but the fact remains that issues are going to crop up from time to time. Even if you used the most highly regarded paving company in town and bought the best materials available on the market, nothing lasts forever and problems are going to arise.
But there are ways that you can slow these potential problems down and/or keep them from becoming larger problems than they need to be.
One way to maximize the life of your asphalt pavement is to apply a couple of coats of sealcoating at the time of installation. Asphalt can deteriorate over time due to a number of outside elements, including exposure to chemicals and oils, but seal coating can help to delay some of these issues from popping up.
It’s always best to apply seal coat during installation, but this can be accomplished at other times as well. But to protect the entirety of your paved areas, seal coating remains your best option for doing so.
Other maintenance issues you’ll want to pay close attention to include keeping debris off of your paved areas and periodically repainting the lines and other symbols in your parking lot.
This is another appearance issue – you’d be surprised what a fresh coat of paint can do for the overall appearance of your parking areas.
So keep those spaces freshly painted, remove the dirt and tree limbs from the parking areas and be sure that any and all maintenance issues are addressed on a timely basis.
Take care of your investment, so it will last as long as possible.
