Retail customers judge your store without ever stepping inside. One-third of that first impression occurs in the parking lot, and part of your brand promise is to keep those blacktop lanes smooth and safe. The good news is that it is possible to spot most of the early-stage problems with a short but focused walk-through.
This brief guide shows you how to spend the 15 minutes, what to document, and when to call the paving experts, so you can take action today and smarter budget tomorrow. A disciplined routine also protects your insurance position while showing corporate auditors you have acted responsibly in your risk management.
Visual Red-Flag Checklist
So, spend the first five minutes doing a slow lap around the perimeter and down each driving lane. Look at the pavement, curbs, catch basins, and even adjacent landscaping. You want to look for things that can be problematic liability claims if left unattended.
- Alligator cracking—when you see spider web patterns, you probably have failure of the base-layer coming down the pipe. Read more on this page.
- Linear cracks greater than ¼ inch wide that will need crack sealing soon enough.
- Faded or non-existent markings on stop bars, crosswalks, or ADA stalls that provide non-existent guidance to drivers.
- Oil stains that have begun to seep into the top layer of the asphalt and are now going to require replacement of a pothole.
- Utility lids that raised or sunk into the top layer and are providing trip hazards, and jolt vehicle occupants.
You want to capture each defect with a quick phone pic so that nothing falls through the cracks. Even small surface deficiencies can allow for moisture intrusion that rob years of service from the pavement.
When Should I Call Experts?
Some repairs—like pressure washing an oil patch—are low-hanging fruit that you can do right away. Others entail that you have a special piece of equipment, or traffic-control plan, or materials only a licensed paving contractor can acquire. Call a professional as soon as you see any of the following triggers:
- The cracks are starting to form into a network pattern, or I can see water entering the base.
- A pothole (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pothole) is deeper than one inch or wider than your palm.
- The line striping failures touch on driver safety, or ADA compliance.
- Standing water persists longer than 48 hours after rain.
Drainage, or Standing Water
Water is the silent killer of asphalt! During your walkthrough, back up a few feet and look closely at the way the lot slopes toward each inlets. A shallow birdbath today could easily become a pothole after just one freeze-thaw cycle. Make sure you note blocked grates, collapsed catch basins, and eroded curb lines.
If you are located in a coastal climate, or if your store is in a heavy-rain area, like what the Asphalt contractor Vacaville serves routinely, I would suggest you schedule an annual drainage survey with a paving engineer.
The laser level readings will confirm that the lanes still maintain the 1-to-2 percent slope to facilitate proper flow. I would also recommend a semi-annual vacuum sweep to remove silt that can plug inlets and speed the oxidation of the surface. These preventative actions are a bargain compared to a full-depth replacement, or even inlay or overlay later. is
Line Striping Wear Indicators
New paint means more than just something pretty, new paint means directing traffic, preserving accessible spaces and fewer fender-benders. The sun’s an interesting beast; fading starts with south facing runs with the most sun load. Advise your clients to compare the faded stripes to the shaded ones during each site inspection. If a stop bar has faded when it blurs into the pavement at 50 feet or your flashlight at night has a very un-smart collected return, then your next budget
should be for restriping – preferably at the same time as fresh sealcoating so the paint can bond to the hopscotch seal. Some vendors as an added cost will let you drop reflective glass beads in as a tremendous lift to night visibility and extend your life a few pennies worthy of glass beads.
Record-Keeping for Budgeting
No record keeping is a sure shot way to waste money on emergency repairs. Before you shackle off your patrol circuit, open up your facility management app and or spreadsheet to record your findings for today. Rigid data will support your capital request next year regarding the maintenance of the parking lot such as crack sealing or full-depth asphalt overlay.
- The date, weather, and who conducted the walk through
- The exact GPS or grid location of each defect along with digital photos.
- The estimate of size e.g., “the pothole is 18 in. by 12 in. by 2 feet deep.”
- The recommended action and urgency rating and time frame for the repair.
- If you have received quotes from contractors, include it along with the cost per square foot of work.
Besides being legal and genuine, after 6 months of recording your inspections, the patterns will emerge and give you another tool to assist with a long-range pavement management plan that will tighten future preventive maintenance timetables and keep repair costs consistent and predictable. Additionally, many property teams are now incorporating their work logs with cloud dashboards to share with finance and risk departments or the ability to access and share at their fingertips.
About 15 concentrated minutes each month can help keep your small asphalt issues from becoming intra-business hour interruptions. Grab a clipboard, walk the asphalt, and follow your instincts – you’ll extend the life of the pavement, look out for your customers, and lock savings right to the bottom line. Insurers are increasingly reviewing the condition and maintenance of the parking lot during liability audits and a recorded inspection schedule may save you more than just credibility.
Keeping a record of your inspections and repairs, even if you didn’t spend anything, or simply providing transparency into the asphalt conditions improves liquids. Additionally, your carbon footprint decreases through your consistency of repair versus replacement is a by-product of eliminating the need for the raw materials, and reducing the amounts of energy spent making new asphalt.
