A parking lot is the first thing customers, tenants and visitors experience at your property. Long before they walk through the door, they have driven across your asphalt, parked on it and walked over it. When that surface is broken, it says something about the property, and it can create real liability concerns.
Parking lots also wear out in a predictable way. Damage usually starts small, then spreads quickly once water gets involved. If you manage a commercial property, an office building, a retail center or an HOA, here are five signs that your lot needs attention.
Sign 1: Holes and broken areas
Holes in the surface are the most obvious sign of trouble, and the most urgent. They form when water gets beneath the surface, weakens the base and freezes, loosening the asphalt until traffic breaks it apart. In New Jersey, they tend to multiply in late winter and early spring after repeated freeze-thaw cycles.
A hole in a parking lot is more than an eyesore. It can damage tires and suspensions, and it creates a trip hazard for anyone walking through the lot. Each one also lets more water into the base around it, so a single hole is often the start of a cluster.
Sign 2: Alligator cracking
Alligator cracking is a pattern of interconnected cracks that look like reptile scales. It typically appears in drive lanes, entrances and areas where delivery trucks and garbage trucks travel. It means the pavement is flexing under loads it can no longer support, usually because the base has weakened or the asphalt is too thin for the traffic it carries.
Alligator cracking will not go away on its own, and it does not stay the same. The pieces break loose and become holes. The right fix is a full-depth repair as part of repaving: cut out the affected area, correct the base and rebuild it with new hot asphalt before the new surface goes down.
Sign 3: Standing water
After a rain, walk your lot. Water should flow to drains or off the edges quickly. Puddles that linger for hours, or areas where water flows across walkways and pools near entrances, point to settlement, clogged drains or poor original grading.
Standing water is a slow form of damage. It soaks into every crack, softens the base and turns into ice sheets in winter, which creates a slip hazard on top of the pavement damage. Fixing drainage problems early, before the base fails, is far less expensive than rebuilding failed sections later.
Sign 4: Raveling and a faded, rough surface
Fresh asphalt is dark and smooth. Over time, sun, oxygen and weather dry out the binder that holds the mix together. The surface turns gray, and then fine material starts to wear away, leaving larger aggregate exposed. That loose, rough texture is called raveling.
Raveling often shows up first in areas with turning traffic or where water sits. Left alone, it gets deeper, the surface loses thickness, and loose aggregate ends up in drains and tracked into buildings. A lot that is raveling across large areas is usually a good candidate for milling off the worn surface and repaving.
Sign 5: Sinking areas and ruts
Depressions in parking stalls, ruts in drive lanes and dips near catch basins all indicate movement below the surface. The base may have been washed out by water, compacted further by heavy vehicles, or never prepared properly in the first place. Around storm drains, settlement is especially common when water has been escaping around the structure.
Sinking areas affect drainage, ride quality and safety. They also tend to get worse with each season of traffic and weather.
What to do next
One or two of these signs in a small area may come down to a drainage or edge problem that can be corrected before it spreads. Several signs spread across the lot often mean it is time to consider milling and repaving or full reconstruction with a new base. Our guide on why proper drainage is important for your parking lot explains one of the most common root problems, and our post on potential problems that can damage your parking lot covers the rest.
We handle asphalt parking lot paving, milling and repaving for businesses, HOAs and property managers in Monmouth, northern Ocean and southern Middlesex counties. We will walk the lot with you and provide a free estimate.
Need this done right?
Dan The Paver handles parking lot paving across Monmouth, Ocean (Toms River and north) and southern Middlesex counties. Free on-site estimates.