A parking lot is often the first part of a property that customers, tenants and residents experience. It also takes a beating that a home driveway never sees: hundreds of cars a day, delivery trucks, trash haulers, plows and the turning and braking that comes with all of it. If you own or manage a commercial building, an HOA community or a multi-tenant property, here is what you should understand before you pave or repave.
The base does the heavy lifting
The asphalt you see is the wearing surface. The real strength of a parking lot comes from the layers under it: the native soil, the compacted aggregate base and, in many cases, a base course of asphalt below the top course. When a lot fails early, the cause is usually underneath.
During an estimate, a good contractor looks for clues about the existing base. Widespread alligator cracking, ruts in drive lanes and sunken areas around catch basins all suggest the support has broken down. In those areas, laying new asphalt on top of a failed base only hides the problem for a season or two. Those sections usually need to be excavated and rebuilt.
Thickness should match the traffic
Not every part of a lot carries the same load. Parking stalls used by passenger cars see relatively light traffic. Main drive aisles, entrances and loading areas take much heavier and more frequent loads, especially from box trucks and garbage trucks. A well-designed lot accounts for this with heavier sections where the heavy traffic actually goes. Skimping on thickness in a dumpster pad or truck route is one of the most common reasons lots break up long before they should.
Drainage has to be designed, not hoped for
Every square foot of pavement sheds water, and in a parking lot that adds up fast. The surface needs enough slope to carry water to inlets, swales or the edges without ponding. If existing catch basins are settled or the surrounding pavement has sunk, water will sit in exactly the wrong places. Correcting grades during a repaving project is far easier than fighting puddles afterward.
Repave or rebuild
There are generally three paths for an existing lot:
- Drainage and edge fixes for a lot that is mostly sound but has settled basins, crumbling edges or water collecting in the wrong spots.
- Milling and repaving, where the worn top layer is ground off and replaced with fresh asphalt. This keeps grades at curbs and drains while renewing the surface.
- Full-depth reconstruction for lots where the base has failed across large areas.
Many projects combine these, rebuilding the worst sections with new base while milling and repaving the rest. For commercial properties, our milling work is often the step that makes repaving possible without raising the surface against curbs and building entrances.
Plan around your operations
Your lot cannot just close for a week. A good paving plan breaks the work into phases so part of the property stays open, schedules work during slower days or hours and keeps tenants and customers informed. HOA boards will want to give residents notice well in advance so cars are moved. Our article on planning an asphalt parking lot paving project goes step by step through scheduling and communication.
Check local requirements
Depending on the scope, your town may have requirements related to drainage, curb cuts or site changes. Before work starts, check with your municipality’s construction or zoning office so there are no surprises.
Why asphalt makes sense for parking
Asphalt goes down quickly, can be opened to traffic soon after paving and can be rebuilt in sections when one area fails ahead of the rest. It is also well suited to milling and repaving, which means a well-built lot can be renewed in the future without tearing everything out. The commercial benefits of asphalt paving are a big reason it remains the standard for lots across New Jersey.
We pave and repave lots for business owners, HOAs and property managers in Monmouth County, Ocean County from Toms River north and southern Middlesex County. Learn more about our asphalt parking lot paving service and set up a free on-site 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.