Asphalt Rip Out and Repair (r&r) - When Routine Maintenance is Not Enough

Eventually routine maintenance on your driveway or parking lot will need to be supplemented with repair work. Repairing necessary areas ensures that damage will not continue to spread throughout the existing driveway, parking lot, or road. Pot holes, alligator cracking, standing areas of water, and depressions in asphalt are signs that seal coating and crack filling are no longer sufficient. Once these take place, structural problems to the sub base have occurred. If these problems comprise more then 35% of your property, a complete grade and pave overhaul of your property may be necessary.

The Sommerset Paving rip out and repair/replacement (rr) technique:

1. In order to correctly address sub base issues, the problem area is saw cut and removed 1 foot beyond the visible defect. The sub base is checked and any undesirable debris such as clay or dirt is removed. Appropriate aggregate or asphalt millings are added to stabilize the sub base if necessary. The area is then machine rolled to industry compaction standards.
2. Next, tack coat is applied to the edges that have been saw cut to ensure proper bonding and adhesion to existing asphalt. This step is often skipped by companies offering too good to be true pricing. If this step is skipped, the newly laid asphalt will soon crack and pull away from existing asphalt, sending the area into the same spiral of cracking and sub base damage. Nothing will be changed.
3. Proper base asphalt is leveled and machine rolled with a vibratory roller. Vibratory rollers allow for better compaction compared to static rollers. This material is allowed to cool and then a second wearing coarse lift is applied. The existing grade of the pavement is matched so as not to be lifted by snow plows in the winter, and to prevent water pooling. Asphalt cannot be properly compacted in one lift. If it is applied in one lift the job will not have structural integrity.

Raveling:

Raveling is the appearance of severe pitting and the presence of rocks being exposed in the surface of the asphalt. These areas are repaired by applying a slurry mix, if they are no more then ¼ inch in depth. A slurry mix is emulsified asphalt which contains double the percentage of latex modifiers and sand. It is then applied with a squeegee.

Surface patching:

Sommerset Paving does not recommend surface patching in most cases. Surface patching is the process of adding a new layer of asphalt to low puddling areas to raise the grade to match the surrounding surface. This process creates a lip and is easily lifted and destroyed by plow blades. Surface patching is a temporary fix, in effect a band-aid. It does not fix the structural defect that is causing the problem to occur.