Learn about the Extreme weather of hot and cold on your asphalt pavement.
aggregates and binder, What’s in Asphalt & how its made?
To understand how the weather affects the pavement we need to know what’s in asphalt and how its made.
Asphalt is made up of Stone, Sand, and Asphalt hardeners the process of making it starts with blending the stone and sand to gather in a mixing drum that’s heated at over 300 degrees so that any moisture is removed before the asphalt hardeners can be added.
Once the asphalt has been blended it is conveyed up to dump into a silo, Once its in the silo a dump truck can pull under it to load there truck once its on the truck the cool down clock starts, as asphalt sits in the truck it cools down the colder asphalt gets it starts to set up and cant be used so it needs to be spread before it cools down other wise your asphalt wont hold up in the winter months and you will see the asphalt start to revel apart.
Water in cracks and why you need to crack seal.
When water get’s into the cracks and down into you stone sub-base and freezes and expands by pushing up your asphalt making the asphalt brittle and causing the pavement to crack. That crack can turn into a pothole, or a rock can pull out of the pavement and allow the water to fill into the void and freeze and if not repaired the hole can get bigger and bigger and the same goes for cracks if you do not seal that cracks they may get bigger or create more cracks. By crack sealing before winter you help to prevent more repairs form a curing.
Sealcoating every 2 to 3 years will help to keep to pours filled and not allow water to seep in and freeze.
