Is Seal-Coating worth it?

Started by PeteM • 5 replies • 6119 views

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PeteM (Florida)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Hi,
I'm on the BOD at a South Florida townhome community. We had our roads and owners' driveways overlayed about one year ago. We were planning to seal-coat and it was going to be a no-brainer. After doing some research on seal-coating, we feel it might be a waste of money. We did discover a process called rejuvination, where the oils, which escape from the asphalt over time, are put back into the asphalt. The seal-coat lays on top of the asphalt, where the rejuvinator actually penetrates and prevents the asphalt from drying out and cracking. Our town uses the rejuvination process on some of their roads and that's how we got the name of the company that came out for an inspection. The cost difference is $25K for the seal-coat vs. $69K for the rejuvination.
Does anyone have any experience with any of this??
Happy Holidays!!
Pete

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

Pete,
I don't know is my answer. It sounds like something I would like to know about. Have you gone to the town and talked to them? We would be interested to hear what they say. Also, have you Googled it for information. You might try in your Google Window typing in Google Scholar.
Then search that for the technical literature by typing in some Brand names of the stuff or something like "Asphalt Coating or sealers", and this should bring up the technical evaluations of the different materials. Let us know.

PeterB1 (Florida)
Posts: 257

Posted:

Pete,

We recently had a 'reserve study' done for our association. As part of the findings, an analysis of our roadway was done. Their conclusions included the following statement: "an asphalt overlay is done on an 18-25 year basis". Sine we are in Florida (SW) I assume that would be applicable to you as well.

They also said "Some associations are of the opinion that this upgrade is largely cosmetic, while others maintain that it maximizes the useful life of the asphalt paving. If the association chose to schedule asphalt sealcoating, the market norm is a life cycle of 3-4 years. "

We opt not to do seal-coating (3-4 years on a 20+ year life does not seem desireable. Hope this helps.

peter

JohnK3 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 967

Posted:

I can only speak to use on driveways. Looks pretty for one season, doesn't appear to serve any other function than cosmetic. We had our street overlayed summer 2005 ago and it looks prettier now than my driveway does since its summer 2007 spruce up.

PeteM (Florida)
Posts: 4

Posted:

After the overlay in 2005, was there any other maintenance done?

KirkW1 (Texas)
Posts: 1,665

Posted:

There are three things that the seal coat is put on for:

In climates with freezing it can keep water out of crevices where it does major damage.

It protects the asphalt from UV damage.

It protects asphalt from oil and grease

I would not assume that your city follows the best cost model when it comes to asphalt maintenance. Sometimes it has to do with putting off expenses. The grim reality is that this happens all the time. Other times it has to do with other practical concerns. For instance, I noticed that one site mentioned traffic should be kept off the sealcoat for 24 hours. In many cities, this just won't fly politically regardless of what the financial benefit might be.

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