Asphalt Contractor FAQs: Your Questions About Pavement Maintenance, Answered
Your Professionals in Pink answer the questions Michigan property owners ask most about pavement care. Straight talk on freeze/thaw damage, plowing, and salt.
What This FAQ Page Covers
This page answers the questions we hear most often across our commercial work: parking lot sealcoating, ADA compliance, drainage, and how to tell whether a lot needs repair or full replacement. These are the questions property managers, facility owners, and business owners ask before committing capital maintenance dollars.
If you are a homeowner with questions about a driveway, our residential FAQ page covers sealcoating timing, crack filling, and patching costs specific to houses rather than commercial lots.
Quality Asphalt & Maintenance has been doing this work in Michigan for more than 35 years, across three generations of the same family, and we'd rather explain the reasoning behind a recommendation than just hand you an invoice.
Common Questions About Our Work as an Asphalt Contractor
What does a commercial asphalt contractor actually handle, start to finish?
A full-service commercial asphalt contractor manages the entire lifecycle of a parking lot or pavement surface, not just one repair at a time. For Quality Asphalt & Maintenance, that means commercial asphalt paving and resurfacing, parking lot sealcoating, asphalt crack filling and crack sealing, pothole repair and patching, parking lot line striping, catch basin repair and installation, ADA compliant ramps and striping, and commercial concrete flatwork like sidewalks, curbs, and pads. We're CBRE Certified and run ESG focused operations, which matters to facility owners and property managers who report on sustainability.
Why does Quality Asphalt use coal tar free sealcoating instead of traditional sealer?
Traditional coal tar emulsion sealers contain high levels of PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), compounds linked to groundwater contamination and health concerns, especially around homes, schools, daycares, and healthcare facilities. We use Pitch Black asphalt emulsion sealcoating, which is 100% coal tar free and performs just as well at protecting pavement from sun, salt, and water intrusion. We're glad to share sealcoating safety data sheets for any property where that documentation matters, including sites with ESG reporting requirements.
How do I know if my parking lot needs asphalt repair or full replacement?
It comes down to how deep the damage goes. Surface cracking, minor potholes, and isolated low spots usually respond well to patching, crack sealing, or a resurfacing overlay, which costs a fraction of replacement. If the base layer underneath has failed, water has undermined large sections, or alligator cracking covers more than 25 to 30 percent of the lot, repair becomes a short-term fix that fails again within a season. We'll walk the lot with you, explain what we're seeing, and tell you honestly when resurfacing makes more sense than another round of patching, and when it doesn't.
What does ADA parking lot compliance actually require?
ADA parking lot compliance covers the number and placement of accessible stalls, correct slope and dimensions on access aisles, compliant ramps at curb cuts and building entrances, and properly painted ADA parking stall striping with the international symbol of accessibility. Requirements shift with total stall count and recent changes to a property, so lots that were compliant years ago can fall out of compliance after a restriping or resurfacing project. We handle ADA ramp installation and striping as part of our commercial work and can flag compliance gaps during a routine assessment, before they turn into a liability issue or a complaint.
Why does parking lot drainage matter so much in Michigan?
Standing water is the single biggest driver of pavement failure here, because it seeps into cracks and then freezes and expands through our winter freeze/thaw cycles, which breaks the asphalt apart from the inside out. A clogged or damaged catch basin lets water pool exactly where traffic and foot traffic concentrate, accelerating potholes and base failure. We handle catch basin repair and catch basin installation as part of our commercial drainage work, and we'll point out drainage issues during any sealcoating or paving estimate because fixing the water problem protects the investment you just made in the surface.
Can Quality Asphalt manage pavement maintenance across multiple properties?
Yes. Property managers and facility owners overseeing several sites across Michigan, from Grand Rapids to Lansing to Ann Arbor, work with us for multi-site pavement maintenance so every lot runs on one coordinated schedule instead of a patchwork of vendors and timelines. We build preventative pavement maintenance plans that sequence sealcoating, crack sealing, striping refreshes, and drainage checks around your budget cycle and our Michigan application windows, so nothing gets missed between seasons.
Still Have Questions About Your Property?
Every parking lot and pavement surface has its own history, and the right answer for one property isn't always right for the next. Call Kasey and the team and we'll walk through what's actually going on with your pavement, no pressure, no generic sales pitch.
8:00 AM to 4:00 PM