Eau Claire, WI · Northwestern Wisconsin Closed now (715) 450-9897
(715) 450-9897

Trench patching · Based in Eau Claire

Parking Lot Drain Line Asphalt Patching

Somebody opened your lot to get at a pipe, and what went back is not what came out. We cut the trench back to sound asphalt, rebuild what is under it, and lay the patch so the seam is a line rather than the start of the next repair.

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Trenchcut back to sound asphalt
Liftsbackfill compacted in layers
Seamssealed, both edges
Freeestimates

Why a Trench Sinks

The lot around the cut has been there for years. Every winter and every loaded truck has pressed it down until it stopped moving. That is not something you can do to fresh backfill with a bucket and a few passes.

When a trench is opened for a drain line, a water service or a conduit, the spoil comes out loose and goes back loose. Unless it is replaced in shallow lifts and compacted layer by layer, it keeps settling for a year or more after the asphalt is back down. The patch follows it. That is the dip you are standing in.

The second failure is the seam. A trench has two long edges running the length of the cut, and if they were not cut square and sealed, water goes straight down both of them into the backfill that is already settling. In Eau Claire that water freezes, and a hairline seam in October is an open joint by April.

The third one is the giveaway that tells you the job was rushed: a crack running the whole length of the patch, straight down the middle. That is the backfill consolidating under a patch that bridged it instead of sitting on it.

What we look for

  • Is the dip along the trench line or across it
  • Whether both seams are open or just one
  • How deep the original cut went
  • Whether water is standing in the low spot
  • What the asphalt either side of the cut is doing

A trench that has finished settling is a different repair from one that is still moving, and it costs less. Which one you have is worth knowing before anybody quotes it.

What Usually Comes With It

A trench rarely arrives on its own. These are the jobs that turn up in the same walk.

Full-depth asphalt repair
Catch basin repair
Concrete aprons and pads
Hot rubber crack filling
Sealcoating
Restriping

If the drain line was opened because the basin it runs to has failed, the basin is the job and the trench is the tail of it. Catch basin repair

Questions We Get

The plumber patched it when they finished. Why does it need doing again?
Because closing a trench and patching a lot are two different jobs. A pipe crew's work is finished when the line is in and the hole is filled, and the asphalt on top is there to get you off the dirt. It is usually cold mix, usually thin, and it is sitting on backfill that has not been compacted in lifts. It holds for a season. What it does not do is stop settling.
There's a crack running straight down the middle of the patch. What is that?
That is the most common thing we see on a trench, and it means the backfill under the middle of the cut is still going down while the compacted ground at both edges is not. The patch is spanning the gap until it cannot. It is worth dealing with before water gets into that crack and a Wisconsin winter opens it up.
Can you just fill the dip rather than cut the whole thing out?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on whether the trench has stopped moving. A cut that went in three years ago and has settled as far as it is going to can often take a surface repair. One from this spring is still consolidating, and filling the dip now means filling it again next year. Standing on it and looking at how the seams are behaving is how that gets decided.
Does the trench need doing before the lot gets sealed?
Yes. Sealer is a coating, not a filler, and it will not bridge an open seam or lift a settled patch. Sealing over a trench that is still moving buys you a uniform black lot for a few months and the same trench underneath. Repairs first, then sealer, then stripes, in that order.
Who does the excavation if the pipe itself is the problem?
That depends on what is wrong with it, and it is worth asking on the phone rather than assuming either way. What we can tell you from looking at the surface is whether the trench is the whole story or whether something under it is still failing, which is the question that decides who you need.

Send a Photo of the Trench

A photo down the length of it tells us most of what we need. The reply names whether it is still settling or done moving, which is the difference in what it costs.

(715) 450-9897

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