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

Asphalt Repair and Patching in Tomah

Asphalt Repair and Patching in Tomah, Wisconsin.

Pothole, patch and sinkhole repair for commercial lots in Tomah. Saw-cut square, the failed base dug out and rebuilt, the patch compacted flush and the joint sealed.

4.7 from 21 Google reviews

About an hour and fifteen minutes southeast of Eau Claire on I-94 and I-90. The estimate is free.

A Bobcat skid steer beside two saw-cut sections of asphalt on a commercial parking lot, work area coned off while cars stay parked around it.
4.7 Google ratingFrom 21 reviews
7 days Sinkhole to finishedFrom a 2026 review
Full Depth patchingNot a skim over the top

Working in Tomah

The city says outright that freight companies locate here because I-90 and I-94 divide in town, and truck traffic is what sets the repair list on this end of the corridor. Dock approaches, the apron where a trailer swings in, and the lane just inside a gate are where the base gives out. Those get saw cut back to sound asphalt, the base dug out and rebuilt to something that compacts, then hot mix rolled in flush with what's around it. Cold patch holds it through February and no longer.

From our jobs

Job Photos

Two fresh asphalt patches laid in a worn parking lot, cones still around them
Full-depth patches laid and coned off
A crew member kneeling at a stall line working patch material by hand
Hand work at the stall lines
A fresh full-depth asphalt patch coned off in a commercial lot outside an industrial building with dock doors
A full-depth patch outside the dock doors

All job photos

Filled vs. repaired

The pothole that comes back every spring is being filled rather than repaired. Cold patch is a temporary measure and an honest one when it's sold as that: it's loose material tamped into a hole, with no bond to the sides and nothing done about the failed base underneath. It gets you through a winter. A real repair means cutting a clean square back to material that's still sound, taking out everything soft below it, putting the base back and compacting it in lifts, then laying hot asphalt and rolling it. The patch ends up stronger than what is around it, which is why the failure doesn't come back through the middle of it.

Filled

The quick version

  • Cold patch tamped into the hole as found
  • Ragged edges, so there's nothing to key against
  • Failed base left in place
  • Back within a season, usually wider

Repaired

What we do

  • Saw cut to clean vertical edges, back to sound asphalt
  • Soft material dug out until the bottom is firm
  • Base replaced and compacted in lifts
  • Hot mix laid, rolled, and the joint sealed

Cold patch has its place: it's the right call in February when nothing else can be done. It's the wrong call in July.

Repair or repave?

Most lots that get deferred don't need repaving.

What we look at before quoting either one.

  • Two or three potholes, the rest of the surface is soundStraightforward patching. Nowhere near needing an overlay. Repairable
  • The garage apron has sunk where it meets the concreteCommon and fixable. Usually settlement under the transition, cut out and rebuilt. Repairable
  • Cracked into squares in a few areas, sound elsewhereCut those areas out full depth, patch, then seal the whole surface. Repairable
  • That squared cracking across most of the lotThe base has gone broadly. Patching it becomes a rolling cost with no end. An overlay or a rebuild is the answer. Needs replacement
  • Water sits in the same spot after every rainGrade or drainage, and it has to be solved before any surface work, or the new surface fails in exactly the same place. Depends, send a photo

Photos of the worst two areas are usually enough for us to tell you which it is.

What Decides the Price in Tomah

Repairs are priced by area and by how deep the trouble goes, and the depth isn't knowable until it's open. These are the bands most jobs land in.

Single pothole

Up to a few square feet

Measured on site

  • Saw cut, dig out, base, hot mix, compact
  • Cheaper alongside other work

Sinkhole or subgrade failure

Depth unknown until opened

Measured on site

  • Often a drainage or utility problem underneath
  • Assessed and quoted before the machine moves

Several repairs on one visit come down substantially per repair, because getting the machine and the crew on site is most of the cost of a small one. If you have three, have them all looked at.

How the Work Goes in Tomah

Same method on a driveway apron and on a loading dock approach.

Find the edge of the failure

The visible hole is smaller than the damage. We sound out where the surface is still supported and cut outside that, not around the hole.

Saw cut square, clean vertical faces

A patch cut tight against a clean edge stays. A patch feathered against a ragged one fails at the joint, which is why so many patches fail in a ring.

Dig out to something firm

Everything soft comes out. If the bottom is wet, that's a drainage problem and the best patch in the world won't last sitting on water.

Base back in, compacted in lifts

Compacted in layers rather than dumped and rolled once. This is the invisible step that decides whether the repair lasts two years or twenty.

Hot mix, rolled, joint sealed

Laid to the surrounding grade so water still runs where it's supposed to, compacted, and the perimeter joint sealed against the next freeze.

Questions We Get in Tomah

What Tomah calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
How far southeast do you come?
Tomah is about 81 miles from Eau Claire, an hour and fifteen minutes down I-94 and then west on I-90, and for commercial lots we come. Send the address and what the lot needs and we'll set up a time to walk it. The estimate is free.
Our yard takes semis all day. Is sealer even worth it out there?
On the truck court and the drive lanes, the repair matters more than the sealer, because what fails there is the base and not the top. Sealer earns its keep on the car lot and the aprons, where what's taking the surface apart is sun, oxidation and fuel drips. On a property like that the two get quoted together and done in that order.
How much does pothole repair cost?
Square footage and depth, mostly. A pothole that stops at the surface is a different job from one where the base underneath has gone, and you cannot tell which you have until it is opened. What we can tell you before that: several repairs done on one visit come down substantially per repair, because the trip and the mobilisation are already paid for. The assessment is free.
Why does my patch keep failing?
Almost always because it was filled rather than repaired: no clean cut, no removal of the failed base, and nothing bonding it to the asphalt around it. The failure was underneath and it's still there.
Can you repair a sinkhole in a driveway or lot?
Yes, and quickly. Our newest review is a sinkhole repaired within seven days. A sinkhole means material is being washed out from underneath, usually by drainage or a failed pipe, so the repair includes finding out why.
Is it cheaper to repair the asphalt or repave it?
Repair, until roughly a quarter to a third of the surface has failed. Past that you're patching patches and an overlay becomes better value. The estimate measures how much of your surface has actually failed.
How soon can we drive on a new asphalt patch?
Hot mix takes traffic as soon as it has cooled, usually a few hours. That's the material rather than a schedule: what a specific repair means for your lot is one of the things the estimate works out.

The Lots and Surfaces in Tomah

Tomah is in Monroe County, a city of about 9,600 at the point where I-90 and I-94 divide, and that split is most of the reason the town looks the way it does. It's 81 miles from Eau Claire, about an hour and fifteen minutes, and 40 miles east of La Crosse. Exit 43 off I-90 is US 12 and Highway 16, and Highways 21 and 131 come through as well.

Freight is why the lots here are big. The city names Cardinal IG and Cardinal TG, Toro, Exopack, USEMCO, Meca Sportswear, Mars Pet Care and a Walmart distribution center among its employers, along with local and statewide trucking firms, and says outright that distribution companies locate in Tomah because the two interstates divide there. Ocean Spray's plant runs three lines and turns out 31 million pounds of sweetened dried cranberries and concentrate a year. Monroe County lists three business properties in the city, I-90 Corridor Land, Meadows Park and Forward Tomah Land, most of them inside tax increment districts.

The largest single campus is the Tomah VA Medical Center on East Veterans Street, 174 acres and 266 beds serving veterans across 16 counties in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Tomah Health, Gundersen and a Mayo clinic are also in town, the Walmart Supercenter is on West McCoy Boulevard a minute off the interstate, and the school district runs eight elementary schools, a middle school and the high school on Lincoln Avenue. Western Technical College has a campus on East Milwaukee Street, and Tomah sits between Fort McCoy and Volk Field.

Where we work in Tomah

  • I-90 Corridor Land
  • Meadows Park
  • Forward Tomah Land
  • West McCoy Boulevard
  • The I-90 and I-94 split

Around Tomah: Tomah VA Medical Center on East Veterans Street, Lake Tomah, The point where I-90 and I-94 divide, The Tomah Amtrak stop, The old Tomah Post Office.

9,574 people, 2024 Census estimate.

Monroe County is on the Driftless side of the state, the part the glaciers went around.

Get a Free Estimate in Tomah

Tell us what it looks like and we'll come measure it. You get a written price before anything starts.

(715) 450-9897
  • Free on commercial lots and properties in Tomah
  • A photo of the problem helps, and it can go in the message
  • Surfaces that are not ready yet get told so at the estimate

Get an estimate

Send the form and we'll call you back. The estimate is free.

What can we help with?