Crack filling - driveways and parking lots
Hot Rubber Crack Filling
Water gets into an open crack, freezes, expands about nine percent, and levers the crack wider. Then more water gets in. In northwestern Wisconsin that cycle runs dozens of times a winter, which is why a hairline crack in October is a half-inch crack by April.
Booking now. Sealer needs warm pavement to cure, so the season closes well before the year does.
Hot rubber vs. cold pour
The stuff in a jug at the hardware store is cold pour. It goes in as a liquid, dries, shrinks, and sits in the crack like a rubber band laid in a trench. It's not bonded to anything. The first hard freeze pulls the crack open, the filler has nothing holding it to the walls, and it lifts out in a strip. Most people have seen this happen and assumed it was a bad batch. Hot-applied rubber goes in at around 400 degrees. At that temperature it's thin enough to run down into the crack instead of bridging it, and hot enough to melt into the asphalt faces on either side. When it cools it has bonded to the walls of the crack, so when the crack moves, the filler moves with it.
Cold pour
The jug from the hardware store, and what a cheap quote uses
- Sits in the crack rather than bonding to it
- Shrinks as it cures, leaving a channel down the middle
- Pulls out in strips after the first hard winter
- Cheap enough that it gets redone every year, which isn't cheap
Hot-applied rubber
What comes off our kettle
- Flows to the bottom of the crack at 400 degrees
- Melts into the asphalt faces and bonds to both walls
- Stays flexible, so it moves when the crack moves
- Holds for years, not for one season
This is the one place where the cheaper option isn't a smaller version of the right one. It's a different product doing a different thing.
From our jobs
Job Photos
What decides the price.
Priced by the foot of crack, not by the area of the surface, because that's what actually drives the work. Usually done as part of a sealcoating job, where it costs less than it would on its own.
With a sealcoat job
Driveway
Measured on site
- Most driveways need some, and it's included up to a point
- Heavy cracking is quoted separately and said up front
Crack filling alone
Driveway, no sealcoat
Measured on site
- Worth doing on its own if the surface is otherwise sound
Commercial lot
Per linear foot
Measured on site
- Depends on crack width, depth and how much routing it needs
- Most lots are quoted as a lump sum after a walk
Cracks wider than about an inch and a half, or ones that have broken into a network, are past filling. Those get cut out and patched rather than filled with something that will not hold.
How the Work Goes
Done before sealer, always: sealer can't bridge an open crack.
Clean the crack out
Blown out with compressed air, vegetation and old failed filler removed. Rubber won't bond to dirt any more than sealer will.
Rout the wide ones
Wide or heavily worked cracks get cut to a consistent reservoir so the filler has a proper shape to sit in. Not every crack needs it; the ones that do are the ones that have already failed once.
Fill hot
Direct-fire kettle, rubber at 400 degrees, wanded into the crack until it's full from the bottom up rather than skinned over at the top.
Squeegee and let it set
Struck off flush or slightly banded over, depending on the surface. Sets hard enough to drive on in under an hour in most conditions.
Where We Do This
Crack filling across northwestern Wisconsin, on its own or as part of a sealcoating job.
How much does crack filling cost?
Why does the temperature of the crack filler matter?
Should I fill cracks before sealcoating or after?
Is there a crack too big to fill?
When is the best time of year for crack filling?
Get them filled before winter.
Free estimate. Where the cracking has gone past what filling can hold, the estimate says so and prices the repair instead.
(715) 450-9897Call and describe it. On a driveway we can usually tell you what you're looking at while you're on the phone.
Get an estimate
Send the form and we'll call you back. The estimate is free.