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Crack Filling and Sealing in Barron

Crack Filling and Sealing in Barron, Wisconsin.

Hot rubber crack filling for parking lots in Barron. Routed where it needs it, filled at 400 degrees, priced by the foot of crack rather than by the acre.

Get a Free Estimate Call (715) 450-9897

4.7 from 21 Google reviews

About an hour north of Eau Claire, up Highway 53 and west on Highway 8. The estimate is free.

A web of freshly filled cracks running across a parking lot, the rubber still glossy.
4.7 Google ratingFrom 21 reviews
400°F Applied atDirect-fire rubber
9% Water expandsEvery time it freezes

Working in Barron

A county lot or a plant lot here sits on the same silty till as the rest of northwestern Wisconsin, and it moves with the frost. Cracks that are routed and filled hot before the ground freezes are the ones still closed in April. Cold pour lifts out in strips.

From our jobs

Job Photos

The crack crew's trucks and melter working a tree-lined road, road work sign up
The crack crew working a town road
The company flatbed and the yellow crack-seal melter on a road shoulder, two crew in hi-vis working ahead of it
The melter on site, crew working ahead of it

All job photos

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.

What Decides the Price in Barron

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.

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 in Barron

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.

Booking the last of the sealcoating season now · Call (715) 450-9897

Questions We Get in Barron

What Barron calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
How far will you come for a lot in Barron?
Barron is about an hour north of Eau Claire, up Highway 53 and five miles west on Highway 8. 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.
Can county and school work go out as a formal bid?
Yes. You get a written scope with the quantities and a fixed number, in the form the county or the district needs to put in front of a board.
How much does crack filling cost?
It is priced by the linear foot of crack rather than by the size of the surface, so a big driveway with four cracks costs less than a small one that has opened up all over. Width matters too: anything wide enough to need routing out first takes longer. On a driveway it is usually included up to a point when it is done with a sealcoat rather than billed on its own.
Why does the temperature of the crack filler matter?
At 400 degrees the rubber is thin enough to reach the bottom of the crack and hot enough to melt into the asphalt on both sides, so it bonds. Cold pour filler can't do either, which is why it lifts out in strips after a winter.
Should I fill cracks before sealcoating or after?
Before, always. Sealer is a thin wear layer and it can't bridge an open crack. Sealing over one changes its color and nothing else, and the crack reappears through the new surface within weeks.
Is there a crack too big to fill?
Yes. Past about an inch and a half, or once cracking has broken into a network of squares, filling won't hold because the surface around it is moving independently. Those areas get cut out and patched instead.
When is the best time of year for crack filling?
Spring or early fall in Barron and the surrounding area is ideal, because cracks are at a middling width. In high summer they're at their tightest and in deep winter they're at their widest, and filling at either extreme means the filler is working against the movement rather than with it.

The Lots and Surfaces in Barron

Barron is the county seat of Barron County, a city of about 3,700 an hour north of Eau Claire: up Highway 53, then five miles west on Highway 8. County government is here, the Jennie-O plant is here, and the industrial park sits next to the municipal airport with rail service and four- to eight-acre lots ready to build.

The biggest employer in the county is in this town. Jennie-O's Barron plant, part of Hormel, has 1,800 people, and in 2024 it stopped harvesting turkeys and became a further-processing plant, with modernization money going into the building. The county's Government Center on East Monroe Avenue, the Justice Center on Highway 25 north of town and the Highway Department on North 7th Street are all here, and Mayo Clinic Health System's Northland hospital is in town.

The city puts its count at more than 200 businesses and industries. The lots that matter for pavement are the plant's, the county's, the hospital's, the high school's on East Woodland Avenue, and the industrial park's, with the rail spur and the airport next door.

Where we work in Barron

  • Barron Industrial Park
  • Highway 8 through town
  • Highway 25 North

Around Barron: Barron County Government Center on East Monroe Avenue, Barron County Justice Center on Highway 25, The Jennie-O plant, Barron High School, Kiwanis Park on the Yellow River.

3,674 people, 2024 Census estimate.

Silty glacial till, outwash sand and pockets of organic soil are all normal ground in this corner of the state, and a lot can cross more than one of them.

Get a Free Estimate in Barron

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 Barron
  • 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

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

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Other Work We Do in Barron

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Everything about crack filling and sealing, including how the work goes and what changes the price