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Crack Filling and Sealing in Cameron

Crack Filling and Sealing in Cameron, Wisconsin.

Hot rubber crack filling for driveways and lots in Cameron, before the freeze does the expensive part.

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4.7 from 18 Google reviews

About 50 minutes north of Eau Claire. Free estimates, and a straight read on whether it needs doing yet.

A web of freshly filled cracks running across a parking lot, the rubber still glossy.
1,851 People in Cameron
4.7 Google ratingFrom 18 reviews
2-3 yrs Reseal cycleIn Cameron
400°F Crack fillerDirect-fire rubber

What a Crack Filling and Sealing Job Looks Like in Cameron

Highway commercial is what Cameron has, strung along the two US routes rather than concentrated in a downtown block. That means larger lots with their own access and room to work, unlike a shared alley downtown.

It also means heavier vehicles than a village this size would otherwise see. Traffic that's passing through rather than stopping still turns, brakes and parks, and highway-frontage surface wears at the entrances first for that reason. If a lot here is failing, the aprons are usually where it started.

Crack Filling and Sealing specifically in Cameron

This far north the freeze is hard and the season is short, so fall crack work matters more than it does down the valley. An open crack going into a Barron County winter is the most expensive thing on a driveway. It is also the one piece of maintenance that pays for itself on a young surface: filling a crack on a twenty-year-old drive costs a fraction of what it costs to deal with the soft base that same crack produces by the time the drive is thirty.

The Driveways and Lots in Cameron

Cameron sits in Barron County where US Highway 8 meets US Highway 53, which is the reason to know it. Highway 8 is the main east-west route across northern Wisconsin and 53 is the north-south spine, so a village of 1,872 sits on a genuine crossroads and carries the traffic that goes with one.

Cameron is younger than the towns around it. Only about a quarter of its housing predates 1960 and roughly a fifth has been built since 2000, which is the opposite of the pattern in most of the north end of the area. It is not the newest place we work; Lake Hallie and Altoona both have a larger share built since 2000. It is the newest thing this far north, which is what matters if you live here.

For a driveway that's good news with one catch. A drive from the 2000s is very likely worth maintaining and very likely still has a sound base under it. But a twenty-year-old drive that has never been sealed is right at the point where neglect starts costing real money, and a lot of Cameron is exactly that age.

Cameron

We work the whole village rather than a named handful of neighborhoods.

Around Cameron: US 8 and US 53 junction, Cameron schools, Hay River.

The far north of what we cover, so both ends of the season close in earlier than they do in Eau Claire. Standard 48-inch frost depth.

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 Cameron

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 in Cameron

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 sealcoating and striping through October · Call (715) 450-9897

Questions We Get in Cameron

What Cameron calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
Our driveway is about twenty years old and looks fine. Does it need anything?
Twenty years is exactly when this question is worth asking, and Cameron has a lot of drives that age. If it's still black and tight, sealing now is cheap protection. If it has gone gray and the surface stones are loose underfoot, oxidation is already well along and sealing is overdue rather than optional. Either way it's a look, not a sales call.
Is Cameron too far north for you to come up?
No, and it is fair to ask, because at about fifty minutes it is the furthest town north we hold a page for. We come up here. What is worth doing at this distance is asking before the season rather than in the middle of it, and saying so if a neighbor wants theirs done the same week. The estimate is free, and the number you approve is the number you pay.
Does the shorter season up here change when work gets done?
It closes both ends rather than the middle. This is the far north of what we cover, so spring opens later and fall shuts sooner than it does down the valley. In practice that means fall crack filling here wants booking earlier than it would in Eau Claire, and a late-September sealing date is tighter than the calendar makes it look.
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 Cameron 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.

Get a Free Estimate in Cameron

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 driveways and lots anywhere in the service area
  • 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.

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