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Crack Filling and Sealing in Fall Creek

Crack Filling and Sealing in Fall Creek, Wisconsin.

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

Get a Free Estimate Call (715) 450-9897

4.7 from 18 Google reviews

About 15 minutes east 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.
1,391 People in Fall Creek
4.7 Google ratingFrom 18 reviews
2-3 yrs Reseal cycleIn Fall Creek
400°F Crack fillerDirect-fire rubber

What a Crack Filling and Sealing Job Looks Like in Fall Creek

Three parts of Fall Creek generate nearly all of its pavement work, and they could not be more different from each other.

Brickyard Street is the industrial one. The village business park sits there, twenty-odd acres beside Highway 12, and it carries the heaviest truck traffic and the largest private lots in the village. East Hoover Avenue is the school campus, elementary, middle and high all on the same site, which makes it the single largest parking demand in town and a job that has to happen inside a summer window. Lincoln Avenue is the main street: banks, bars, the cafe, the post office, all with small frontages and shared access.

The fourth is seasonal. The grain and feed co-op on East Miami Avenue takes farm truck traffic in a concentrated few weeks, which is hard on a surface in a way that steady daily use isn't.

Crack Filling and Sealing specifically in Fall Creek

The low ground near the creek and the river holds water into spring, and cracks there open faster than the same crack on higher ground a few streets away. Hot rubber before the freeze is worth more here than the surface appearance suggests.

The Driveways and Lots in Fall Creek

Fall Creek sits on US Highway 12 about twelve miles east of Eau Claire, with I-94 another twelve miles on and County Road K running north toward Highway 29. The village takes its name from the rapids on the creek that runs through it, and the Eau Claire River passes just to the north.

A small village of about two square miles, so the housing is what you would expect: a compact grid of older homes near Lincoln Avenue and newer building out toward the edges. Drives here are shorter than the township average and longer than a town lot, which usually puts a whole driveway inside a single visit.

The more interesting pavement in Fall Creek isn't residential. For a village this size it carries an unusual amount of commercial and industrial surface, and that's where most of our work here happens.

Fall Creek

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

Around Fall Creek: Fall Creek Memorial Park, Keller Park, Randall Park, Beaver Creek Reserve, Hobbs Observatory.

Same freeze regime as the rest of the valley, with footings at 48 inches minimum. The creek and the Eau Claire River both run close, so the low ground near them holds water into spring longer than the higher parts of the village.

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 Fall Creek

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 Fall Creek

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 Fall Creek

What Fall Creek calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
Do you come out to Fall Creek for a single driveway?
Yes. It's fifteen minutes from Eau Claire and we're out that way regularly, so a single drive isn't a problem. If a couple of neighbors want theirs done at the same time it costs everybody less, because most of the price of a small job is getting the crew and the equipment there.
We're on Highway 12 with a fire number rather than a village address. Still in the area?
Yes, comfortably. The rural stretch along Highway 12 either side of the village is well inside where we work, and long rural drives out there are measured rather than guessed at.
The co-op takes farm trucks for a few weeks a year. Is that hard on a surface?
Harder than year-round car traffic, and in a different way. Concentrated farm truck movement puts axle loads on a surface for a short window with no recovery between passes, and the damage shows up as rutting and edge break-up rather than as cracking. The East Miami Avenue site is the clearest example of it in the village. The useful thing about a concentrated season is that the rest of the year is a working window.
Is the low ground near the creek different from up in the village?
Yes, and it is worth knowing before anybody quotes. Fall Creek and the Eau Claire River both run close to the village, and the low ground near them holds water into spring longer than the higher parts do. A base that stays wet through the thaw heaves harder than a dry one, so on those lots keeping surface water out through crack sealing is worth more than the appearance of the surface suggests.
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 Fall Creek 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 Fall Creek

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

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