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Crack Filling and Sealing in Hudson

Crack Filling and Sealing in Hudson, Wisconsin.

Hot rubber crack filling for parking lots in Hudson. 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 west of Eau Claire on I-94. 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 Hudson

Hudson's lots sit on glacial deposits that get deeper toward this end of the county, running from bedrock at the surface in places to more than 450 feet in the buried valleys. Two lots a mile apart don't necessarily behave the same way in March. A big flat retail lot on Carmichael Road cracks in long straight runs, and a crack left open takes water into the base every thaw. The wide ones get routed and filled with rubber at 400 degrees, thin enough at that temperature to reach the bottom and bond to the walls.

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 Hudson

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 Hudson

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 Hudson

What Hudson calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
We're in Hudson. Is that outside what you cover?
No. It's about 66 miles straight out I-94, right around an hour, 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.
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 Hudson 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 Hudson

Hudson is the county seat of St. Croix County, a city of about 15,000 on the St. Croix River where I-94 crosses into Minnesota. It's about 66 miles west of Eau Claire, right around an hour. The interstate gives the city four ways in: Exit 2 at Carmichael Road, both WIS 35 interchanges, and the US 12 and County U exit. The city is inside the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro, and it's the last Wisconsin exit before the bridge.

Two things sit on Carmichael Road, the retail and the county. Exit 2 puts a Home Depot right at the interchange, with Prairie View Center, a multi-tenant retail and office property, up at Vine Street, and the St. Croix County Government Center and Courthouse is on the same road and has been expanded. Hudson Hospital and Clinic is a 25-bed critical access hospital on Stageline Road off that same exit, with two more buildings on the campus. Hudson High School is on Vine Street with about 1,700 students, and UW-River Falls runs a satellite campus in town.

The industry is out at Hanley Road and WI 35. St. Croix Business Park started there in the mid-nineties and markets large parcels for employment centers and distribution warehouses, and it holds a 640,000 square foot distribution center on about 64 acres at the corner of WI 35 and Hanley Road. Phillips-Medisize has its North American headquarters here, in a 180,000 square foot plant on the old St. Croix Meadows site. The older industrial pavement is on Industrial Street, about a mile off the interstate.

Where we work in Hudson

  • The Carmichael Road corridor
  • St. Croix Business Park
  • Hanley Road
  • Industrial Street
  • Stageline Road

Around Hudson: The I-94 crossing over the St. Croix River, St. Croix County Government Center on Carmichael Road, The Phipps Center for the Arts, The Octagon House Museum, The site of the original Little Free Library.

15,031 people, 2024 Census estimate.

The glacial deposits under St. Croix County run from nothing at all where bedrock comes up to more than 450 feet in the buried valleys, with 5 to 150 feet the usual. They get deeper toward the west end of the county, which is the end Hudson is on.

Get a Free Estimate in Hudson

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 Hudson
  • 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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