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Crack Filling and Sealing in La Crosse

Crack Filling and Sealing in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

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

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4.7 from 21 Google reviews

About two hours southeast of Eau Claire on I-94 and I-90. 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 La Crosse

The city sits under bluffs that run close to 600 feet, on ground with the bedrock near the surface and loess and colluvium over the valley walls. What a lot needs out of crack filling is the same as anywhere: water kept out of the base before the frost gets hold of it. Wide cracks get routed to a clean face and hot rubber goes in at 400 degrees so it bonds and stays flexible, where cold pour lifts out in strips. On a hospital or a college lot the crack list runs long, so it gets priced by measured footage rather than by the worst few.

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 La Crosse

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 La Crosse

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 La Crosse

What La Crosse calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
That's two hours from Eau Claire. Do you actually come this far?
For commercial lots, yes. It's about 87 miles and right around two hours, down I-94 and then I-90. Send the address and what the lot needs and we'll set up a time to walk it. The estimate is free.
We manage several properties around town. Can they be looked at together?
Yes. Send the addresses and what you're seeing at each one, and they get walked and measured together. You get quantities and a number per property rather than a lump, so you can decide which ones go this year and which ones wait.
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 La Crosse 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 La Crosse

La Crosse is the seat of La Crosse County and the biggest city on this end of the road, about 51,000 people on the Mississippi where the bluffs come down to the river. It's roughly 87 miles from Eau Claire, right around two hours, off Exit 3 or Exit 2 on I-90. US 14, 53 and 61 and Highways 16, 33 and 35 all run through, and the regional airport sits on French Island at the north end of the city.

Health care and distribution hold the biggest lots. Gundersen Health System is on South Avenue with 325 beds and a 500,000 square foot critical care building, and Mayo Clinic Health System is on West Avenue South with a new six-level, 96-bed hospital and its center for advanced medicine. Kwik Trip's distribution center on Kwik Trip Way runs more than 360,000 square feet on a campus of about 90 acres, has been expanded five times since 1996, works around the clock and moves 33,000 pallets a day out to more than 566 stores. Trane was founded here in 1913.

The industrial ground is out at the interstate. Airport Industrial Park sits next to La Crosse Regional Airport at Exit 2, 21 filled lots over roughly 95 acres with warehouse and manufacturing users around it, and La Crosse International Business Park is north of I-90 off Highway 16 with five lots left between 1.15 and 3.4 acres. On the institutional side there are two public high schools, Central on Losey Boulevard South and Logan on Ranger Drive, plus UW-La Crosse on 128 acres, Viterbo on about 21, and Western Technical College's main campus on 7th Street North with four more buildings in the city. The city is promoting the River Point District, a mixed-use redevelopment on the waterfront.

Where we work in La Crosse

  • Airport Industrial Park
  • La Crosse International Business Park
  • Kwik Trip Way
  • South Avenue
  • French Island

Around La Crosse: Grandad Bluff, Riverside Park, The La Crosse Center, La Crosse Regional Airport on French Island, The Cathedral of Saint Joseph the Workman.

51,049 people, 2024 Census estimate.

La Crosse is the biggest city sitting entirely inside the Driftless Area. The ice never got here, so there's no glacial drift, the bluffs run up close to 600 feet, bedrock is at or near the surface, and the valley walls are colluvium.

Get a Free Estimate in La Crosse

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