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Crack Filling and Sealing in Lake Elmo

Crack Filling and Sealing in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.

Hot rubber crack filling for parking lots in Lake Elmo. 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 and a half 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 Lake Elmo

Most of the commercial pavement out here is young, and a young lot is the cheapest one to keep closed up. Cracks show first at the joints and the edges, where the mat was tied in and where the base has the least support under it. Wide ones get routed to a clean face and hot rubber goes in at 400 degrees so it bonds to the walls and stays flexible. MnDOT's frost and thaw readings for Washington County are what set the spring load limits, and the same frost is what opens the crack.

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 Lake Elmo

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 Lake Elmo

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 Lake Elmo

What Lake Elmo calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
How far is this from Eau Claire? Do you actually come out here?
About 75 miles and an hour and a half, straight out I-94. For commercial lots we come out. Send the address and what the lot needs and we'll set up a time to walk it. The estimate is free.
We're a single commercial building on the frontage. Is that too small to quote?
No. A small commercial lot gets walked and measured the same way a campus does, and you get quantities and a fixed number rather than a figure off a satellite picture.
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 Lake Elmo 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 Lake Elmo

Lake Elmo sits in Washington County with Highway 36 along its north edge and I-94 along the south, about 14,000 people and roughly 75 miles from Eau Claire. Much of the land inside the city limits is still farmland and the city keeps a rural look, so the commercial ground is in two places: the interstate frontage along Hudson Boulevard and Inwood, and the old village center on Lake Elmo Avenue. It's growing fast, and the city projects more than 21,000 people by 2040.

What commercial fabric there is clusters at the interstate. Lake Elmo Business Park is in the northeast quadrant of I-94 and Lake Elmo Avenue, offered as build-to-suit, lease or land, with frontage on a road carrying more than 80,000 vehicles a day. Inwood Commercial is a five-lot commercial subdivision finishing the Inwood master plan, and Bridgewater Village platted a bank and a preschool on Upper 40th Street. The medical center on Hudson Boulevard has an approved expansion, and a storage center on the same road runs drive-up units and outdoor vehicle parking.

The rest is the old village and the public land. Lake Elmo Avenue carries a short retail row rebuilt around a pizzeria, a creamery and a boutique. Lake Elmo Airport is a Metropolitan Airports Commission field with a fixed-base operator, aircraft maintenance, fueling and flight training, and it opened a new 3,500-foot runway. Three school districts split the city, 622, 832 and 834, with Lake Elmo Elementary and Oak-Land Middle School inside the limits. The city is also putting in new wells, connecting homes to city water and designing a treatment plant under the PFAS settlement, which means trenched and restored pavement in places.

Where we work in Lake Elmo

  • Hudson Boulevard North
  • Lake Elmo Avenue North
  • Lake Elmo Business Park
  • Inwood Commercial
  • Bridgewater Village

Around Lake Elmo: Lake Elmo Park Reserve, Lake Elmo Airport, The old village center on Lake Elmo Avenue, Royal Golf Club.

14,161 people, 2024 Census estimate.

MnDOT publishes frost and thaw depths for Washington County, and those readings are what set the spring load limits on the roads out here.

Get a Free Estimate in Lake Elmo

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 Lake Elmo
  • 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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