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Crack Filling and Sealing in New Richmond

Crack Filling and Sealing in New Richmond, Wisconsin.

Hot rubber crack filling for parking lots in New Richmond. 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 fifteen minutes northwest of Eau Claire on I-94 and Highway 64. 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 New Richmond

WisDOT doesn't call Wisconsin's roads frozen until the ground is down 18 inches, and that's the same ground a lot sits on. A crack that's open in November is a funnel into the base all winter, and it comes out of the spring wider than it went in. Wide ones get routed to a clean face first so the rubber has a wall to bond to, and it goes in at 400 degrees, thin enough to reach the bottom. The big flat surfaces in town, the retail on West Richmond Way, the hospital campus and the park pavement, crack in long straight runs, and the footage adds up fast on a lot that size.

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 New Richmond

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 New Richmond

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 New Richmond

What New Richmond calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
How far is New Richmond from you?
About 69 miles, an hour and fifteen minutes, out I-94 and then north on Highway 64. 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.
Does pavement work go out as a formal bid for a school district?
Yes. You get a written scope with the quantities and a fixed number, in the form the district needs to put in front of a board. Quantities are what let a board compare one number against another, so the scope lists them area by area rather than as a lump.
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 New Richmond 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 New Richmond

New Richmond is a city of about 10,900 in St. Croix County, north of the interstate where Highway 64 running east and west meets Highway 65 running north and south through town as Knowles Avenue. It's 69 driving miles from Eau Claire, about an hour and fifteen, out I-94 and then north. Highway 64 is an expressway with at-grade intersections until 145th Street in the city and a two-lane surface road from there in, which is worth knowing if you're routing a truck. The Willow River runs through the city.

The industrial ground is one park, one big plant and an airport. The New Richmond Business and Technical Park runs about 107 acres off Highway 65 on the south side, inside a tax increment district, with water, sewer, electric, natural gas and telecom in, rail under two miles off and the airport three. Syntegon builds packaging machinery at 155 West 3rd Street, a plant that has been through two owners before this one and employs more than 270 people. New Richmond Regional Airport has 123 privately owned hangars, more than any other airport in Wisconsin, better than 275 based aircraft, a jet center and roughly 35,000 to 40,000 operations a year.

The retail and institutional lots are on the two highways. West Richmond Way carries a Walmart Supercenter with a walk-in clinic inside the building, and South Knowles Avenue carries Northwood Technical College's New Richmond campus. Westfields Hospital and Clinic is a full medical campus on Hospital Road with an emergency department, primary and specialty clinics, a pharmacy, inpatient care and maternity. The school district has three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school on East Richmond Way with about 1,100 students, and a 2024 referendum paid for additions, renovations and site work across three of those buildings.

Where we work in New Richmond

  • New Richmond Business and Technical Park
  • West Richmond Way
  • South Knowles Avenue
  • New Richmond Regional Airport

Around New Richmond: New Richmond Regional Airport, The Willow River through town, Mary Park on Mary Park Lake, Freedom Park, The New Richmond West Side Historic District.

10,879 people, 2024 Census estimate.

Wisconsin is split into five frost zones for WisDOT's frozen road declaration, which goes out once the ground has frozen at least 18 inches deep. That's the number that matters to a lot: how far down the frost gets, not how cold the air is.

Get a Free Estimate in New Richmond

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 New Richmond
  • 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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Other Work We Do in New Richmond

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