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Crack Filling and Sealing in Oakdale

Crack Filling and Sealing in Oakdale, Minnesota.

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

4.7 from 21 Google reviews

About an hour and fifteen minutes 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 Oakdale

Oakdale's lots sit between two interstates and take metro traffic all day, on the same outwash sand and gravel the state maps across Washington County. MnDOT has wanted 30 to 36 inches of frost-free material under asphalt since 1995 for a reason: whatever the frost gets into, it moves. A crack that's routed and filled hot before the ground freezes is the one still closed in April, and cold pour lifts out in strips. Spring and early fall are when the cracks are at a workable width.

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 Oakdale

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 Oakdale

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.

Questions We Get in Oakdale

What Oakdale calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
How far out do you come? We're right off I-694.
Oakdale is about 79 miles from Eau Claire and a bit over an hour and a quarter, nearly all of it 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.
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 Oakdale 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 Oakdale

Oakdale is an east metro suburb of St. Paul in Washington County, about 30,000 people and roughly 79 miles west of Eau Claire, nearly all of it I-94. The city is boxed in by highway: I-94 along the south, I-694 along the north, Highway 120 on the west and Highway 36 across the middle.

There's no single business park here; the commercial ground is spread along those highways. Oakdale Village on 3rd Street North is three retail buildings with a pad-ready parcel still open, sitting next to the big boxes at Inwood Avenue and Radio Drive. Fleet Farm is on Hadley Avenue between Highway 36 and I-694, and Cub is at Bergen Plaza on 10th Street North in the southeast corner. Slumberland Furniture's headquarters is here, on the campus the old Imation world headquarters left behind, and there's a clinic in the Tessar building on Helmo Avenue.

The other big lots belong to the city and the county. City Hall and the police station on Hadley Avenue are being remodeled and expanded, with services working out of Public Works on Granada Avenue while that runs. The new public works building on Granada is 75,300 square feet on nine acres, with 40,000 square feet of fleet storage, salt storage and a fuel island. Washington County's Oakdale Library is on Heron Avenue and Tartan Senior High is on Greenway Avenue. Close to 200,000 square feet of new industrial space is in the works.

Where we work in Oakdale

  • Oakdale Village
  • Hadley Avenue North
  • The Highway 36 corridor
  • Helmo Avenue North
  • Bergen Plaza

Around Oakdale: Tartan High School on Greenway Avenue, Fleet Farm on Hadley Avenue, Oakdale Village on 3rd Street North, Tanners Lake, Tilsen Park, where the 45th parallel crosses the city.

30,441 people, 2024 Census estimate.

MnDOT has required frost-free material, coarse gravel or sand, in asphalt subgrades since 1995, at 30 to 36 inches depending on what has to drive on it.

Get a Free Estimate in Oakdale

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 Oakdale
  • 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

Get an estimate

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