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Crack Filling and Sealing in Onalaska

Crack Filling and Sealing in Onalaska, Wisconsin.

Hot rubber crack filling for parking lots in Onalaska. 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 forty-five minutes 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 Onalaska

On a retail lot the cracks that matter are in the drive aisles and at the entrances off Highway 16, because that's where traffic pumps water down into the base. Around 26,000 vehicles a day go by on that corridor and a good share of them turn in somewhere. Wide cracks get routed so there's a clean face for the rubber to bond to, and hot pour stays flexible through a winter where cold pour pulls loose. Filling before the freeze is what keeps the next spring's repair list short.

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 Onalaska

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 Onalaska

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 Onalaska

What Onalaska calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
How far will you come for a lot down here?
Onalaska is about 79 miles from Eau Claire, an hour and forty-five minutes down I-94 and then I-90, 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 Onalaska 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 Onalaska

Onalaska is in La Crosse County, a city of about 19,900 between Lake Onalaska and the Highway 16 retail strip, right where I-90 and US 53 meet. It's about 79 miles from Eau Claire, an hour and forty-five minutes, off Exit 4 or Exit 5 on I-90. Ten and a half square miles at 700 feet, with Highway 35 and Highway 157 running through it as well.

The commercial center of gravity here is retail. Crosseroads Center on Highway 16 has about 68,700 square feet of leasable space with Michaels, Old Navy, Burlington and PetSmart in it, and a Sam's Club and a Target next door. Crossing Meadows, off the I-90 and US 53 interchange, is an open-air center of roughly 234,000 square feet with more than 15 stores, anchored by a Festival Foods. Highway 16 through there carries around 26,000 vehicles a day.

The employers named for Onalaska are Gundersen Health System, a Kwik Trip support center, Altra Federal Credit Union, L.B. White and Empire Screen Printing, which has been here since 1960. Kwik Trip bought the old UnitedHealthcare office building in 2023 to put its training department and part of its accounting staff in. City Hall is on Main Street, the Omni Center is the convention and arena building, and the school district has the high school on Hilltopper Place, a middle school and three elementary schools, with Luther High School and two parochial schools also in town.

Where we work in Onalaska

  • The Highway 16 retail corridor
  • Crosseroads Center
  • Crossing Meadows
  • The I-90 and US 53 interchange
  • Main Street

Around Onalaska: Onalaska Omni Center, Lake Onalaska, Crossing Meadows, City Hall on Main Street, The Frank Eugene Nichols House.

19,898 people, 2024 Census estimate.

This is Driftless country. The ice never came through, so there's no glacial drift, the bedrock sits near the surface, loess covers much of it, and the ground drains so freely that natural lakes are almost absent.

Get a Free Estimate in Onalaska

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 Onalaska
  • 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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Other Work We Do in Onalaska

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