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Crack Filling and Sealing in Rice Lake

Crack Filling and Sealing in Rice Lake, Wisconsin.

Hot rubber crack filling for parking lots in Rice Lake. 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 north of Eau Claire on Highway 53. 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 Rice Lake

The state's geotechnical manual describes the ground up here as silty glacial till with outwash sand and organic pockets through it, and ground like that moves with the frost. A crack on a lot that sits on it gets wider every winter until it's filled. Wide ones get routed first, and the rubber goes in at 400 degrees so it bonds to the walls instead of lifting out in the spring.

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 Rice Lake

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 Rice Lake

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 Rice Lake

What Rice Lake calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
How far up 53 will you come for a lot?
Rice Lake is about an hour north of Eau Claire on Highway 53, and for commercial lots we come up. 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 Rice Lake 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 Rice Lake

Rice Lake is the largest city in Barron County, about 9,000 people an hour north of Eau Claire on Highway 53. The retail runs along South Main Street, from Cedar Mall down through the chain restaurant pads, with downtown Main Street the older spine. The industry sits in three named parks and one very large plant.

The biggest lots in town belong to Rice Lake Weighing Systems, the scale manufacturer with its headquarters, main plant and metrology lab here and more than 600 people on the payroll, and to Marshfield Medical Center on West Stout Street, a full hospital campus with inpatient and outpatient buildings. College Drive carries two campuses side by side: Northwood Technical College and UW-Eau Claire Barron County, about 110 acres with six buildings.

The parks are where the newer commercial surface is. Rice Lake Business Park is 167 acres on the north side with highway access and the streets and utilities already in, CedarSide Business Park is 44 acres next to Northwood Tech, and the North Industrial Park at Lindy Street and Schwers Avenue is where Allram Lumber just broke ground. Menards is on Decker Drive.

Where we work in Rice Lake

  • South Main Street
  • Rice Lake Business Park
  • CedarSide Business Park
  • North Industrial Park
  • College Drive

Around Rice Lake: Cedar Mall, Marshfield Medical Center on West Stout Street, Northwood Technical College, UW-Eau Claire Barron County, City Hall on East Eau Claire Street.

8,971 people, 2024 Census estimate.

The state's geotechnical manual describes this corner of Wisconsin as silty glacial till with outwash sand and pockets of organic soil through it, so a lot can cross more than one kind of ground between its two ends.

Get a Free Estimate in Rice Lake

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 Rice Lake
  • 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