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Crack Filling and Sealing in River Falls

Crack Filling and Sealing in River Falls, Wisconsin.

Hot rubber crack filling for parking lots in River Falls. 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 twenty minutes west of Eau Claire on I-94 and Highway 35. 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 River Falls

The Pierce County soil survey puts the biggest areas of sandy outwash in the valley of the Kinnickinnic, with silt loam terraces along the river, and sand and silt don't behave the same way when they freeze. A crack left open takes water into whichever of the two is under it. Wide cracks get routed to a clean face and hot rubber goes in at 400 degrees, thin enough at that temperature to reach the bottom and bond to the walls. Cold pour never gets that far down.

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 River Falls

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 We Do Crack Filling and Sealing in River Falls

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 River Falls

What River Falls calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
River Falls is off the interstate. Do you still come out here?
Yes, for commercial lots. It's about 63 miles from Eau Claire, an hour and twenty out I-94 and down Highway 35, and the city itself is about five minutes off the interstate. 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 River Falls 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 River Falls

River Falls is a city of about 17,800 straddling the Pierce and St. Croix county line, on the Kinnickinnic River south of the interstate. It's about 63 miles from Eau Claire, an hour and twenty minutes out I-94 and down Highway 35, and the city puts itself five minutes off the interstate and thirty from downtown St. Paul. Highways 29, 35 and 65 all serve it. The University of Wisconsin-River Falls is here, with about 5,300 students.

Four named parks hold the industrial ground. Mann Valley Corporate Park on the northwest side is the biggest inside the city limits, more than 200 acres zoned for office and light industrial with a single 155-acre lot in it. Sterling Ponds Corporate Park has four lots left over 15 acres, Whitetail Ridge Corporate Park has two lots over 12.5 acres with roughly a dozen businesses and an estimated 400 employees already on it, and the older River Falls Industrial Park has a three-acre lot and an area zoned heavy industrial. The Radio Road interchange, built in 2014, puts all of them straight onto Highway 35.

The rest of the commercial surface is the campus and the hospital. UW-River Falls runs about 5,300 students and opened a science and technology center in 2026, the largest construction project in the university's history. Allina Health's River Falls Area Hospital is on East Division Street, with two more clinics in town. River Falls High School is on Cemetery Road with about 1,100 students, and Chippewa Valley Technical College has a branch campus here. Foley United, Interfacial Solutions and Rush River Brewing are among the businesses the city puts on its own site.

Where we work in River Falls

  • Mann Valley Corporate Park
  • Sterling Ponds Corporate Park
  • Whitetail Ridge Corporate Park
  • River Falls Industrial Park
  • The UW-River Falls campus

Around River Falls: The Kinnickinnic River through downtown, Glen Park and the swinging bridge, Hoffman Park, The Falls Theater, The Falcon Center on the UW-River Falls campus.

17,802 people, 2024 Census estimate.

The Pierce County soil survey puts the largest areas of sandy outwash in the valley of the Kinnickinnic, and Waukesha silt loam, a terrace soil laid down as stream terrace and outwash, occurs principally in the township of River Falls. Sand and silt loam don't hold water the same way, and a lot can have both under it.

Get a Free Estimate in River Falls

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 River Falls
  • 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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