Asphalt Maintenance Plans in Des Moines, IA

An asphalt maintenance plan puts crack sealing, patching, sealcoating and restriping on a fixed calendar instead of waiting for pavement to fail, and SealMaster's position is that a scheduled program of sealcoating and crack filling more than doubles the life of an asphalt surface. The City of Des Moines, which rates 43 percent of its own streets poor or very poor, plans its work with a computer model that weighs current defects, traffic, deterioration rates and budget to build a 20-year program. A property with a large lot, a long private drive or several buildings can apply the same logic at a smaller size, starting with parking lot sealcoating on a regular cycle.

The city's method makes a useful template. Its model looks at current defects, projected traffic, how fast each street is deteriorating, the repairs needed, inflation and the available budget, and turns that into a 20-year plan that guides five-year and annual programs. A private plan needs far less: a map of the lot, a condition note for each area, and a calendar. Drive lanes and entrances wear first, stalls and islands last. Recording crack footage and patch locations every spring builds a record that shows whether the pavement is holding steady or slipping, and it keeps bids comparable from one cycle to the next.

Local weather sets the calendar. Late March and April, as the freeze-thaw run winds down and the snow piles disappear, is inspection time: walk the lot and mark new cracks, potholes and ponding. Late April and May open the patching season. Sealcoating fits between mid-May and mid-September, when normal overnight lows at the airport station stay above 50 degrees, with striping the day after each section cures. October is for crack sealing, finished ahead of the median first freeze on October 17. Winter is for snow storage, because city rules keep plowed snow on the property, and the pile location should be the same every year.

Each treatment has its own cycle. SealMaster recommends sealcoating every three years and notes that harsh winters shorten the interval; HomeGuide suggests a first seal about a year after paving and every two to three years after that. Angi says most lots need restriping every one to two years, while HomeGuide's range is two to five. Cracks are an every-year item, since each winter's freeze-thaw cycles open new ones. A written plan staggers these so striping follows every seal, crack sealing happens every fall, and patching is budgeted before small failures grow into large ones.

The economics favor a schedule. SealMaster puts sealcoating at less than one-tenth the cost of an asphalt overlay, and FixAsphalt's published range for a full cycle of sealcoating, crack sealing and line striping is $0.65 to $0.90 per square foot. For an assumed 20,000-square-foot lot, that is $13,000 to $18,000 per cycle, against $60,000 to $140,000 for an overlay at Angi's $3 to $7 per square foot. Spreading the cycle over three years turns the maintenance into a steady annual line item. The cost page lists the unit prices behind each figure.