Parking lots, churches, and business properties across Summit County. Same product as a driveway, a different job in almost every other respect, and priced and scheduled differently.
Same corner of the same lot, before and after.
A residential drive takes one coat and a day. A commercial lot brings three things a driveway never does.
It has been plowed. Not by a homeowner with a shovel, by a contractor with a steel edge, repeatedly, through a winter that drops forty seven inches of snow on Akron. Plow damage concentrates at the same places every year: the lip at the entrance, around drain grates, and anywhere the blade catches a seam. That gets looked at before anything is quoted, because sealing over a gouged seam is money spent on nothing.
It gets salted far harder than a driveway. A lot has to be safe for customers and staff at seven in the morning, so it gets salted early and often, and chloride works on the binder and holds moisture in the surface. Commercial asphalt in this county ages faster than residential asphalt on the same street.
It has paint on it. Sealer covers every line, so striping is part of the job rather than an afterthought, and the layout has to go back correctly.
Once a lot is sealed the old layout is gone. Most of the time it goes back exactly as it was and the sealing is the whole job. Sometimes it is worth the twenty minutes to look at whether it should.
Two things are worth raising while the paint is off. If the lot has accessible spaces, they have to go back to the current specification rather than simply where the old paint happened to be, including the access aisle and the signage. And if you have ever wished the lot held two more cars, the moment the lines are gone is the only cheap moment to find out whether it can.
We are not a compliance consultancy and we will not pretend to sign anything off. What we will do is tell you what is on the ground now and what it would take to change it, before the sealer goes down rather than after.
Sealer needs twenty four to forty eight hours before vehicles go back on it, which for most commercial properties is the entire problem. There are three usual answers and the right one depends on your traffic, not on what is convenient for us.
Phased. The lot is split into sections and done across consecutive days, so part of it is always open. Most retail and office lots go this way.
Friday night into the weekend. Works where Monday morning is the first real traffic. Churches and office parks usually suit this.
Straight through. Fastest, and the least expensive of the three because nothing is mobilised twice. It needs a property that can genuinely close for two days.
Late in the Akron season the weekend option gets harder, because October nights are cold and the cure runs at the long end of that window. If you want a fall job on a weekend, the conversation is better in August than in October.
Every commercial buyer asks for proof of liability cover on the first call, and they should. Here is the arrangement rather than a slogan.
On commercial work the certificate is provided before the job is booked, not after it, and not on the morning. Ask for it at the enquiry and you will have it while you are still deciding. Residential driveways do not carry the same requirement and we are not going to pretend they do.
If your property manager needs to be named as additional insured, say so when you enquire rather than the week of the job. It is a normal request and it takes a few days to process, which is a few days nobody has in October.
Measured, walked, and quoted in parts, so you can see what you are paying for and cut anything you do not want.
Area is most of it, and on a lot it is measured properly rather than estimated from an aerial, because islands, loading areas and the strip behind the building all change the number.
Crack filling is separate and measured by the linear foot. On Akron commercial asphalt this is routinely a larger share of the total than owners expect, for the salt reasons above.
Striping is counted per stall and per marking, so a relayout and a like for like repaint are not the same line.
How it is phased affects the price. A lot that can close for two days costs less to seal than the same lot done in four evening sections, and you should be told that rather than quietly charged for it.
There is no charge to be measured and no obligation. If the honest answer is that your lot needs repair before it needs sealing, that is the answer you will get.
Small retail and strip centres, churches, office parks, apartment and condo lots, self storage, medical and dental practices, and HOA private roads. Anything from a six stall lot behind a shop up to a few acres.
Send the address and roughly what the property is. You get a measured number back, broken into sealing, crack filling and striping, and a scheduling option that does not shut you down.
