SealCOATING Extends Pavement Life

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Quality sealcoating makes a high impact boost to pavement life. Sealcoat blends by nature are black, often requiring a restriping of a parking lot after the sealcoat job is complete. Besides giving the surface a fresh black coat, most sealcoats provide a protective barrier against many of the elements that overall erode the longevity of pavement, such as UV blockers. As pavement naturally ages, the oxidation process equates to the polymers within the aggregate binder that looks their strength in function, meaning the pavement can be less flexible, less durable, and more susceptible to water penetration and eventually leading a path towards pavement failure.  Higher quality sealcoating materials include minerals, and polymers rejuvenators, that in addition to a fresh black pavement, include pavement getting a boost to its essential polymer elements. 

BEnefits of Sealcoating

  • Pavement Protection from mother nature (UV rays, rain, and wintery mixes and freeze/thaw cycles)
  • Pavement protection against automotive fluids, oils and spills
  • Increased strength, durability and flexibility, helping to reduce cracks
  • Curb appeal
  • Increased pavement life and lower repair costs
  • Accelerated snow and ice melting
  • Protection against cleaning, pressure washing, or chemicals 

Asphalt Emulsion Sealcoats vs Coal Tar Sealer

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Coal Tar Sealer:
Coal Tar historically was the preferred and standard in asphalt sealing. Coal Tar sealer is made from coal tar, which has been shown to contain high amounts of PAHs, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, i.e., a health risk to people if exposed to it and its harmful to the environment. Asside from the health and environmental risks, coal tar was and still is today an effective product for the job of asphalt sealing. The advancements in asphalt emulsion and education of both customers and contractors today, coal tar sealer has rightly dropped in its demand. The advantages of coal tar sealer vs a high quality asphalt emulsion are worth noting: coal tar sealer does create a harder coating than asphalt emulsion and its more resistant to automotive fluid stains. Since coal tar sealer bonds with the asphalt pavement, the chemical difference between the makeup of both substances (asphalt and coal tar) leads to a non-uniform expansion and contraction during freezing and thawing cycles, thus coal tar being a reason asphalt can crack overtime. 

Asphalt Emulsion Sealcoat:
As a category, Asphalt Emulsion has been a great advancement in asphalt pavement preservation, and from an environmental and human health perspective, it is a welcomed alternative. Asphalt emulsion does not have the same long lasting odor as coal tar sealer. PaveGuard uses high quality asphalt emulsion based sealcoating products that dry fast, are environmentally friendly without the odor and health risks associated with coal tar. PaveGuard's sealcoat options start with products that provide a deep rich black surface as an end result, and provide a variety of polymers, minerals and other additives that help extend the life of your pavement. PaveGuard also uses sealcoats made by high quality manufacturers who are able to prove batch to batch the consistency in quality, so that performance in application does not vary job to job. 

Essential Tip: PreParing the surface

Parking lots are notorious for debris collection. Bits of sand, loosened aggregate in the asphalt, dirt, silt, and dust all collect on the surface or embed into the pavement. If the dirt isn't fully cleaned away from the surface prior to application, the sealcoat will not bond appropriately with the pavement. As the pavement owner, you want your contractor to clean the surface. PaveGuard uses pavement cleaning as one of many best practices to provide a top caliber sealcoating service. When the sealcoat is given a clean surface to bond to in its method of application, your pavement in turn will last long as the sealcoat can do what its designed to do. 

FogSeals vs Sealcoating Vs Slurries VS Chip Seals and More 

Pavement terminology does vary on a geographical basis. Manufacturers, contractors, and regional nomenclature will sometimes interchange words and descriptions or argue why they're not equivalent. It really depends on the definition is two things are similar or different. Some professionals say cracksealing is the same as crack filling -- At PaveGuard we do delineate one from the other. Likewise, we do categorize "sealcoats" into the following categories: 
  • Fogseals - Fogseals are typically an asphalt emulsion product applied in a thin application. The term "fogging" helps to visual the difference, in that foalseals are more sprayed on in a thinner layer than other sealcoats. 
  • Rejuvenators - There are a variety of asphalt rejuvenators on the market. Some are fogseals, others are sealcoats. The intentionality of a rejuvenator is that it is designed to replentish that which is chemically lost in the pavement from oxidation. Rejuvenators commonly contain polymers to enrich the aggregate binder of the asphalt. Most rejuvenators spray black (or can be tinted other colors) but the color requires a restriping of parking lot or pavement lines and pavement markings. 
  • Jointbond - Jointbond is applied onto longitudinal joins in asphalt. Anytime two different sections are connected, especially long sections such as in a road application, this is a key place where pavement failure can begin. Jointbond helps to stabilize and reduce this premature failure and protect the two adjoining surfaces as one cohesive pavement surface. 
  • Microsufracing - This category of sealcoats is nearly identical to slurries, and differs in the way it dries. Traditional slurries use sunlight to dry, whereas microsufracing leverage the chemical additives contained in the material to self dry. 
  • Slurries - Often referred to as Slurry Seals or sealcoats or asphalt emulsion, slurry seals are basically a fog seal + the addition of aggregate (usually sand or other very small crushed rock).  These sealcoat applications are often applied on residential streets or parking lots. The aggregate helps to increase traction. Higher grade slurries / sealcoats contain additional fiber reinforcement. 
  • Chip Seals - Chip Sealing is a two step process. First, slurry / sealcoat / asphalt emulsion is added to the existing pavement, followed by the second step of adding small crushed rock or chips. These smaller pieces adhere to the fresh slurry to form a durable life extension to the pavement. 
  • Cape Seals - A cape seal is a chip seal (or scrub seal) that includes an additional treatment of a slurry seal or sealcoat at a later date. 
  • Liquid Road - Liquid Road is an actual product name from SealMaster, and is the top of the line sealcoat asphalt emulsion product for SealMaster. It contains a polymer modfied, fiber reinforced sealcoat. It's final look is just like the name sounds, it looks like a new road was poured out. It's a thicker more advanced slurry formula designed to last even longer than other good asphalt emulsions. 
  • Rubberized Asphalt - Rubberized asphalt is made from crumb rubber, usually old ground up tires. Rubberized asphalt's advantage is greater viscosity or resistance to flow, however the higher price tag vs other blends with advanced modifiers tends to keep the demand for this sealer category low. 
  • Color based & sealcoats - Many of the asphalt emulsions can be tinted with customer directed pigment preferences, provided a color other than black as the sealcoat. 
  • Concrete Sealcoats - Asphalt emulsion or coal tar sealcoats are not made for concrete. Concrete has its own sealant solutions made specifically for concrete to help against UV rays and water penetration. 
  • Clear sealcoats - PaveGuard uses Clearly Bio, a chemically advanced sealcoat rejuvenator that shares the common characteristics as asphalt emulsion but with the added convenience of a non-tinted formula. This allows for the product to be applied to both asphalt and concrete and does not require re-striping. 

Methods of Application

Most sealcoats can be applied through traditional brushes, squeegees, sprayers, & foggers. The manufacturer will specify which recommended application tool is should be used with the product. Some directions include using a squeegee first for a first coat and a second coat being a spray coat. A good contractor or sealcoat pro should know the difference. 
If you're looking for Safety Data Sheet information on particular products, please check our website for available information or contact your PaveGuard Pro