An Attractive Driveway

If you manage an apartment complex, having a beautiful curb appeal is a great way to ensure that your residents renew their leases. One way to accomplish this is to make sure your asphalt parking lot is maintained and free of cracks and potholes.

Not only does this make your apartment complex more attractive, but it also extends the lifespan of your parking lot and protects your residents from vehicle damage and injury. Here's what apartment complex managers need to know about properly maintaining their asphalt parking lots.

Repair Potholes Immediately to Avoid Damage and Liability 

Your maintenance staff should regularly search the parking lot for large cracks or potholes. Not only does this allow water to damage the underlying asphalt, but it can also be a source of legal liability. If your residents damage their vehicles by driving over potholes in your parking lot or if they trip and fall due to large cracks or potholes, you can be liable for property damage and injury.

In order to prevent this, call a commercial paving contractor to perform spot repairs on your parking lot. Potholes and cracks can be easily filled with hot asphalt, restoring your parking lot to perfect condition. This protects your residents from vehicle damage and injury.

Choose a Commercial Paving Contractor That Works Quickly 

When contractors sealcoat your parking lot or apply an asphalt overlay, they will need all your residents to move their cars out of the way and will block off the portion of the parking lot that they are working on. If the job isn't done quickly, your residents will be angry at having to park far away from their homes. It's an even worse situation if your parking lot is near to capacity, as your residents may have trouble finding parking when a large number of spaces are blocked off.

Hiring a commercial paving contractor that works quickly will keep your residents from becoming angry about parking issues. The contractor should also be able to correctly estimate how much work they can do on a single day — they should be blocking off small sections of your parking lot that can be completed quickly and then moving on to the next section so that your residents experience as little disruption as possible.

Set Aside Money for Repair and Reconstruction

You can't predict when cracks or potholes will form in your parking lot, but repairing these is a minor expense. Sealcoating and laying another layer of asphalt onto the parking lot are more expensive, but these are periodic expenses. You should sealcoat your parking lot at least every seven years to protect your parking lot from being damaged by water or the sun's ultraviolet rays. A new layer of asphalt (called an overlayment) should be applied a few years after the second sealcoating, which will further extend the lifetime of your parking lot.

The most important thing to save for, however, is a complete reconstruction. Even with perfect maintenance, sunlight and water will eventually cause severe structural damage throughout the asphalt. The frequency of cracks and potholes will increase due to the instability in the bottom layers. At this point, you need to reconstruct the entire parking lot in sections. This is a major expense that should be saved for as part of your apartment complex's budget.

Work with an experienced commercial paving contractor to regularly repair and sealcoat your parking lot. A properly maintained asphalt parking lot can last for two to three decades, depending on weather conditions, before needing complete replacement. Regular maintenance and spot repairs save your apartment complex money in the long run by increasing the time between parking lot reconstruction.