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by Evan Nagode

When is the Best Time for Asphalt Driveway or Road Work?

August 13, 2019by Evan NagodeDriveways0

Asphalt is a popular choice for driveways, parking lots, and roads for a variety of reasons. Not only is asphalt durable enough to last for years, it is also easy to install and looks great in any application! The weather in Cleveland, OH can be harsh in the winter time, so asphalt is a great choice because it can contract and expand without causing too much damage.

Considering asphalt installation or re-surfacing on your property? It’s important to consider the time of year to complete the process, to ensure success and longevity.

Things To Consider While Deciding When to Pave Your Asphalt Driveway or Road:

The Temperature: Asphalt cures best when the temperature is around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Late spring or early summer would be the ideal time for asphalt work in the Cleveland area.

Depth of Driveway or Road: Just as crucial as the temperature, the depth of your driveway or road makes a huge difference. Installing a brand new driveway or replacing a roadway requires more work, creating a deeper asphalt slab. Re-surfacing is generally only about 2 inches thick, making the curing process much quicker.

Future Maintenance: Routine maintenance throughout its lifespan is important for any asphalt surface. In order to help asphalt last, sealing is necessary. Generally, most professionals agree that asphalt should not be sealed for a minimum of 6 months after installation. If you want your surface sealed before the harsh weather begins, scheduling install as early as possible can be beneficial.

For more information about our asphalt driveway and road installation or re-surfacing options, contact our professionals today! We proudly provide service to residential and commercial clients throughout the Cleveland, OH area and consult with you to decide the best time of year for your desired service!

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by DD Mitchell Construction

The Importance of Parking Lot Maintenance

July 1, 2019by DD Mitchell ConstructionUncategorized0

When running a business, there is a lot you have to think about. From checking inventory and keeping products in stock to paying bills and making sure your employees are happy, there is always something on your mind. However, one important aspect of your business that can easily be overlooked is the maintenance of your property, and more specifically your parking lot. Many business owners will say that there are more important things that need to be focused on, but we believe that a well-maintained parking lot can have a big influence on your business. 

Our asphalt paving contractors can provide parking lot maintenance services for businesses throughout the entire Cleveland, OH area. From mom and pop shops to some of the largest companies in our area, no job is too big or small for our team. 

Benefits of Parking Lot Maintenance 

Improve Image: One of the main benefits of keeping up on parking lot maintenance is that it will improve the overall image of your business. Your parking lot will often be the first thing people experience with your business, even before they open the front door. While some won’t think about it, most will notice a parking lot that is full of potholes, cracks and faded pavement. They can develop an idea of your business before having any other interactions. A worn parking lot may give people the impression that they are going to experience a product or service that is cheap or low quality. Our asphalt paving services can create a clean smooth surface that portrays professionalism and gives potential customers confidence that they are entering a well-established business. 

Safety: The next benefit of parking lot maintenance is safety for both your employees and customers. If you have a parking lot with worn out parking lines or directional arrows missing, the chances of an accident can increase. People may create their own parking spaces, which can lead to uneven parking and poor traffic flow. Without clear indications of where to drive, people will often zip through parking lots without any sense of direction. This can cause fender benders for customers and employees coming or leaving your business and may leave you at fault. Our asphalt paving contractors can add parking lines and directional arrows when necessary to ensure the safety of everyone driving in your parking lot.

Protect Investment: Your parking lot is a big investment, and protecting it is in your business’s best interest. Living in Cleveland, OH, we experience a freezing and thawing period, usually during the spring, that can cause cracking in asphalt parking lots. Over time these cracks can grow bigger and bigger and eventually into potholes if not maintained. We understand that having a new parking lot installed is a big investment, and we want to make sure that you get the most out of the money you spent. Our asphalt paving services can help protect your parking lot for years by adding sealcoating, which acts as a barrier from harmful elements. 

For more information about all our parking lot maintenance services, please feel free to contact our asphalt paving contractors. We proudly serve businesses throughout the Cleveland, OH area, and are ready to help you. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

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by DD Mitchell Construction

Potholes: Asphalt’s Worst Enemy

July 26, 2016by DD Mitchell ConstructionAsphalt Repairs0

Potholes can wreak havoc on asphalt pavement. Observing and fixing potholes before they become large will help preserve the life of an asphalt surface.

What are Potholes?

Potholes are a type of damage – more precisely, a failure – which occurs in asphalt pavement. Potholes begin when water gathers in the subgrade – the pre-existing soil – on which asphalt is built. Water is referred to as a “universal solvent” because it can dissolve more substances than any other single liquid. It’s no wonder, then, that the ingress and pooling of water in pavement subgrade can disrupt the soil’s integrity.

Most asphalt surfaces bear considerable load, both static (permanent structures and parked vehicles), and dynamic (moving vehicles). Heavily trafficked roads are under almost constant stress, as cars and trucks roll over pavement day and night.

Under normal conditions, well-constructed asphalt can withstand steady traffic. However, when the subgrade is weak (a process exacerbated by freeze-thaw cycles), its ability to support the upper layers of pavement is compromised, and traffic fatigue causes cracks, and the ejection of both asphalt and subgrade, resulting in potholes.

When and Why to Report a Pothole

Reporting potholes is always a good idea. The sooner a pothole is reported, the better, because potholes affect the integrity of the entire asphalt surface, from bottom to top. The larger a pothole becomes, the greater the potential damage to the pavement. As with most things in life, small problems are easier to fix than large ones, and potholes are no exception.

Few things frustrate drivers more than potholes, which are not only unsightly, but hazardous. A road, driveway or asphalt parking lot that’s riddled with potholes forms a bad impression of your business or municipality in the minds of anyone who has the misfortune of driving over a jarring section of pavement.

Potholes can cause vehicular damage. Most commonly, wheels and tires suffer from the impact, which can bend rims and puncture rubber. Running directly into a pothole can also bend axles, and in severe cases, dent, cut or otherwise adversely affect a vehicle’s shocks and struts, resulting in damaged suspension, poor handling and costly repairs.

The last thing anyone wants is to be on the receiving end of a pothole damage claim – but if it can be proven that your neglect resulted in damage to someone’s vehicle, it could be up to you to foot the bill. Keep an eye on your driveway, road or parking lot – if you spot a pothole, report it and have it fixed right away. Likewise, don’t disregard someone if they report a pothole to you. Address the issue immediately.

Pothole Repair: Fixing Potholes from the Ground Up

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to fixing potholes. Pothole repair techniques are determined by a number of factors, including time constraints, the intended use of a paved surface, and even the weather.

For example, if a large pothole forms on a busy road, in the middle of winter, a road repair crew may first address the problem by filling a pothole with cold asphalt, and compressing it. This, however, is a temporary solution, designed only to buy more time. A more permanent approach involves reconstructing the subgrade and the edge of the pothole, before filling it with hot mix asphalt and leveling the surface to match the surrounding roadway.

Alternately, spray injection – an increasingly popular method of pothole repair – may be utilized. First, debris is removed from the surface. A thin layer of emulsified asphalt is applied. Aggregate – precoated with hot oil – is injected by a specialized truck into the pothole, and the top-most surface is sealed by more aggregate, finely crushed for smoothness and maximum adhesion.

Leave Fixing Potholes Up to the Experts

Fixing potholes as soon as you become aware of them will minimize damage to your pavement. Left unchecked, however, potholes can grow in size and depth, degrading asphalt, damaging vehicles, infuriating drivers – and hurting your reputation and bottom line. Pothole repair is best undertaken by an experienced asphalt company.

Trust DD Mitchell Construction – Northeast Ohio’s number-one provider of commercial asphalt and road repair services – to assess and fix potholes quickly, effectively, and within budget, restoring functionality and safety to your paved surfaces.

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by DD Mitchell Construction

Top Options for Repaving Your Driveway

July 23, 2016by DD Mitchell ConstructionDriveways0

Your driveway has become shabby. You’ve been watching that jagged crack grow a bit larger each week, and you could almost swear you saw a goldfish swimming in the pothole near the street the last time it rained. It’s time to renew your little private road. Maybe it’s even time to put in a brand new driveway.

What Are the Best Materials?

Homeowners have several durable options for driveway materials.

Concrete or stone pavers last many years when properly installed with plastic retaining edges and a compacted bedding of coarse sand and crushed stone set on similarly compacted subsoil. Hexagonal and irregular-rectangle pavers create beautiful designs, and other interesting shapes such as trefoil or bowtie pavers are widely available. High-quality concrete pavers can resemble subtly tinted stone blocks. A driveway made of such pavers might remind your visitors of ancient pathways in Italy.

Homeowners seeking an environmentally friendly approach can install a permeable-paver driveway. Instead of sluicing away rainfall into overloaded storm systems, closely spaced pavers allow water to seep into an underlying bed of crushed stone and thence into the soil. This sort of design can absorb astonishingly heavy rainfall without flooding.

A professional crew can install this kind of driveway in about three days. The cost will fall between $14 to $28 per square foot, depending on your desired materials, worksite conditions and other factors. Maintenance consists of nothing more than vacuuming or sweeping out the joints once a year to remove dead leaves and other debris.

Brick pavers offer a natural coloration that many homeowners find attractive and charming, but the relative fragility of clay-based pavers demands extra attention. Establishing a good foundation is critical, and good drainage will minimize wear and tear. If you’re environmentally conscious, you may appreciate the use of recycled bricks recovered from demolished buildings. High-quality bricks can last for decades, and they don’t fade as fast as concrete pavers.

Plain concrete stands up well to harsh weather, and its smooth surface makes snow removal in the winter a snap. To prevent destructive cracking of the concrete slabs, the underlying soil must be stable and well drained, and the bedding must be well compacted. Biannual resealing will extend the lifetime of a concrete driveway, and seeing fifty years of useful service is not out of the question. Colorants and stamped patterns are extra-cost options.

Conventional asphalt surfacing remains an economical approach for many budget-conscious homeowners. Asphalt driveways resist cracking across the seasons by flexing with ground expansion and contraction, and opting for gravel texturing with a chip seal will increase traction in wet conditions. Aggressive plants can shove upward through weakened asphalt surfaces, so soil should be treated with a weed sterilizer before covering it with the gravel layer that underlies the asphalt topping. Extra-cost options include pattern stamping and acrylic polymer colorants.

Applying a latex sealcoating once every two years will protect the surface against gradual water damage. An asphalt driveway’s lifetime can reach 20 years with good drainage and regular maintenance.

Trust Our Asphalt Paving Contractors for Expert Driveway Repaving

Major work on a driveway has a way of dragging in a remarkable variety of specialized tools. With the right contractor and materials, the odds are good you’ll experience full satisfaction and years of trouble-free service. You’ll want to hire a competent, experienced asphalt contractor for the job. That’s where our commercial driveway pavers come in! We’re the trusted contractors for asphalt paving services in Cleveland, OH. Contact us today to learn more about our driveway paving services!

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by DD Mitchell Construction

Simple Tips for Finding the Right Residential Paving Company

July 11, 2016by DD Mitchell ConstructionPaving Tips0

A good residential paving company will take the hassle away…

Those who own their home and/or have rental properties to maintain eventually find themselves facing the arduous task of paving or repaving a driveway.  Paving a driveway is a major undertaking, and many homeowners wisely decide to hire an asphalt contractor or residential paving company to bring their skills and experience to the job.  While a good contractor or paving company can take the hassle out of pouring or replacing a driveway, it is up to the homeowner to find a company that is reputable. This article provides a few suggestions helpful in determining which residential paving companies are going to be a wise investment and which contractors are going to take their clients for a ride.

Most respectable companies will take credit cards.

Credit cards usually have a process by which you can dispute fraudulent charges. Disreputable contractors on the other hand often prefer to deal only in cash.  Once cash leaves the hand, it is highly unlikely that the money will be recovered should the chosen contractor be unable to deliver on their end of the arrangement.  To further protect their money, homeowners should ensure they ask their chosen contractor for local references and for documentation that they meet all bonding, insurance, and local licensing requirements.  Once the homeowner has vetted a contractor or residential paving company, they should be sure to have an agreement in writing signed by both parties.

Beware contractors who claim to have leftover materials from a previous job.

First of all, if a contractor cannot closely estimate the materials they’re going to need going into a project, chances are they are not very good at what they do.  An experienced residential paving company will rarely have leftover materials, because they are adept at estimating what will be needed to get a job done. Shady contractors, on the other hand, may claim to have a surplus of materials which they can offer to homeowners at a huge discount–but only if the homeowner agrees to pay in full upfront.  Any demand that the homeowner should pay in full upfront should raise a red flag.

When the contractor arrives at the residence to do an estimate, the homeowner should pay attention to the markings on the vehicle they drive.  Does the vehicle have a logo or decal with the company name? Does the contractor have out-of-state plates?  The homeowner should ask the contractor if they have a business card and to provide their website address. The homeowner can then research the contractor on the web, look them up at the Better Business Bureau, determine how long they have owned their own domain name, and acquire other information which can help discern the business’s legitimacy and reputation.

Hiring a residential paving company to pour a new driveway can save time and hassle for the homeowner as well as provide peace of mind that the job is being handled by experts who will do it right. It is the homeowner’s responsibility to find the right paving company or contractor, and with the suggestions provided here, the entire process should be smooth sailing.

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Recent Posts

  • When is the Best Time for Asphalt Driveway or Road Work?
  • The Importance of Parking Lot Maintenance
  • Potholes: Asphalt’s Worst Enemy
  • Top Options for Repaving Your Driveway
  • Simple Tips for Finding the Right Residential Paving Company

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