2013 Fall Home Improvement September 25, 2013
Special edition of LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
Page 17
the fill with your car tire to press
it down. The whole idea is to pre-
vent further erosion by keeping
the water out.
Some asphalt companies apply a
thin veneer of asphalt to the top
of failed or failing asphalt, creat-
ing a “bump.” But the better solu-
tion is replacement.
When you have severe areas
such as dead asphalt or gatoring,
it may be best to work with an
asphalt maintenance expert, such
as John Barrick of Barrick En-
terprises. Barrick specializes in
maintaining and restoring asphalt
drives and parking lots, with
the right equipment, techniques
and materials. He approaches
dead asphalt by cutting out the
area and installing new asphalt.
Barrick is meticulous in making
the whole job appear as though
it was never patched in the first
place, and given the lasting quali-
ty of his work and the price of the
materials if purchased at retail,
Barrick may be a real bargain.
When doing it yourself, the sec-
ond step in maintaining asphalt
drives is to clean out all the
cracks and then fill them so that
the surface becomes waterproof.
All the weeds and dirt need to
come out of the cracks for a supe-
rior seal. Pressure washers may
be used, but one must be careful
not to inflict more damage while
cleaning. Barrick’s workers use
a special “crack-cleaning” tool
with a wire brush that gets out all
the weeds, moss and dirt, prepar-
ing for sealing. Gatored areas
may be sealed or replaced as
necessary.
The crack-sealant material is
thicker than the surface sealant,
and while filling the cracks, the
sealant must remain flexible to
keep the surface water-resistant
in the constant expansion and
contraction that comes with daily
and seasonal temperature varia-
tions.
After the dead areas are replaced
and all the cracks sealed, it is
time to seal the surface of the
asphalt. Alexander Lumber in
Lincoln has a good selection of
asphalt sealants for the do-it-
yourselfer, along with the tools to
do the job. The sealant must be
applied while daily temperatures
exceed 55 degrees, and the closer
it is to 80 degrees, the better.
New sealant must also be applied
with enough time to dry before it
rains, since coal-tar sealants do
not become water-resistant until
they are thoroughly dried.
Barrick Enterprises buys the raw
materials and makes their own
secret-formula sealant. Drives
and parking lots that Barrick’s
have done tend to stay black
longer than those done by any
other sealing firms or do-it-
yourselfers because of his secret-
formula sealant. John Barrick
says that a properly sealed drive
should not be resealed every year.
His sealant is made to last for
four to five years. The material
used to seal a drive makes the
asphalt able to shed water, but
also to retain water underneath.
If sealant is applied too often,
then the moisture makes it soft
underneath until the asphalt itself
begins to fall apart and the whole
drive needs replacement.
If you are going to call Barrick,
it is best to call early. Toward the
end of the season, when tempera-
tures are beginning to dip, he gets
busy. If you are going to patch,
crack-seal and seal the surface of
your drive yourself, it is best to
get started right away.
When the job is done right,
winter can bring on its worst. The
properly sealed asphalt drive can
resist the rigors of plowing and
shoveling, continue to shed wa-
ter, and live on, enhancing your
home and property.
