4 Benefits of Repaving Your Parking Lot on an Annual Basis
It’s a mistake to neglect a parking lot, but it’s one that many businesses make. There are several clear advantages to keeping your parking lot in peak condition, and that usually means getting in repaved every year. Your precise needs will naturally vary based on the climate and how many people use your parking lot, since those are the main factors that determine how quickly it gets damaged, but essentially every lot needs frequent repairs. That does cost some money, but the advantages of a neat parking lot are big enough to justify the investment for most people.
1- Increased Customer Satisfaction
Most people would rather conduct their business in an attractive place than an ugly one. “The appearance of a business can have a significant impact on the number of customers that it attracts, and the parking lot is one of the first things that they see as they approach the premises,” said Wright Construction Company. In extreme cases, some customers will even avoid a store because they are worried about damaging their car in a pothole in the parking lot. The cost of properly maintaining the parking lot should be considered a marketing expense, since paying it can lead to an increase in customers that leads to a net profit.
2- Boosting Property Values
An attractive, well-maintained property is always worth more than one that is falling into disrepair. The condition of the parking lot may not seem like it has a huge influence on a property’s value, but it is still important enough to warrant consideration. Owning a valuable piece of property can be useful to those who are looking for a source of financing for future expansion, so no entrepreneur should hesitate to improve and maintain their property. An annual repaving is not the only way to do so, but it’s a relatively easy and affordable method, and the fact that it offers other benefits make sit one of the most efficient.
3- Preventative Maintenance
Parking lots rarely accumulate damage at a steady rate. Instead, they tend to remain in good condition for a while, and then start to suffer damage at an accelerating pace. That happens because the earliest problems make the asphalt more susceptible to further damage. For example, water can damage a parking lot by entering cracks in the asphalt and freezing, which causes the water to expand. That increases the size of the cracks, which allows even more water to soak into the system. When that water freezes, the cracks get even bigger, and so on until the parking lot becomes useless.
It’s best to stop that chain reaction as soon as possible, since early repairs are usually much cheaper than fixing bigger problems. A yearly repaving will give a contractor the chance to look at the lot and check it for damage. The repaving will fix the damage in most cases, and the contractor will be able to make any necessary repairs that turn out to be necessary. In the long run, this preventative maintenance will save a significant amount of money for any business that wants to keep its parking lot attractive and comfortable for customers.
4- New Development
Many people believe that parking lots will never change. While it’s true that many lots are simply a flat layer of asphalt that resemble the ones that were used decades ago, there are plenty of exceptions. Many modern techniques, such as permeable paving methods, are fairly recent developments that offer significant benefits to the environment and to the people who use the parking lot.
Most people are not going to upgrade to a new parking lot every year, but the yearly maintenance session is a great time to meet with a contractor who understands the field. They can provide valuable advice about new developments and help you decide which you should adopt. If you do decide to upgrade your parking lot, they can make sure that it goes as smoothly as possible. Since the recent advances can make a parking lot more resistant to some kinds of damage, or help to attract customers that know and care about their environmental benefits, that sort of consultation can be surprisingly useful to a business that knows how to make good use of marketing.