Is It Too Cool to Sealcoat?

With winter rapidly approaching, you might be considering applying a sealcoat to your asphalt. It’s a great way to preserve your pavement and keep it looking fresh, but is it already too cold to hire sealcoating professionals in Phoenix, AZ to complete this project?

Sealcoat is made from a mixture of refined tar or asphalt emulsion and water. In fact, the final mixture is about 70 percent water. Like paint, the coating has to dry to properly adhere to the asphalt, so the ambient temperature can make a huge difference in drying time.

Here are some factors that will impact the drying and curing of your sealcoat:

• Temperature: Arizona has a wide variation in winter daytime and nighttime temperatures—days can average around 70 degrees Fahrenheit but end up at or below freezing at night. In warm weather, a sealcoat can dry in 24 hours, although it won’t be fully cured for about a month. However, when the weather is in danger of dipping below freezing, the water in the sealcoat can freeze and damage the coat. Sealcoating professionals in Phoenix, AZ agree that while winter can be a riskier time to undertake sealcoating, Arizona’s climate generally allows these projects to proceed without incident.
• Sunshine: How much light does your pavement get? The sun has a major impact on drying time, since temperatures can vary as much as 30 degrees between sunlight and shade. Obviously, the warmer and sunnier your specific location, the faster the sealcoat will dry.
• Relative humidity: Depending on your part of Arizona, the humidity in the air is relatively low. This is good for sealcoating, because it’s harder for the water in the sealant to evaporate in a humid environment. The higher the humidity, the less capacity the air will have to hold water. A humidity level of 80 percent causes the coating to dry three times as slowly as it would at 40 percent humidity.
• Wind: Windy days help water evaporate, moving the drying process along more rapidly than it would on a still day.

To ensure that your sealcoat dries quickly and properly, you’ll want to pick a day with no chance of rain, freezing weather or fog. The sealcoat needs at least eight hours of drying time before it can stand up to freezing temperatures, which can be difficult to achieve in the winter, but not impossible.

Your sealcoating professionals in Phoenix, AZ may be able to use special additives that will speed the process, and take other measures to ensure you get your sealcoating whenever you need it. While you might get better results in the spring or summer, Arizona’s winters can be conducive to drying properly.

Contact sealcoating professionals in Phoenix, AZ

At Sunstar Seal Coating, Inc., our sealcoating services are executed as promptly as possible. We typically aim for just 24 hours of downtime for automobile traffic, and four to six hours of downtime for pedestrian traffic. Our goal is to get you back in business as quickly as possible. Call Sunstar Seal Coating, Inc. today to find out whether it’s a good time to sealcoat your pavement.

Categorised in: Sealcoating

This post was written by Writer