Tips for Porous Asphalt Maintenance

Porous asphalt is a popular paving choice for a lot of different reasons. It is cost efficient, eco-friendly and often considered an EPA best practice. Porous asphalt pavements have tiny holes that allow water to seep through it into the soil below quite easily. This helps with in efficient storm water runoff after a heavy shower. To keep porous asphalt looking new, you need to do proper maintenance. Regular and proper maintenance will keep the porous asphalt pavement looking and functioning like new for many years.

1. Sweeping Your Porous Asphalt Clean

The first thing is to keep debris off of your new asphalt driveway or asphalt parking lot by sweeping it on a regular basis. With a driveway, the owner can sweep it with a broom periodically (say once a week when doing yard work) or whenever necessary to keep it clean of debris. With a parking lot, the owner may need to have a vacuum service come every day or a couple of times a week or month depending on how busy the parking lot is. Where grocery stores, restaurants, and especially fast food restaurants are located, the parking lot may need daily vacuuming because people leave litter and debris behind. But the owners, on a case-by-case basis, must determine the requirements for each parking lot.

2. Inspect Your Pavement Surface after heavy Storms

After heavy rainfall, you need to check for surface ponding that might indicate towards possible clogging issues. You can reduce potential clogging debris sources by reducing or limiting the growth of deciduous trees and bushes. You can use perimeter berms and permeable boarders to inhibit off-site runoff to the permeable pavement to reduce the chances of potential clogging.

3. Power Wash Your Porous Asphalt

The next thing that you should do is to power wash the porous asphalt pavement periodically. Power washing will clean the small particles of debris that might have blocked the tiny holes in the asphalt, which prevents water from draining through the pavement.

Apart from that, areas that have higher humidity may need power washing more often, thanks to the mossy or moldy growth that blocks the holes. A professional maintenance supervisor will be able to tell when power washing is needed because water will not drain properly through the pavement. You can speak with our professional maintenance advisors at Rogers Stone and get the right solutions to all your asphalt maintenance needs.