Repairing Asphalt When It’s Cold

When the weather outside is frightful, potholes in the roads or in your driveway are still the opposite of delightful. When the ground is frozen solid and fat snowflakes are falling from every direction, it might seem like you just have to put up with the plague of potholes until the weather decides to get warmer during the spring. 

Thankfully, it is surprisingly doable to fix potholes and other issues with asphalt during the winter. If you’re trying to figure out whether filling potholes when it’s freezing is possible, you’re not alone. In this article, we’ll cover whether potholes can be fixed in the winter and, if so, how?

Can potholes be fixed in the winter?

Whether you have an asphalt road, lane, or driveway, you may notice potholes and other issues during the wintertime. Like any homeowner or property owner, you would want to fix that issue as soon as possible to avoid it becoming bigger and, as a result, driving up a larger bill when you do repair it.

While asphalt is a temperature-sensitive material that requires certain conditions for ideal working, it can be possible to fix potholes in the winter. As with most outdoor activities, the cold weather does make it so that you need to take certain factors into consideration when repairing potholes in the winter. Still, it’s not an impossible task in most cases.

Some materials such as Cold Patch Asphalt were specifically designed for asphalt repair during the winter season. These types of materials can be extremely helpful for those who want to prevent their pothole problem from growing. Although the cold, wet weather of winter is not ideal for paving asphalt, these kinds of patches can hold you over until the weather becomes better for fixing the problem permanently. 

If you have the time to seal your asphalt before the temperatures dip below 30 degrees Fahrenheit, you may be able to prevent some winter-weather-related damage from happening to your driveway or other stretch of pavement. This does require some planning beforehand, though. 

If you wait until the temperatures are freezing to try to seal your asphalt, it may be more expensive. Contractors may also refuse to seal the asphalt until the weather warms, depending on the conditions and their comfort level with the situation. When it comes to sealing asphalt, getting this task completed from May through September is ideal in most parts of the United States. Naturally, if you live in a part of the U.S. that experiences mild or warm winters, these don’t apply.

The main deterrent for filling cracks and other pavement defects during the winter is not the cold temperatures but rather the increase in wet weather conditions. Asphalt may react to cold, but it is most incompatible to pave a surface or work with asphalt in general in a wet area. Rain, snow, and other forms of precipitation can interfere with asphalt repair. However, a dry winter day may not interfere.

Categorised in: Potholing Utilities

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