Best practice for crack sealing

Best practice for crack sealing

There are a number of crack seal placement configurations, including flush fill, over the band, reservoir, and combination. Any method used, care to fill the crack from the lowest level to assure a complete seal and use the right wand tip for the work.

For flush fill configurations, the material is placed in the crack so it is flush with the pavement. The expert said this configuration should be used if an overlay or other surface treatment is planned in the near future.

With an over the band, the material is placed into and over the crack with a sealing disc. It is then either left unshaped (capped) or shaped using a squeegee to create a brand that is no more than ⅛ of an inch thin and 2 to 4 inches wide. Squeegeeing actually pushes the sealant under the crack to help with adhesion.

Over band is appropriate for cracks with significant deterioration along the edge since it will cover those parts in addition to filling the crack.

In our section on routing, we discussed reservoir configuration. Reservoirs, on the other hand, can be flush or recessed. When a crack sealer is installed or crack repair sealing is done in the same season as the crack sealing, and a recessed reservoir is installed lower than the pavement level. For works where routing throughout is not practicable, there are also combination configurations.

Some material manufacturers advocate filling the crack 34% of the way and then allowing it to cool before filling it entirely to avoid sagging as the sealant cools and shrinks. Other vendors recommend filling the cracks to the right height and going back to any that are too low. If significant sagging occurs, consider a higher viscosity sealer for inclined surfaces to prevent sagging and flow.

Avoid using too much sealant or leaving drips and puddles throughout the project. Drips and excess application can be avoided by using a drop stopper on the tip. Remove extra sealant puddles by heating a flat blade and removing the excess puddle without hurting the treatment.

It's critical not to expose the newly cracked-sealed surface to traffic too soon. The exact cure time, however, is dependent on a number of factors, including the sealant used, the weather, and the amount of traffic on the road. Traffic can return to the pavement nearly soon after a light application of fine sand or a liquid de-tacking solution is applied to the surface.