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Brad, thanks for your question. a great mix design depends on a couple things. first, what type of sealer you are using? Coal-tar, asphalt based, or a blend? If you are using coaltar, you can cut your consentrate sealer with 30% water to start. you typically would add an additive to the mix a latex or acryile up to 2% should be perfect. as far as sand you should be adding 2lbs. minimum to the sealer and water and additive. depending on your type of agitation system, let it mix well before you apply it. for asphalt based sealers, typically you should stay around the 15-20% range of water addition. and you should add additive of around 1.15% tops as it may thicken the mix too much and you will be forced to add more water. don’t do this as it will break down the asphalt and cause pre mature wear. sand in all sealers are a must for a quality job. i suggest you contact your sealer supplier also for their reccomended mix design. if you need more in depth mix designs feel free to contact me at mark@maintinc.com and i will be happy to further discuss your mix. hope this gives you a little guideline that will keep you in a quality sealer mix design.
Thanks for your question. The proper preparation for super hot pavement in this type of heat is to cool the pavement down with a fog mist as you are sealing. But if that is not possible, i suggest you add an additional 5 or 10% water to your CoalTar mix design and 1.5% Targel Plus additive. The TGplus has Acryilic base components fortifyed with surfactants and hardners. Coal tar will be better applied in extream heat with TGplus and the addional water. So if you are currently adding 30 % water, you can add the extra water with the additve to insure a proper seal and a harder sealer film. If you are applying an Asphalt based sealer, i suggest adding no more than 5% water and 2% FSA additive. FSA also has an acrylic base fortifyed with drying and hardening features that will assist in reducing the scuffing and tracking in extream heat.You can find a Maintenance Inc. distributor by logging onto http://www.maintinc.com click on distributors. If you should not have a distributor or your sealer manufacturer does not stock our additives, please give me a call and i will direct you to the closest Stocking distributor. Thanks for your question and “Happy Sealing!!”
Dan, we only manufacturer in Wooster Ohio. I sell a lot of paint in Colorado, my son Tom owns Proline West commercial line markings does Airports as well as commercial line markings is one of my customers. He claims my Fast Dry is worth the freight cost to get it out there. I will discuss paint with you anytime Dan. As always you can check out my Articles here or you can read my Monthly articles in APE magazine, called “On the parking lot” My monthly articles are about the pavement maint. industry. I will be talking with professionals like yourself to obtain views on the industry as well as your expert advice on issues. I may use all or part of the info. in a future column.
Great Dan, see you there. We can discuss Maintenance Inc. Fast Dry paint also. Would like your thoughts on the industry from a Professional Striper’s view. As you know i also write a monthly article for a couple of our industry magazines, maybe you could discuss where it is going (Striping) for 2011, as well as your take on the past years paint shortage. Thanks Dan. I hope you have a great “New Year”.
Thanks for your response! A positive attitude in tough times always makes the tough times go by faster. Soon we all will be back on the lots and i will be pumping out FSA! Please stop by my Maintenance Inc. booth # 1307 and let me know you are there, i look forward to meeting you. See you at the NPE show.
Thankyou for your question, sorry it has taken so long to respond. First and foremost, Diesel fuel is NOT to be put into any Claybased or water based sealer. If you have had a cutback which is a oil based sealer, it may have been put in that, but would not recommend this in any sealer. Diesel is a heavy fuel that will not evaporate as fast as gasoline or mineral spirits. If you are in question as to what was applied to your lot, call a couple quality random sealing contractors to come and look at your lot. They can give you an honest opinion as to what product was applied to your lot. IF DESIEL fuel was added to the sealer you would have a serious tracking problem that is for sure. your floors and sidewalks will be full of sealer marks from foot traffic and tire cutting on the surface of the lot. It would really be noticable on your oil spots where vehicles park and drip fluids.. would be a real mess. As far as the price? You i hope got more than one bid? Always check the references of the bidding contractor, get a list of a few jobs close by and take a ride and look! Sounds like you may have gotten caught up in a fly by night situation. Mabe not! If another contractor can prove the contractor put diesel in his sealer and applied it on your lot, you would be entitled to compensation. But without proof you have to take the word of the contractor you paid.. he has done the work, he has to be paid, and if you are holding his or her money till you get it resolved, the sealing contractor should do whatever it takes to make you comfortable with his work within reason, and then pay the balance. I think a warrantee of any repuatble sealing company should be in force for one year, so look at the lot again in 10 months and have the contractor come and meet you on the lot for satisfaction if anything. Thanks for your comment and question.
MR BRADSHAW, THANKYOU FOR YOUR QUESTION REGARDING ADDITIVES AND THEIR USE. I EXPECT THAT YOU HAVE BEEN APPLYING AN OIL BASE PRODUCT (CUTBACK) SEALER FOR THOSE PAST YEARS. COAL-TAR IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SEALER, CONCENTRATE SEALER IS CUT WITH WATER. ALWAYS REMEMBER EACH JOB YOU SEAL, THE SEALER MUST HYDRATE THE WATER OUT FIRST TO COMPLETE THE CURING PROCESS. AMBIENT TEMPERATURE IS CRITICAL WHEN SEALING WITH A WATER BASE SEALER. ASPHALT BASED SEALERS ARE IN THE SAME CATAGORY AS COAL-TAR IN THAT THEY ALL MUST HYDRATE THE WATER OUT. MOISTURE AND HUMIDITY ALL ARE A FACTOR IN THE CURING PROCESS. FOR EXAMPLE IF THE HUMIDITY IS AT 70% THERE IS ONLY 30% ROOM IN THE AIR TO ABSORB THE MOISTURE. PICKING DAYS WITH LOWER HUMIDITY WOULD BE GREAT IF YOU CAN WAIT TILL THE HUMIDITY IS LOW TO SEAL HOWEVER, THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. YOU NEED TO WORK EVERYDAY AND THATS WHERE THE RIGHT ADDITIVE COME INTO PLAY. SOME FACTORS YOU MUST CONSIDER WHEN INCORPORATING AN ADDITIVE. 1.MIX DESIGN, 2. SAND LOAD, 3.SIZE OF YOUR AGGREGATE,4. WATER CUT PERCENTAGE,5. AMBIENT AND PAVEMENT SURFACE TEMPERATURE, 6.POROSITY OF THE PAVEMENT. AN ADDITIVE SHOULD BE USED IN EVERY LOAD ALL YEAR LONG. WE MANUFACTURER FSA OUR ORIGINAL AND BEST SELLING ADDITIVE FOR COALTAR. FSA IMPROVES THE FLEXIBILITY OF THE SEALER FILM, AND HARDENS THE FILM TO REDUCE TRACKING AND TIRE CUTTING AND BEST OF ALL REDUCES THE CURING TIME BY 50% OR MORE. THIS WOULD BE AN EXCELLENT ADDITION TO YOUR EVERYDAY MIX. FSA DOES NOT THICKEN THE MIX. IF YOU ARE ADDING SAND TO YOUR MIX, I SUGGEST FSA-PLUS OR TARGEL-PLUS FOR SAND SUSPENSION AND BOTH PRODUCTS HAVE OUR FASS-DRI ADDED IN THEM. I RECOMMEND 1% TYPICALLY ON A 1 TO 2 PER GALLON SAND LOAD. IF YOU ARE RUNNING A HEAVIER LOAD, UP TO 2% OF THESE ADDITIVE PER 100 GALS. OF RAW SEALER.
NOW, IF YOU ARE DOING WORK ON MARGINAL WEATHER DAYS, AND OR NIGHT WORK, I RECOMMEND THE ADDITION OF OUR FASS-DRI CONCENTRATE TO GIVE IT A KICK. YOU WILL BE SURPRISED HOW THIS ADDITION OF FASS-DRI PSA WILL QUICKEN THE CURE TIME OF YOUR SEALER FILM. CONTRACTORS ARE ALWAYS TELLING OUR DISTRIBUTORS OUR FASS-DRI PSA HAS NOT ONLY ALLOWED THEM TO SEAL AT NIGHT, BUT HAS ALLOWED THEM TO SEAL EARLIER AND LATER INTO THE SEASON. YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU MAY BE SEALING AT AN OVERNIGHT TEMP OF 75 DEGREES, THIS IS AN IDEAL TEMP FOR CURING, HOWEVER YOU MUST WATCH THE HUMIDITY.. IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING HIGHER HUMIDITY YOU MAY NEED TO ADD A BIT MORE(1%) FASS-DRI PSA TO INSURE THE CURING PROCESS IS SUCCESSFUL. YOU ARE CHEMICALLY CURING THE SEALER FILM. WHEN I SAID I HAVE SEEN COMMERCIAL LOTS OPEN TO TRAFIC IN AS LITTLE A 4 HOURS, THE AMBIENT TEMPS WERE WARM AND SUNNY. BUT THE LOTS WERE OPENED WITH SUCCESS. THE ADDITIVES ALSO ALLOWED THE CONTRACTOR TO STRIPE THE LOT WITHN 2 HOURS UNDER THOSE CONDITIONS. COOLER CONDITIONS I RECOMMEND FASS-DRI PSA.AND FOR YOUR EVERYDAY ADDITIVE FSA,-FSA-PLUS-OR TARGEL-PLUS. THEY ALL WORK WELL IN COAL-TAR. IF YOU NEED TO DISCUSS OUR ADDITIVES AND THE BENIFITS OF THEM FEEL FREE TO CALL US 800-892-6701 AND I WILL BE HAPPY TO DISCUSS YOUR QUESTIONS IN MORE DEPTH. THANKS FOR YOUR QUESTIONS AND I LOOK FORWARD TO DISCUSSING MAINTENANCE INC ADDITIVES WITH YOU.Welcome Cadillac Parts, and thankyou for your responce to my article. The website works as is evident by you responding. all professional pavement maintenance companies should have their own website by now for potential clients to view. It is so easy now days to build a custom site that features your services and is a 24 hour sales machine. Keep posting so others can see your thoughts and concerns about all the working and trends in our wonderful industry. Thankyou for posting. See you in NPE Nashville Jan.20, 2010.
The Milwaukee market is a well educated IR market.. i am not surprised you are getting up to $125.00 per heat in the smaller contracts. IR will always be an arm for patching in any legit professional pavement maintenance company. Nice job keeping two going and taking care of your market!! Thanks.
Thankyou for your question! I am little troubled to here that your Supplier told you that Fass-Dri only works when the sun hits it??? Well the sun does play a part in the drying process, but Fass Dri was developed to dry the sealer in various ambient lower temperatures and night sealing. I have hundreds of contractors that use Fass Dri PSA in their sealer while sealing at night with great results. Fass Dri psa utilizes Nano cure technology that dries thru Nano friction that causes molecular heat. It dries the sealer from the bottom up! In colder temps the additive may take a bit longer to kick the drying process, but will perform well in cooler temps. There are different factors also that affect the performance of additives, mix designs play a huge roll in the drying process as well, if you are adding over the manufactures recommendations for water, you may retard the drying process some, also if you add the second coat over a first coat while wet or damp may cause the sealer to dry a bit slower. But adding Fass Dri psa to your sealer gives you the comfort knowing that your sealer will not only dry faster, but help the curing process and sand suspension that only Fass Dri psa gives you. Ask you supplier to please call me at 800-892-6701 and i will discuss his reasoning for the statement he made to you. It is simply not accurate on the Fass- Dri psa, it works with great results as long as rain is not imminent while wet… I have contractors calling me all the time ranting and raving on how Fass Dri psa has extended their fall sealing season as much as a month just by adding Fass Dri Psa. I hope you will try Fass Dri psa in your mix and see for yourself the beauty of fass dri quality as it was designed, to perform. Thanks!
Hello pavemanpro, great question. First lets look at spray application. There are a couple pump type sytems that are very reliable. First system is hydraulic, these type of pump systems are common on dual squeegee machines, large truckmounted units that utilize spray bar applications and dual wand applicators with heavy sand loads.. Second, is air diaphram pump system. No differance except Air is more cost effective and easier to maintain than a hydraulic pump system. In your case having a 550 gravity flow, i would suggest putting on a smaller air diaphram pump to spray, i assume small commercial and private driveways are your markets at this time. There are a few companies that sell air pumps and hydraulic pumps. Check with Neal, Sealmaster, or any of the equipment manufacturers that specialize in this. I also feel your sealer supplier also will have valuable info on what you need as well as where to get it! Now, in regards to sealer in your hose. Wet pavement sealer in your hose does not set up under normal working situations. If you completed a job and shut your rig down, the sealer that is in your hose is under minimum pressure, and is air free. this will keep the sealer wet. If air intrusion occurs you will find that it will be very chalky thick. If Sealer is in your tank for very prolonged periods of time, water evaporates from the sealer and will settle out the solids to the bottom. The addition of some water while agitating will loosen and remix the sealer, but it should not harden like a rock. Only if your sealer has not been agitated for a season will it become totaly hard. Thankyou for your question.
Every market is different, labor today with everyone being layed off you should not have a problem finding labor i would think for 10.00 hour starting. But i have not seen many 15.00 hour guys doing labor unless they have been with a company at least a year or so. But in your area you know the labor pool, and you know the pricing for res. driveways better than i do. I was drawing off my days in Wisconsin as a sealcoater and i made great money doing res. driveways. thanks!!
paveman newbie, i think i kind of know what you are trying to say, When you say “can you pay” $25.00 hour, and still make out? It depends on what type of sealcoat job you are doing. The only way i have ever been able to pay any sealcoat laborer $25.00 hour is if i was doing private work.(driveways). I do not think a full time employee will be paid $25.00 per hour on a daily basis doing commercial work. Jobs in the private sector(driveways) usually are a higher profit job than commercial work that is in most cases “bid” out. Competative bidding prohibits in most companies of larger size the ability to pay that high of an hourly wage. In the private sector (driveways) most times can be completed in a couple hours and at a higher price. I have seen quarter mile driveways go as high as $3,500.00 for clean and seal! In that case you will be able to pay an employee the $25.00 hour for that job. Most key personell on salary that work from sun up to sundown all summer and weekends, command that kind of money. I would put your employee on a daily rate mabe $150.00 a day if you are doing lots of private work, and have a lot of work to do. Realistcally $10.00 or less is the standard for cleaners and field labor. It goes up from there. Sprayers, patchers, cackfillers, and then foremans, field superintendents etc. I hope you find this answer to your satisfaction. Thanks for your submittal of this great question, please feel free to continue to ask questions as this is what Pavemanpro is all about, unbias, and straight talk amongst your peers.
I WAS THE FIRST CONTRACTOR TO OWN AND OPERATE AN INFRARED UNIT WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI IN 1988. I BOUGHT A TRUCK-MOUNTED POWER RAY UNIT FROM CLAREMONT NH. (NOW RAY-TECH). AT FIRST I WAS STRUGGLING TO FIND WORK. ONE DAY A MAJOR PAVER NEEDED HELP LOWERING SOME TRUCK DOCKS THAT WERE TOO HIGH. I GOT TO THE JOB SITE AND HIS CREW WAS USING BURNER TORCHES TO HEAT AND SCRAPE THE HARD ASPHALT, LOOKED LIKE CRAP! I DROPPED MY 6X8 PAN AND HEATED THE AREAS FOR ABOUT 4 MIN. AND ROLLED IT WITH A ONE TON VIBRATE ROLLER. IT COMPACTED IT TO JUST WHERE THEY NEEDED IT TO BE. I HAD THAT PAVER’S BUSINESS FOREVER AFTER HE SAW THAT UNIT WORK. WHEN YOU BRING IN A NEW UNIT TO AN UNEDUCATED AREA FOR INFRARED, BID IT AS JUST A PATCH LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! KEEP IN MIND THIS, INFRARED HAS ITS LIMITATIONS. I ALWAYS SAID IF THE BASE IS EXPOSED, DON’T INFRARED, R&R;THOSE AREAS. BUT INFRARED DOES SO MUCH COST EFFECTIVELY. I COULD IN 15 MIN. HEAT, FRAME, RAKE, ADD ASPHALT AND ROLL A PATCH. I AVERAGED 40 HEATS PER 4 TONS OF ASPHALT. AT THAT TIME I WAS GETTING $90.00 TO $120.00 PER HEAT!! NOT TODAY, THE NATIONAL AVERAGE FOR ONE 6X8 HEAT REPAIR IS AROUND $50.00 PER HEAT. WITH THE HIGH COST OF ASPHALT TODAY, AN INFRARED UNIT IS A GEM TO HAVE IN PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE BUSINESS. DO NOT BE APPREHENSIVE, GO FOR IT. I ACTUALLY DO NOT KNOW OF ANY LARGE PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE COMPANY THAT DOES NOT HAVE ONE. THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF INFRARED UNITS ON THE MARKET TODAY. I WILL GIVE YOU A FEW NOW AND YOU CAN CALL THEM AND HEAR THEIR PITCHES AS TO WHY YOU SHOULD OWN THEIR MACHINE. IF YOU CALL ME AT 800-892-6701 OR EMAIL ME HERE AT PAVEMAN PRO I WOULD BE HAPPY TO FURTHER DISCUSS YOUR QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS. HERE ARE A COUPLE YOU CAN CALL TO GET YOU STARTED. (RAY-TECH 800-884-2072 ASK FOR (WES.) 2. (K-M INTERNATIONAL 800-492-1757) GOOD LUCK AND AS ALWAYS YOU WILL FIND ALL THE PEOPLE AFFILIATED WITH PAVEMAN PRO ARE ALWAYS AVAILABLE TO HELP YOU WITH ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE ABOUT ANY PHASE OF THE ASPHALT AND PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE INDUSTRY. THANKS FOR YOUR QUESTIONS… MARK MCLEOD MAINTENANCE INCORPORATED.
fass dri, is a consentrate fsa. it comes in a two gallon pail or 5 gallon pail. you should put 2 gallons in with 150-200 gallons of consentrate sealer. either additive will make your sealer blacker as it has a great reaction to the asphalt components of pavement sealers. thanks. any further questions please just ask!! thanks.
Mark McLeod
Maintenance Inc.
