Construction & Contractors Blog
Whether you have recently opened a business or have an established one, you may have decided that it is time to upgrade your old, dusty parking lot by having it paved. While making your plans, you may have found yourself unable to decide on whether to use concrete or asphalt for the material. If you are on the fence about what type of material you should use for your parking lot, you may want to consider going with asphalt. Besides being more aesthetically pleasing, using asphalt also has a couple of distinct advantages over using concrete.
1. The Dark Color of Asphalt Helps to Reduce the Glare Off of the Parking Lot's Surface
One advantage of having an asphalt parking lot for your business has to do with its dark color. With concrete, the lighter color more easily reflects light, especially when the surface is wet or iced over. When the sun reflects off the surface, the glare can interfere with your customers' and employees' ability to see while trying to navigate a busy lot. However, the darker asphalt absorbs the light, which reduces the glare and helps to reduce the likelihood of fender benders on your business's property.
2. The Flexibility of Asphalt Easily Fills Dips and Hides Imperfections
Another advantage that asphalt has over concrete is that the material is flexible. With concrete, the material is rigid, which can make it harder to fill in the dips of the naturally occurring surface underneath. This rigidity can also make it harder to hide imperfections on the pavement. However, asphalt's flexibility allows it to fill in imperfect areas and dips, allowing for a smoother surface that is easier to drive on and that looks more aesthetically pleasing. The stickiness of the asphalt along with this flexibility also allows for better traction, which can reduce skidding, especially when the surface of the parking lot is wet.
When it comes time to choose between using asphalt or concrete for your business's new parking lot, consider that the darker color of asphalt helps to reduce glare, which can be safer for your customers and employees when direct sunlight reflects off the wet surface. The asphalt material also has more flexibility, allowing it to fill dips, hide imperfections, and create better traction than concrete.
If you want to learn more about asphalt as a parking lot construction material, contact a pavement construction company, such as Rocky Mountain Pavement.
Share7 April 2022
The world around you consists of a lot of built structures. Obviously, these include a lot of buildings, such as schools, homes, and places of business. It also includes roads and sidewalks. But it also includes things you may not think about as often, such as playgrounds, telephone poles, and sewer systems. All of these built structures common and uncommon, are made by construction workers or contractors of some type. They're pretty incredible, their work is pretty incredible, and we are excited to write about both them and their work here on this blog. We hope you enjoy reading it, probably while inside some type of built structure.
