Why a lot is watched early
A pavement program is built while the surface is still sound. Caltrans' Maintenance Technical Advisory Guide describes a pavement preservation program as three components, preventive maintenance, minor rehabilitation and some routine maintenance, and says an effective one addresses pavements while they are still in good condition and before the onset of serious damage. It is written for the state highway network, and it holds as a principle on a private lot.
Applying the right treatment to the right pavement at the right time is the core of pavement preservation. That sentence is the whole argument for looking at a lot on a calendar: the choice of treatment follows the condition the lot is in when it is looked at, and a lot nobody looks at is only ever seen at the point where a treatment no longer applies to it. Where pavement is not maintained effectively it eventually deteriorates to the point where reconstruction is the only choice left, and that is the costliest one.
The rain decides both halves of the year. The 1991 to 2020 normals for the Modesto airport station give April to October an inch of rain or less a month, against 1.07 to 2.57 inches a month from November to March. The dry half is when surface work can be done at all; the weeks before November are when the inlets, gutters and outfalls have to be clear, because a blocked inlet turns an aisle into standing water and standing water finds every open crack in it.
Turf in a parking lot is nonfunctional turf by definition. Water Code 10608.12 includes turf located within street rights-of-way and parking lots in that definition, which puts the islands on the same list as the rest of the irrigated area. Surveys, treatments and striping themselves belong to asphalt paving and sealcoating.
What parking lot maintenance includes
The request is taken with the lot, the buildings it serves and the traffic on it. The round starts with where water goes: inlets, grates, gutters, valley lines and the outfall, because everything else on the surface follows the water.
The lot is walked when it is dry: cracking, raveling, edge break-up and any area that is soft under load are marked on a lot plan and photographed in place.
Grates and inlets are cleared of summer litter and leaf fall, and anything the clearing reveals, a broken grate or a collapsed line, is written down.
Where water stood after the last rain is recorded while the marks are still visible, since ponding is the sign that grade or drainage, rather than the surface, is the problem.
Island planting, overspray onto the asphalt and the turf statute's reach over lot islands are noted with the irrigation round.
Each finding leaves as a written scope for the paving trade, placed in the dry half of the year and around the trading hours of the tenants using the lot.
A lot is cheap to keep and expensive to rebuild, and the difference between the two is the date it was last looked at. The round exists to see the surface while a treatment still applies to it.
Where a lot fails first
Strip centers and retail pads
Parking fields with inlets under the landscape strip, where a summer of litter collects and the first November storm ponds the aisle nearest the tenants' doors.
Tilt-up warehouses and truck yards
The same wheel paths take loaded trailers every working day, so the yard breaks up long before the visitor parking beside it does.
Apartment parking
Residents park on the same stalls for years, and the damage shows at the drive aisles, the bin pad approach and the carport edges.
HOA private streets and parking
Private streets and parking the association maintains come back on the reserve list, so the round's record is what the board reads when the study is reviewed.
Offices and medical suites
Staff and visitor parking that is full on weekdays and empty at the weekend, which is when the round and any work can happen.
Pre-1970s properties
Lots that have been patched more than once, where the round records what has already been done before anything new is proposed.
Questions about parking lot maintenance
The dry half of the year. April to October averages an inch of rain or less a month at the Modesto airport station, against 1.07 to 2.57 inches a month from November to March, so surface work sits in the dry months and the clearing of inlets and gutters sits in the weeks before them.
The timing follows the condition of the pavement rather than a number of years: the right treatment on the right pavement at the right time. The round records the condition and dates it, and the treatment itself, with the survey that sizes it, is settled with the paving trade.
Because water is what does the damage. An inlet that cannot take the first storm leaves water standing in the aisle, and standing water works into every open crack and reaches the base underneath the surface.
Turf located in a parking lot is within the statute's definition of nonfunctional turf. Whether a particular property is covered, and from which date, is a question for its water supplier.
The paving trade, under its own page: patching, digouts, crack treatment, resurfacing, seal and striping. This round marks the lot, dates it and hands it over.
Parking lot maintenance by city
Lot rounds are requested through the preventive maintenance page for the city, which names the stock and the seasons the calendar is built around.
Related preventive maintenance services
