Tired of flushing money down the drain on your parking lot?
Most parking lot owners don’t bother with maintenance until minor cracks turn into huge craters.
They think they’re being proactive by skipping parking lot maintenance…
Until they are forced to repave their entire parking lot.
Here’s the reality:
Waiting to maintain your parking lot is slowly bleeding you dry. And costs only go up year after year.
The good news?
You have the power to change that. Understanding exactly how preventative maintenance saves you money versus reactive maintenance can net your business thousands.
What you’ll learn:
- What Is Preventative Maintenance?
- What Is Reactive Maintenance?
- Comparing Real Costs
- 3 Reasons Preventative Maintenance Is Always Better
- How To Implement The Best Plan For You
What Is Preventative Maintenance?
If you haven’t guessed by now, preventative maintenance means preventative measures.
You take care of your parking lot before it needs care.
Examples of preventative maintenance for parking lots include regularly scheduled asphalt pavement inspections, crack filling, and sealcoating. By regularly caring for your asphalt, you ensure that small problems never turn into big ones.
Preventative maintenance for your parking lot can include simple upkeep like crack filling when you notice openings in your asphalt. You can also take advantage of preventative maintenance by having your parking lot sealed periodically. Parking lot sealcoating services from Asphalt Coatings Company help prolong the lifespan of your parking lot and ensure your asphalt isn’t damaged by water penetration, UV rays, and oxidation.
It’s like oil changes for your parking lot.
You don’t wait until your engine seizes up to change your oil. Regular oil changes keep your engine clean and running longer.
What Is Reactive Maintenance?
Reactive maintenance is simply reacting to damage as it happens.
You ignore small problems until they become big problems, then you try to fix them.
Also known as “run-to-failure maintenance”, this strategy may appear to save you money in the short term. But once all those small cracks have turned into potholes, you’re in for a world of disappointment (and expensive parking lot repairs).
Let’s look at the costs associated with both…
Comparing Real Costs
Did you know that preventative maintenance can save you between 12% and 18%?
And for every dollar you spend on preventative maintenance, you could save $5 in future repairs.
When it comes to parking lots, here are a few examples.
- Sealcoating typically ranges from $.14 to $.25 per square foot.
- Asphalt repairs can cost anywhere from $2 to $7 per square foot.
- And complete parking lot resurfacing can set you back $1.50 to $7 per square foot.
Keep that in mind the next time you wonder if sealcoating is worth it.
Preventive maintenance and repairs on a 30,000 square foot parking lot could save you up to $120,000 over the life of your parking lot compared to reactive repairs.
Want to break that down even more?
Think about it this way…
You spend a few cents per square foot to sealcoat your parking lot. That prevents water damage and extends the life of your parking lot.
But when you have to repair your asphalt, you could be paying up to $7 per square foot. That’s 56 times more than sealcoating.
Your parking lot doesn’t just magically repair those cracks. Someone has to come out and patch those areas at your expense.
3 Reasons Preventative Maintenance Is Always Better
Ok, but preventative maintenance still doesn’t sound THAT much better than reactive maintenance.
Let’s dive into some benefits that preventative maintenance has over reactive maintenance.
Budgeting Made Simple
When you take care of your parking lot regularly, you know how much you’ll spend and when you’ll spend it.
There are no surprise bills. No “we need to fix this now” prices. And you can plan for these expenses instead of having your maintenance budget thrown out of whack.
With reactive maintenance, you don’t know when things are going to break.
Which means you also don’t know when you’ll have to pay to get things fixed.
Not only does that make it hard to budget for maintenance. But it also usually costs you more because these are now emergency repairs.
Longer Asphalt Pavement Life
Did you know that a well-maintained asphalt parking lot can last 20+ years?
But what most parking lot owners don’t realize is that if you don’t maintain your parking lot, that number can quickly decrease.
When you don’t have your parking lot sealed, you open your parking lot up to water damage.
Water will fill any cracks it can find. When the water freezes, it expands, causing those cracks to become larger cracks or potholes.
Eventually, your parking lot will start needing major repairs.
And before you know it, you’re going to have to resurface your entire parking lot 10 years in.
Preventative maintenance ensures your parking lot will last the longest amount of time possible.
Less Liability
Nothing hurts your business’s reputation like accidents in your parking lot.
A couple of badly placed potholes can turn into tripping hazards. Large puddles can cause cars to skid.
If you’re negligent in your parking lot maintenance, you could be opening yourself up to liability should anyone get hurt.
But with preventative maintenance, those problems are spotted and dealt with before they become larger issues.
Your Parking Lot Looks Nicer
We’ll finish with something that every business owner should think about.
Your curb appeal.
Your parking lot is the first thing your customers will see when they pull up to your business.
If they’re greeted with potholes, cracks, and exposed rocks, they will assume your business is the same.
Maintaining your parking lot regularly shows customers that you care about your business. You care about the experience they have while visiting you.
76% of Americans believe maintaining your property is an important role of property managers.
And 80% of maintenance workers prefer preventative maintenance.
Your customers notice when you take pride in your property. Don’t be the company that neglected their parking lot only to lose business over it.
The True Cost of Waiting
There are always going to be hidden costs that come with waiting for your parking lot to fall apart.
Here are a few of them:
- Lost revenue during emergency maintenance. Parking lot contractors usually charge more for emergencies and same-day service.
- Potential legal fees. If someone gets hurt on your property because you didn’t take the proper precautions to maintain your parking lot, you could be headed to court.
- You’ll lose customers. The state of your parking lot says a lot about your business.
- You’ll have to repave your parking lot sooner. Again, if you don’t maintain your parking lot, you’ll have to replace it sooner.
These are a few of the hidden costs that come with reactive maintenance.
How To Implement The Best Plan For You
Looking to start maintaining your parking lot instead of constantly repairing it?
Here are the steps you should take.
Get a professional opinion on what your parking lot needs. Every parking lot is different. Make sure you have a professional come out and take a look at your parking lot and recommend what maintenance they suggest.
Come up with a maintenance schedule and STICK TO IT. Don’t go two years without sealcoating because you think your parking lot is fine. These things need to be done whether you see signs of damage or not.
Your parking lot will thank you.
Final Thoughts
Preventative vs. reactive maintenance shouldn’t even be a question.
The facts prove that preventative maintenance saves you money.
From saving you 12-18% by doing preventative maintenance. To saving $5 for every $1 you spend on maintaining your parking lot.
Not to mention, you could save up to $120,000 over the life of your parking lot by simply taking care of it.
Yes, there will be years where you spend money on maintenance and you don’t see any issues.
But would you rather sink thousands of dollars into asphalt repairs that could have been prevented?
Don’t wait for the damages to become huge problems.
Maintain your parking lot and start saving your business some money.
