In the pavement maintenance industry, we often don’t associate ourselves with extravagance, especially when it comes to black sealer. However, even luxury vehicle centers need their pavement maintained, and it is up to us in the industry to ensure that our precision and experience protect these valuable assets, as well as our reputation.

“Any time you work around brand-new luxury vehicles, there will be challenges,” says Andy Jackson, owner of SouthTex Asphalt. “We were ‘lucky’ on this project, as the vehicles were just one of the many hurdles we had to overcome. »

Although SouthTex has a 25-year relationship maintaining this particular field in Houston, TX, they have never encountered the challenges they have seen on the project this year. The SouthTex team not only coated and scratched a third of the 82-acre facility in 35 days, they completed the job despite paint shortages, weather delays and high customer demand, which gave them earned Pavement’s Seal & Stripe Large Job 2022 award.

Complex phasing

In the summer of 2021, the facility manager contacted SouthTex to complete the pavement maintenance work that was required. Jackson and his team advised them to wait until later in the fall to do the work in order to take advantage of the more moderate weather conditions.

“Texas had been experiencing a very humid and very hot summer, so we wanted to wait to complete this massive project until later in the year,” says Jackson. “This would allow the pavement to reach the appropriate curing temperature and also reduce the risk of weather delays for complex jobs.”

To maintain the operation of the Vehicle Processing Center, which is a holding area for high-end vehicles before they are transported to their final destination, the SouthTex team had to carry out the work in several different phases. .

“Fortunately, the number of vehicles being processed was lower than normal due to the chip shortage,” Jackson says. “We’ve worked here before and the facility literally didn’t have room, but they were able to give us basically a fifth of the project at a time. This allowed us to handle larger sections.

The entire facility will be sealed in three distinct phases over time. In the first phase, which was completed in 2021, the project was divided into five different sections, each with an average area of ​​300,000 square feet.

Crews cleared each section with a Broce Broom Sweeper and a Buffalo Turbine Blower on a LineDriver. They also used two Billy Goat blowers for the detail work.

“The pitch was very, very dirty,” adds Jackson. “We worked hard to clean it up and hauled dirt and debris offsite once it was picked up by our crews.”

To complete the sealant coating, the crew used the spray method to apply two coats of sealant using two 1500 gal. truck-mounted spray platforms.

“The wind was the biggest concern doing this,” Jackson says. “We had to be very attentive to the direction of the wind and its strength. It could be a perfect beautiful day, but if the wind was blowing 15-20 miles an hour right in the direction of where all the cars are parked, that’s a problem.

“When we were spraying, we had to be very aware of what the wind was doing and how strong it was,” he adds. “We were looking at the forecast as best we could and finding out where the wind was going to go that day, and we would make sure to coordinate with the managers of the facilities there and let them know where not to park cars depending the wind. .”

To keep teams moving while using massive amounts of sealant, SouthTex relied on its dealer SealMaster.

“Houston’s SealMaster would release 3,900 gallons of mixed material,” Jackson said. “The latex, sand and water were already mixed and brought to us. We would be able to empty a tank in the morning and they would bring us another batch in the afternoon or early the next morning so we could get back to the action right away. Thanks to this, we did not have to waste time loading sand, water, etc. on site. and that made a huge difference in our production. SealMaster from Houston was fantastic and a great partner on this project. »

In total, SouthTex installed 47,000 gallons of sealant on this phase of the project.

Scary scratch situation

The national shortage of materials, from toilet paper to steel, has not failed the pavement maintenance industry. A shortage of resin has caused severe paint shortages across the industry, but particularly in Texas where manufacturing facilities have been shut down due to COVID and weather conditions. The shortage was so severe that SouthTex was almost unable to bid for this job.

“It was a really scary situation,” Jackson says. “The only way we could have done this job was if we could get enough paint to do the job well. The owner of the facility wouldn’t have been interested if we said we could seal it, but not the This whole project was all about “can we get the paint?”

Fortunately, SealMaster of Houston came back for SouthTex and was able to get enough paint to complete this job.

“It’s been a huge help to us,” Jackson says. “Not only were they able to find and secure the paint for us, but they also stored it until we were ready to use it. This allowed the work to move forward.

Once the paint was set and the batch sealed, the crews returned to complete the stripping, which caused another round of challenges.

“They wanted to increase the width of each parking spot during this new strip,” Jackson said. “We had to redevelop the whole car park because we weren’t able to follow the existing strips.”

At the start of this process, the lot started to get busier as more and more cars arrived.

“We had to page it out and cross it out in a timely manner until we could move on to the next section,” Jackson adds. “We wanted to reduce or eliminate any delays we might have and so it was a challenge that put pressure on the plotting team to expose it and do it so we could move on to the next section and they could bring more cars inside.

In all, 94 buckets of paint were dropped off and this section of the project was completed in 35 days from start to finish.