Service 04 / Repair
Asphalt repair and patching in Ottawa
Localized failures cut back to sound asphalt, the base corrected, and the patch compacted flush.
Patching is the most common repair on a commercial lot and the one most often done badly. A hole filled and tamped by hand looks repaired for a few weeks. The same hole cut back, cleaned out and compacted properly stays repaired.
What is included
A proper repair starts with the cut. The failed area is saw cut or milled back to sound asphalt, with clean vertical edges so the patch has something to key into. Loose asphalt and any saturated or contaminated base material under the hole are removed, because a patch placed over a soft spot moves with it.
The base is recompacted and brought back to the surrounding elevation, then the patch is filled in lifts and compacted flush. Where the repair sits in a drive lane, the edge is treated so a plow blade has nothing to catch. The area stays barricaded until it has cooled.
- Potholes and delaminated patches cut out and rebuilt
- Broken and spalled edges repaired and reshaped
- Localized base failures excavated and recompacted
- Utility cuts and trench settlements repaired
- Ruts, depressions and ponding areas corrected
- Patches compacted flush and edges tied in
How the work is planned
Repairs are grouped by cause rather than by location. If three holes along the same edge lane are all the result of water running off a slope, they get addressed as one drainage issue rather than three separate patches. That usually means fewer repairs next year.
On an occupied lot the repairs are barricaded one area at a time so traffic keeps moving. On lots where the damage sits in the main drive aisle, the work moves to after hours so the blocked lane does not affect tenants during the day.
Ottawa freeze-thaw and access
Potholes here are a freeze-thaw product. Water gets into a crack or under an edge, freezes, lifts the surface, and a plow blade does the rest. That is why the repairs that survive are the ones that deal with the water as well as the hole. A patch in a spot that still collects water will fail again.
Access matters too. A repair in a busy drive aisle can be sequenced so that deliveries still reach the doors, and a repair at a loading dock is usually scheduled outside receiving hours.
When to schedule
Hot mix repairs belong in the warmer months, when the material can be placed and compacted properly. Late winter and early spring, when the damage is most visible after a thaw, is a good time to look at the lot and plan the repair list for the season rather than to patch in a rush.
Repairs are also a sensible step before an overlay or a sealcoat. There is no point sealing a lot with a hole in it, and no point overlaying a depression that will show through the new surface.
Repair questions
The failed area is cut back to sound asphalt with clean vertical edges, the loose material and any saturated base underneath are removed, the base is recompacted, and the patch is filled and compacted flush with the surrounding surface. Filling a hole without cutting it back usually means it is back within a season.
Water. Either the base under it stays wet because drainage is wrong, or the cut was not cleaned out so the new material never bonded. Repeating the same repair without addressing the water will produce the same result.
Yes. Most repairs are done one area at a time with the rest of the lot in use. The area being repaired is barricaded while the work is open and until it has cooled enough to take traffic.
It depends on the project. Patching addresses local failures and is a reasonable maintenance choice on a lot that is otherwise sound. If a large share of the surface is failing, repeated patching costs more over a few seasons than a single overlay, and it never fixes the appearance or the drainage.
Warmer months for anything involving hot mix, so the patch can be placed and compacted properly. Emergency repairs in cold weather are possible but are temporary in nature, and the area is usually revisited once the season allows a full repair.
Start a repair project
Tell us where the failures are and how often they come back. Repeat failures usually point at water rather than at the patch.
Or email
info@commercialpavingottawa.com