TruTec Blog
Most parking lot maintenance advice falls into one of two categories: a random pile of tasks with no structure, or a thin sales pitch dressed up as a guide. This is neither.
This is an operator-grade parking lot maintenance checklist you can actually run every week, month, and season. We built it for facility managers, property managers, and contractors responsible for asphalt and concrete parking lots, and it covers:
A maintenance schedule you can hand to a technician or property manager today
Inspection guidance with simple "if you see X, do Y" rules for every common distress type
ADA compliance checks that prevent expensive rework and legal exposure
Stormwater and winter practices that keep your lot safer and keep you out of regulatory trouble
Budgeting with current unit-cost ranges from 2025 and 2026 sources
A practical way to measure quantities fast so your bids and scopes stop being guesswork
If you manage parking lots for a living, bookmark this page. You'll come back to it.
Why Parking Lots Fail and What It Costs You
Before we get into the checklist itself, it helps to understand why parking lots deteriorate. Every item on this list traces back to three forces that, left unchecked, will destroy your pavement.
1. Water gets in.
Cracks, open joints, raveling, bad drainage, and clogged inlets let water seep into the base layer. Once the base gets wet, it loses stiffness. Then traffic loads cause movement, which makes cracks bigger, which lets in more water. It snowballs. This is exactly why crack sealing is considered one of the highest-ROI preservation actions: it stops that cycle by keeping water out.
2. Sun and oxygen harden the binder.
Asphalt "glue" ages over time through a process called oxidation. The binder gets brittle, and the surface cracks more easily. Surface protection (like sealcoating) helps slow this down, but it can't fix a base that's already failing underneath.
3. Loads exceed the structure.
Dumpsters, delivery trucks, tight turns, and parked heavy vehicles cause shear stress and rutting. If you see "alligator cracking" (that chicken-wire pattern), the base is often failing. Sealcoat won't save it. You're looking at patching, overlay, or reconstruction.
The bottom line: Your entire parking lot maintenance checklist is basically "keep water out, keep loads reasonable, and keep the surface visible and safe." Every task below maps to one of those three principles.
How to Use This Parking Lot Maintenance Checklist
Don't treat this as a once-a-year panic. Run it like a system.
1. Set a baseline. Figure out what you have today: total pavement area, stall counts, striping condition, drainage hardware, and existing distresses. If you're using TruTec, you can pull a baseline takeoff by address and get square footage, stall counts, and striping quantities in seconds, then export a report for your scope or bid packet.
2. Inspect on a cadence. Quick daily and weekly checks catch hazards. Deeper monthly and quarterly inspections catch deterioration before it becomes structural. Tools like drone inspection services can also supplement your ground-level walkthroughs with aerial data.
3. Capture quantities. Area in square feet, linear feet of cracking, stall counts. Repairs are scoping, not vibes. You need real numbers to get real bids. Construction estimating software has made this process dramatically faster for contractors who used to rely on spreadsheets and measuring wheels.
4. Fix the small stuff early. Cracks and drainage issues are cheap to address now. They're expensive to address once the base fails.
5. Document everything. Photos, map pins, before/after comparisons. Good documentation makes approvals and bids move faster. It also protects you legally.
Parking Lot Maintenance Schedule: Daily to Annual Tasks
Use this as your default cadence, then adjust for your traffic volume, climate, and surface age. Every time estimate assumes a single lot. Scale accordingly for portfolios.
Daily / After Storms (5 to 10 minutes)
Remove debris (trash, branches, gravel) from drive lanes and entrances
Clear standing water ("birdbaths") if it's caused by clogged drains or inlets
Check for new hazards: potholes, broken curbs, exposed rebar, loose wheel stops
Verify accessible routes are usable (no blocked access aisles, no snow piles in aisles)
Weekly (15 to 30 minutes)
Sweep high-traffic zones: entrances, loading zones, dumpster pads
Check striping visibility at decision points: arrows, stop bars, crosswalks, fire lanes
Spot-check lighting outages (dark lots create real safety and liability problems)
Look for oil or chemical leaks, especially at stalls and near dumpsters
Monthly (30 to 60 minutes)
Walk the lot perimeter (edge failures start here)
Inspect drainage hardware: grates, inlets, catch basins (remove leaves and sediment)
Inspect joints (concrete) and cracks (asphalt): are they new, widening, or water-stained?
Check trip hazards on sidewalks and curb ramps (spalls, heaves, settlement)
Confirm signage is present and readable, especially accessible parking signage
Quarterly (The "Real Inspection," 1 to 2 hours)
This is where you move from spot-checking to systematic assessment.
Map and categorize distresses: crack types, potholes, rutting, raveling, depressions
Measure quantities: crack length (LF), patch areas (SF), sealcoat area (SF), striping (LF and stall counts). If you need fast, accurate measurements, TruTec's AI-powered takeoffs can generate these figures from aerial imagery in seconds.
Test drainage in action. After a rain, walk the lot and observe where water actually goes
Review seasonal damage: winter damage in spring, heat damage in late summer
Twice a Year (Spring and Fall)
Perform crack sealing when conditions are right (more on timing below)
Clean and reset drainage infrastructure. This is critical before freeze-thaw season.
Control vegetation at edges and in cracks. Roots pry pavement apart over time.
Annually
Re-evaluate the lot layout and traffic flow. Are you still using it the same way?
Conduct an ADA compliance audit (counts, dimensions, signs, slopes). See our ADA section below.
Refresh your budget: preventive work vs. rehabilitation vs. reconstruction. Our parking lot resurfacing cost guide can help you benchmark the bigger-ticket items.
Every 2 to 3 Years (Rule of Thumb, Varies)
Consider sealcoating (only if the pavement is structurally sound)
Restripe (often needed sooner than sealcoat, depending on traffic and weather)
Every 8 to 20+ Years (Depends on Structure, Traffic, and Climate)
- Plan for resurfacing, overlay, or full reconstruction when base failures dominate
Parking Lot Inspection Checklist: Identifying Every Distress Type
Not all cracks are equal, and not all distresses need the same response. Here's a practical translation guide so you know what you're looking at and what to do about it.
| Distress Type | What It Looks Like | What It Usually Means | What to Do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linear cracks (longitudinal/transverse) | Single cracks, often fairly straight | Shrinkage, temperature movement, mild aging | Seal early before water pumping and edge spalling start |
| Block cracking | Checkerboard rectangles | Aging and oxidation; not necessarily load failure | Seal and consider surface treatment if the structure is still solid |
| Alligator cracking | Chicken-wire pattern | Structural failure in the base (water + load) | Don't sealcoat over it. You're in patch/overlay/rebuild territory |
| Potholes | Open holes in the surface | Water got in, base is weak, traffic finished the job | Patch fast (safety + water intrusion), then fix root cause |
| Rutting/shoving | Ridges, waves, depressions in wheel paths | Shear from heavy turning/braking, weak mix or base | Fix structurally; surface-only fixes often come back |
| Raveling | Surface aggregate coming loose, rough texture | Binder aging, poor compaction, or oxidation | Surface treatments can help early, but not when base is failing |
| Birdbaths | Standing water after rain | Settlement, poor grading, clogged drains, or base movement | Treat as high priority. Water sitting on asphalt accelerates everything |
The single most important pattern to recognize? Alligator cracking means the base is failing. No amount of surface treatment will fix it. If you see that chicken-wire pattern, you're looking at structural repair.
Accurate distress documentation starts with knowing what you're measuring. If you want to move beyond clipboard walkthroughs, drone inspection services can capture high-resolution aerial views of your lot and help identify damage patterns that are hard to spot from ground level.
How to Prioritize Parking Lot Repairs
If you only remember one rule from this entire parking lot maintenance checklist, make it this one:
Drainage and cracks first. Cosmetics last.
Priority 1: Safety Hazards (Fix This Week)
Potholes in drive lanes
Sharp vertical offsets or trip hazards
Missing or failed lighting in high-traffic areas
Exposed rebar or broken concrete edges
Priority 2: Water Pathways (Fix This Season)
Active cracks, especially connected networks
Failed joints (concrete) and open seams
Clogged inlets and catch basins
Depressions holding water
Priority 3: Surface Protection and Visibility (After 1 and 2 Are Done)
Sealcoat (only if pavement is structurally sound)
Restriping: symbols, crosswalks, lane markings
Signage refresh
Spending money on sealcoat while your drainage is failing is like painting a house with a leaking roof. Fix the water first.
Crack Sealing: When It Works and When It's a Waste of Money
Crack sealing is one of the highest-return actions in parking lot maintenance because it blocks water from entering the pavement structure and slows the deterioration cycle.
Timing matters a lot. Many agencies and DOTs target cooler seasons when cracks are at a better "open" width for sealant adhesion. Montana DOT's crack sealing manual, for example, notes best results in cooler weather (early spring or late fall) under ideal application conditions.
But crack sealing isn't always the right call. Don't waste money on it if:
The cracks are moving because the base is gone (you'll just chase them forever)
The cracks are wet or dirty (adhesion will fail)
You seal the cracks but ignore the drainage problem feeding them (water still wins)
Crack sealing works when the pavement structure is still sound and you're preventing water intrusion. It doesn't work as a substitute for structural repair.
To scope a crack sealing job accurately, you need to know total linear feet of cracking. TruTec can help you quantify this from aerial imagery, so you have the numbers you need before requesting contractor bids.
Sealcoating Your Parking Lot: What It Can and Can't Do
There's a lot of confusion around sealcoating, so here's the straightforward version.
Sealcoating is surface protection. It is not structural repair.
What sealcoating can do:
Slow surface oxidation and weathering
Improve appearance and light reflectance
Provide some protection against minor chemical exposure (oil, gas)
What sealcoating cannot do:
Fix base failure, alligator cracking, or rutting
"Glue" broken pavement back together
Substitute for crack sealing or drainage repair
How Often Should You Sealcoat?
There's real variation in expert recommendations. The Asphalt Institute notes that a well-designed, low-traffic pavement (like a parking lot or driveway) shouldn't require sealing for roughly 2 to 5 years, depending on climate and original quality. That's a durable principle, even if the specific guidance is older.
In practice, many contractors recommend sealcoating every 2 to 3 years for commercial surfaces as a general rule of thumb, depending on traffic and climate.
Our take: Don't lock in a calendar. Lock in an inspection trigger. If the surface is oxidized, porous, and shedding fines, and the base is still solid, sealcoating makes sense. If you have widespread fatigue cracking or potholes, you're past sealcoat territory. You need repairs first. For a deeper look at when resurfacing becomes the smarter investment, see our parking lot resurfacing cost guide.
Parking Lot Striping: How Often to Restripe and What to Verify First
Faded lines aren't just ugly. They break traffic flow, hide crosswalks, and obscure accessible access aisles. Striping is one of the cheapest things you can do to improve parking lot safety and usability.
How Often Should You Restripe?
Typical guidance clusters around a 12 to 24 month cycle, depending on weather, plowing frequency, traffic volume, and paint type. High-traffic lots and lots in harsh climates may need annual restriping.
What to Verify Before You Restripe Your Parking Lot
This is a step a lot of people skip, and it costs them. Before you restripe:
Confirm stall geometry still makes sense for your current usage
Confirm ADA stalls and access aisles are correctly sized and located (see the next section)
Confirm fire lanes, no-parking zones, and loading zones match current operations
Repainting outdated layouts just locks in problems you could have fixed for free. To verify your current stall counts, striping quantities, and overall layout before committing to a restripe, TruTec's aerial takeoff can give you a clear picture of what's actually on the ground.
ADA Parking Lot Compliance Checklist: Space Counts, Dimensions, and Rules
If you restripe without checking ADA requirements, you can end up paying twice. Once for the striping, and again to grind and redo it when it doesn't comply.
Here's a practical ADA audit you can complete in under an hour.
1. Count Your Required Accessible Spaces
ADA guidance treats each parking facility (each individual lot or garage) separately, not the total across a site. So a campus with three separate lots needs to meet the count for each lot independently.
ADA provides a chart for how many accessible spaces are required based on total spaces in that facility. The basic starting points:
| Total Spaces in Lot | Required Accessible Spaces |
|---|---|
| 1 to 25 | 1 |
| 26 to 50 | 2 |
| 51 to 75 | 3 |
| 76 to 100 | 4 |
| 101 to 150 | 5 |
| 151 to 200 | 6 |
| 201 to 300 | 7 |
| 301 to 400 | 8 |
| 401 to 500 | 9 |
| 501 to 1000 | 2% of total |
| 1001+ | 20, plus 1 for each 100 over 1000 |
And at least 1 of every 6 accessible spaces must be van-accessible.
The official ADA.gov page on Accessible Parking Spaces is the authoritative source for all of these requirements — it covers features, calculating required counts, and special parking conditions.
Getting your total stall count right is the first step. TruTec detects and counts parking stalls (including ADA stalls) from aerial imagery, so you can confirm your numbers without a manual site count.
2. Verify Dimensions and Slopes
From ADA parking guidance:
Car accessible space: 96 inches wide with a 60-inch access aisle minimum
Van option 1: 132-inch space with a 60-inch aisle
Van option 2: 96-inch space with a 96-inch aisle
Slope (all directions): no more than 1:48, which is approximately 2.08%
Sign height: accessible sign mounted so the bottom is at least 60 inches above ground
Van spaces: require 98 inches minimum vertical clearance along the space, aisle, and route
3. Verify Location and Accessible Route
Accessible spaces should be on the shortest accessible route to an accessible entrance, and dispersed when there are multiple accessible entrances.
4. Restriping Is an ADA Trigger
This is the part a lot of facility managers miss. ADA explicitly flags restriping as a moment where accessible parking requirements come into play. The logic is simple: if you're already repainting the lot, do it right.
Practical takeaway: When you restripe, treat ADA as part of the scope from the start, not as an afterthought you deal with after complaints.
Parking Lot Drainage Maintenance: Why It Comes Before Everything Else
If your lot drains poorly, you're basically funding future potholes. Every dollar spent on drainage maintenance is money you won't spend on structural repairs later.
Drainage Inspection Checklist
After storms, identify standing water zones and trace them to their cause (grading issue vs. clogged inlet)
Inspect and clear catch basins and inlets seasonally, and after unusually heavy rainfall
Keep sediment and debris out of the storm system (it backs up faster than you'd think)
Even FAA guidance for airfield pavement makes the same point: proper disposal of runoff and groundwater is vital to pavement foundation stability, and drainage structures like catch basins should be inspected on regular intervals and after heavy rainfall. Airfields aren't parking lots, but the physics is identical.
Sweeping Is Not Just Cosmetic
EPA's parking lot and street sweeping guidance frames sweeping as a stormwater best management practice, not just cleanup. Effective sweeping programs can remove substantial debris, and spring sweeping in particular reduces pollutants from deicing materials, sand, and grit.
If you've been treating lot sweeping as an appearance issue, reconsider. It's a drainage and environmental issue too.
Winter Parking Lot Maintenance: Safety Without Trashing Your Lot
Snow and ice are unavoidable. Sloppy salt use is avoidable.
What Good Winter Parking Lot Maintenance Actually Looks Like
Plow early and often. Mechanical removal beats chemical dependency every time.
Don't pile snow in access aisles, curb ramps, or drainage paths. This causes ADA issues and drainage problems simultaneously.
Store salt and deicers properly. Covered, contained, handled so they don't contact stormwater runoff.
The EPA maintains a Salt Resources page (last updated September 30, 2025) that centralizes risk information and guidance materials for road salt and deicing chemicals. It's worth bookmarking if you manage lots in cold climates.
The simple principle: Salt is a tool, not a strategy. Your actual strategy is: (1) plow, (2) spot-treat, and (3) keep salt out of waterways and landscaped areas.
Sealant Regulations: Coal Tar Restrictions You Need to Know
This section matters because it can change what products you're allowed (or willing) to use, and not every contractor keeps up with local regulations.
Several jurisdictions have restricted or banned coal tar-based pavement sealants due to environmental and health concerns:
| Jurisdiction | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | Statewide restriction | Minnesota PCA guidance |
| Maine | Prohibited sale and application | Maine DEP |
| Washington State | State law restricts coal tar products | Washington RCW |
| Virginia | Restricts high-PAH sealants | Virginia legislation summary |
| Washington, D.C. | Ban on coal tar and high-PAH sealants | DOEE guidance |
| Canada (Federal) | Restrictions on coal tar substances | Canada Gazette |
What to do with this: Don't pick a sealer based on habit. Ask your contractor what sealer system they're proposing (coal tar vs. asphalt emulsion vs. alternatives), and confirm local compliance before you schedule work. Getting this wrong can mean fines, rework, and contract disputes.
Parking Lot Maintenance Costs: 2026 Budget Guide
Prices swing by region, access conditions, mobilization, surface condition, and how much prep and repair is included in the scope. But you still need a starting point to sanity-check bids. Here's what recent (2024 to 2026) published sources show.
All figures below are directional ranges from cited sources. Use them to evaluate bids, not to replace them.
Parking Lot Striping Costs
| Source | Range | Pricing Unit |
|---|---|---|
| HomeAdvisor (updated Jul 2025) | $500 to $1,000 typical job total | $5 to $30 per line |
| Angi (published Nov 2025) | $300 to $1,200 typical total | $0.20 to $1/LF or $5 to $20/space |
| Second Line Striping | Per-stall calculators available | Useful for quick estimates |
Parking Lot Sealcoating Costs
| Source | Range (per SF) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fix Asphalt | $0.20 to $0.50 | Commercial lot pricing guide |
| Foothills Paving (Jun 2025) | $0.25 to $0.45 | General commercial estimate |
| Sosco Paving (May 2025) | $0.17 to $0.35 | California-focused |
| Angi driveway sealcoating (Nov 2025) | $0.06 to $0.38 | Material-only consumer pricing, not installed commercial |
Parking Lot Resurfacing and Replacement Costs
For a detailed breakdown of resurfacing expenses, see our complete guide to parking lot resurfacing costs.
| Source | Range (per SF) | Type |
|---|---|---|
| C&C Super Seal | $1 to $3 (resurface), $4 to $10 (replace) | Regional, directional |
| HomeAdvisor (Jun 2025) | $2 to $4.50 | Asphalt parking lot construction |
| Asphalt Calculator | $3.50 to $7.00 | General paving (sanity check) |
How to Get Accurate Numbers Before Requesting Bids
Cost tables are only useful if you know your quantities. Budgets get real when you can say "I have 45,000 square feet of sealcoat area, 3,200 linear feet of cracking, and 185 stalls to restripe" instead of "it's a medium lot."
Here's how each major maintenance activity is typically priced:
| Activity | Priced By |
|---|---|
| Sealcoat | Square footage |
| Patches | Square footage or tonnage |
| Striping | Linear feet, per line, or per stall |
| ADA compliance | Counts, dimensions, and signage |
This is exactly where good measurement tools pay for themselves. When you have accurate quantities before you request bids, you get tighter proposals, fewer change orders, and better scope control. If you're still using spreadsheets for your estimates, our article on why construction estimating software beats spreadsheets explains what you're leaving on the table.
How to Measure a Parking Lot for Accurate Bids and Scopes
If you're still bidding off "it's a medium lot," you're paying an accuracy tax. Scope creep, inflated change orders, and mismatched bids all trace back to not knowing your numbers.
What Quantities You Need to Measure
-> Total asphalt area (SF)
-> Total concrete area (SF), or key concrete features like sidewalks, ramps, and curbs
-> Number of stalls and ADA stalls
-> Linear feet of striping (or at least stall count plus key markings)
-> Curbs, stop bars, and arrows as needed for specific scopes
Traditional Measurement Takes Hours. It Doesn't Have To.
The old approach is driving to the site with a measuring wheel, or spending an hour in Google Earth trying to scale measurements off a screenshot. Both work, but both are slow and prone to error, especially when you're bidding multiple properties.
TruTec was built to solve exactly this problem. Type in an address, and our AI detects pavement features from aerial imagery and returns square footage, stall counts, and striping quantities in seconds. Export a bid-ready report and move to the next property.
That's measurement for one property. When you're managing a portfolio of parking lots, the time savings compound fast. Learn more about how AI-powered estimating is transforming the bidding process for paving contractors.
How to Get Instant Parking Lot Measurements with AI
We built TruTec because good parking lot maintenance depends on accurate data, and getting that data has always been the bottleneck.
The screenshot below shows the actual TruTec homepage — a clean, no-friction starting point where you type an address and get back square footage, stall counts, and striping quantities in seconds.
Instant Takeoffs from Any Address
Our core workflow is simple: search an address, and TruTec uses computer vision to detect features from aerial imagery. You get asphalt and concrete area, parking stall counts (including ADA stalls), striping linear footage, curbs, stop bars, and arrows. All of it exportable as a bid-ready PDF. No site visit required for the initial scope.
Site Photos That Actually Document Damage
Our Site Photos feature goes beyond simple photo capture. When your crew uploads photos from the field, TruTec automatically detects damage like cracking, potholes, and faded striping. The system writes captions, GPS-tags every photo to the map, and organizes images into before/during/after stages automatically.
That means your maintenance documentation is built as you do the work, not cobbled together after the fact. And when it's time to share with a client or property owner, you can generate a branded PDF report or send a trackable link. You'll even see when your client views it, so you know when to follow up.
How Accurate Measurement Makes Maintenance Approvals Faster
Good maintenance is mostly "catch it early." Fast measurement and clean documentation make it easier to approve preventive work before small issues become large invoices. When you can show a property owner exactly how many square feet of cracking you found, where it is on a map, and what it'll cost to fix now versus later, approvals happen faster.
That's what we're building at TruTec: the measurement and documentation layer that makes your parking lot maintenance checklist actually work. For more on how technology is changing this space, explore the TruTec blog for guides on estimating, inspections, and cost planning.
Scope-of-Work Template for Parking Lot Maintenance Bids
Use this template when requesting bids so every contractor is quoting the same thing. Copy it, fill in the brackets, and attach your quantities.
Project: Parking Lot Maintenance, [Property Name]
Date: [Date]
Goal: Restore safety, drainage performance, and compliance; prevent water intrusion and structural deterioration.
1. Prep
Sweep and clean surface; remove vegetation from cracks
Protect landscaping and storm drains during work (no slurry into inlets)
2. Repairs
Crack sealing: Clean and dry cracks; seal per manufacturer guidance; include routing if specified
Patching: Remove failed areas to sound pavement; rebuild and compact patch; tie-ins flush
Drainage: Clear and repair inlets; adjust grades if needed to remove birdbaths
3. Surface Protection (If Included)
Sealcoat system: Specify product type (coal tar vs. asphalt emulsion vs. other) and confirm local compliance
Application conditions: Temperature and dry-time requirements, traffic control plan
4. Striping and Markings
Restripe layout per approved plan
Include ADA symbols, access aisles, crosswalks, stop bars, arrows, and fire lanes as required
5. ADA Compliance Verification
Confirm required accessible space counts per facility
Confirm stall and aisle dimensions, signage, and slopes meet ADA guidance
6. Closeout
Provide before/after photos (dated)
Provide as-built quantities (SF, LF, counts) so future budgeting is easier. Using a tool like TruTec for pre-bid takeoffs and post-project documentation makes this step faster and more reliable.
Common Parking Lot Maintenance Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
These are the errors we see over and over. Every one of them burns money.
Sealcoating over base failures. If you see alligator cracking and apply sealcoat anyway, you've just spent money on a surface that'll crack through again within a season. Fix the structure first.
Ignoring drainage. This is the single most common root cause of premature pavement failure. Cracks keep coming back because water keeps getting in. Fix the drainage, and half your maintenance problems get smaller.
Restriping without ADA checks. ADA explicitly flags restriping as a moment to correct accessible parking. If you repaint without verifying counts, dimensions, and signage, you may end up grinding and redoing it.
Letting snow piles block drains and accessible routes. This creates ADA compliance issues and drainage problems at the same time. It's a two-for-one mistake.
Not measuring quantities up front. When your scope is "fix the parking lot," you're inviting scope creep, change orders, and bids that don't compare to each other. Measure first, then bid. Accurate takeoffs prevent most budget surprises.
Parking Lot Maintenance FAQ
What's the Single Best Parking Lot Maintenance Activity?
Crack and drainage management. It's the highest-impact way to keep water out and slow deterioration. Every other maintenance activity becomes less expensive when water isn't actively destroying the base.
Should I Sealcoat a Brand-New Parking Lot?
There's genuine disagreement on timing. A durable principle from the Asphalt Institute is that well-built, low-traffic pavements may not need sealing for a few years. Practically speaking: inspect the surface, address any cracks or drainage issues, and follow product and contractor guidance rather than internet timelines.
How Do I Avoid ADA Mistakes When Restriping?
Use the ADA parking guidance tables to confirm required accessible counts (per facility, not site-wide), confirm van ratios (at least 1 in 6), confirm dimensions and slopes, and confirm signage height. ADA's restriping resource is specifically designed for this scenario.
How Often Should a Parking Lot Be Inspected?
Quick visual checks should happen daily or after storms (5 to 10 minutes). Deeper inspections with measurement and documentation should happen quarterly. A full evaluation including ADA compliance and budget planning should happen annually. Adjust the cadence based on traffic, age, and climate. For larger portfolios, drone-based inspections can help you cover more ground faster.
What's the Difference Between Crack Sealing and Crack Filling?
Crack sealing uses a rubberized sealant that stays flexible and moves with the crack. Crack filling uses a rigid material that works better for cracks that aren't actively moving. For most parking lots, crack sealing is the more durable choice because it accommodates thermal expansion and contraction. Both beat doing nothing.
How Long Does Parking Lot Sealcoating Last?
Typically 2 to 5 years depending on traffic, climate, and application quality. The Asphalt Institute provides guidance on timing, and most commercial contractors recommend cycles of 2 to 3 years. But the best trigger is the condition of the surface, not a calendar.
Can I Handle Parking Lot Maintenance Myself?
Small tasks like debris removal, sweeping, and visual inspections? Absolutely. Those should be part of your daily and weekly routine. But crack sealing, sealcoating, patching, and striping are typically better handled by experienced contractors with the right equipment and materials. The exception: if you're a paving or maintenance contractor yourself, this entire checklist is your bread and butter.
When Should I Replace My Parking Lot Instead of Repairing It?
When base failures dominate the surface. If you're seeing widespread alligator cracking, deep rutting, and potholes that keep returning after patching, the base layer has likely failed. At that point, continued surface repairs are throwing money away. A structural evaluation will tell you whether an overlay is sufficient or if full reconstruction is needed. For budgeting purposes, resurfacing typically runs $1 to $3 per SF, while replacement runs $4 to $10 per SF.
How Do I Get Accurate Measurements for My Parking Lot?
The traditional approach is a measuring wheel and site visits, or scaling off Google Earth screenshots. Both work but take hours per property. TruTec automates this with computer vision: enter an address, and our AI returns asphalt area, stall counts, and striping quantities from aerial imagery in seconds. It's especially valuable when you're bidding or maintaining multiple properties.
All cost ranges in this guide are based on 2025 and 2026 sources where available, and each range is cited to its original source. Actual quotes vary by region, mobilization, prep scope, and the condition of your pavement base. Treat these figures as sanity-check ranges, then get competitive bids for your specific lot.