Getting Ready for an Asphalt Milling Project
Look out across your Asphalt Driveway after another harsh winter up here in the Rattlesnake or down in the South Hills, and you will likely spot severe cracking, rutting, or pavement heaved up against your garage door. When basic sealcoating will not cut it anymore, Asphalt Milling is often your best bet to completely reset the Asphalt Milling surface without paying for a full, ground-up tear-out. Top Line Asphalt Missoula manages the Asphalt Milling process from start to finish for homes in Missoula, MT.
Before any heavy machinery rolls onto your property, you have some homework to do. While you cannot run a cold-planing milling machine yourself, you can handle the important prep work that keeps the Asphalt Milling project on track.
- Walk your property and flag hidden utilities, low-voltage lines, or buried sprinkler heads near the edges.
- Clear out all vehicles, trailers, and basketball hoops so the crew has a wide-open workspace.
- Check your slopes and drainage patterns to make sure water is not pooling against your foundation.
If your sub-base has completely washed out and your car sinks into mud every spring, Asphalt Milling alone will not fix that structural failure. You will need a professional crew from Top Line Asphalt Missoula to evaluate whether you need base stabilization before the milling machine touches your Asphalt Pavement.
What Happens When the Milling Machine Arrives
When the crew from Top Line Asphalt Missoula shows up, things get loud and fast. A massive Asphalt Milling machine grinds down the top one to three inches of damaged Asphalt, chewing it up and spitting the reclaimed Asphalt material straight up a conveyor belt into a dump truck. Your Asphalt Driveway will be entirely out of commission during this phase of Asphalt Milling. You will need to park down the street, keeping local Missoula parking regulations in mind if you are on a narrow neighborhood lane.
You can choose to have the ground Asphalt hauled away, or sometimes you can keep the millings if you want to pack down a long rural driveway or secondary parking pad. Trying to mill an Asphalt Pavement surface with hand tools or small rental equipment just does not work for a full driveway project; Asphalt Milling is strictly heavy-machinery territory requiring an experienced operator from Top Line Asphalt Missoula.
After the Milling: Cleanup and Next Steps
Once the old Asphalt Surface is stripped away during Asphalt Milling, you are left with a coarse, textured grey finish. If you are doing a full mill-and-overlay, fresh hot-mix Asphalt is laid down promptly to seal everything up and restore a smooth, dark Asphalt finish.
Your job after the paving crew leaves is mostly about patience. Stay completely off the new Asphalt Surface for at least 24 to 48 hours, especially when the July sun is baking Missoula and making fresh Asphalt soft. Avoid sharp, twisting steering wheel turns while your car is stopped on the Asphalt Pavement for the first couple of weeks to prevent scuffing. Keep an eye on the transitions where your Asphalt Driveway meets the concrete garage apron to make sure rainwater sheds away properly, protecting the Asphalt Milling work for the winters ahead.