Michigan Asphalt Repair Contractors

Repair fixes defects in pavement you are keeping — potholes, failed patches, sunken sections, trench cuts. Paving installs or replaces a surface across a whole area, with base preparation and grading. They are usually different crews, different equipment, and different project sizes, which is why a company excellent at one may decline the other.

Almost always because the base under it has failed and the repair only replaced the asphalt above it. Water gets into the base, traffic works the weakened area, and the patch breaks up. The fix is a full-depth repair: cut out the asphalt and the failed base, rebuild the base, then repave. It costs more once and less over five years.

An infrared unit heats the existing asphalt until it can be raked and reworked, new material is blended in, and the area is recompacted. The advantage is a seamless repair with no cold joint at the edge, which is where conventional patches usually fail first. It suits surface defects and rough joints on a sound base. It cannot fix base failure, and a contractor proposing it for a lot that is sinking is proposing the wrong method. The infrared asphalt repair guide covers which defects qualify and what belongs in the proposal.

It varies widely, which is why minimum job size is worth asking about before you invite a bid. Many paving contractors have a floor in the several-thousand-dollar range; dedicated repair crews go considerably lower. Batching a property's defects into one visit is the reliable way to get small work priced sensibly.

Usually an asphalt repair contractor rather than the utility crew, and the pavement section matters: a trench reinstated with less base or thinner asphalt than the surrounding lot will settle and crack along both edges. Ask what section is being matched and how the trench is being compacted in lifts.