Why You Should Consider Asphalt Milling for Your Driveway or Parking Lot

Asphalt Milling – Best Method to Remove and Recycle Pavement

Driveways and parking lots endure a lot of heavy duty use. Certain types of soil erode more quickly over time. Due to the elements, especially regular rain events, asphalt milling can be the best method to restore driveways and parking lots.

Asphalt Milling for Major Roads and Bridges

In heavily trafficked areas where roads and bridges deteriorate rapidly, asphalt milling is the process of partially removing the most damaged surfaces and resurfacing with asphalt. For public and private driveways and parking lots, there are several features that can be repaired. These include:

. Rutting which causes low spots in paved surfaces

. Loss of vehicle ride quality from pot holes, pavement cracks, sagging and bumps

. Damage from vehicle accidents that mar asphalt surfaces

. Raveling of asphalt from separation of aggregate materials

Advantages of Asphalt Milling

One of the advantages of asphalt milling is actually in the milling process itself. A heavy duty, industrial milling machine, sometimes called a “cold planer,” grinds existing driveway and parking lot asphalt to a fine powder.

A milling machine has a large drum that rotates and holds “scrolls” which have holders for tools that have attached “cutters” on the exterior of the drum. The largest milling machines can cut, grind and collect all of the milling materials to a distance of up to 75 or more feet, depending on specific manufactured size.

Another state-of-the-art feature of today’s asphalt milling machines is a conveyor that captures materials before they fall off the drum. Water is used to contain dust and to reduce heat produced by the milling machine, while in operation.

Asphalt milling has the advantage of a neater, more precise finish to surfaces and also creates less airborne dust. Many environmentally conscious individuals seek asphalt milling services due to recycling of existing materials. This is also a cost savings by comparison to a full scale replacement of driveways and parking lots, which can create loss of use and convenience.

Another type of asphalt milling is known as “micro milling.” In this process, the micro milling machine uses specialty drums with many more teeth than a standard asphalt milling machine. The difference is that the micro milling machine can only mill materials at shallow levels. This process is less noisy and may be used as a final stage of asphalt milling in certain projects to remove and recycle driveways and parking lots.

Give McFarlane Asphalt a call at (201) 327-5258 to get your driveway looking better than ever!