Welcome back to the Sunrise Asphalt blog! This time around we are looking at a few of the tools we use in that asphalt biz! Whether or not you’re patching a small piece in your driveway or out paving a mall’s entire parking lot you need to have the right tools for the right job. Here are just a few of those tools and what we use them for.
Squeegees
Aside from being fun to say (and strange to spell) squeegees are a tool that sees a lot of use in our industry. There are a wide variety and specific uses for when you’ll want to use them. Some are made specifically for the quick application of sealer without a need for spraying, to better smooth crack fill, offer clean surfaces. No matter the job, there’s a squeegee with the perfect, head, handle, clamp etc. to do it.
Rakes
Just like the squeegee, the rakes are another long-handled tool to help disperse the material as needed. We don’t really need to describe this, do we? These are essentially suped up versions of the tool you have for your yard. They’re longer, tougher rakes made to handle the job at hand. These are usually long handled to be better suited to working with hot asphalt. The teeth of the rake are hardened and longer allowing for easier work when pulling hot asphalt from piles.
Brushes and Brooms
Brushes and brooms are used for everything you’d expect. Clearing debris from the job site, apply sealcoats, oil spot removers and the like. Certain brushes like wire scrapers are for a much more specific process, the scraping and wire brushing of problem areas like oil spots.
Tamp
Now, this is a tool folks might not be nearly as familiar with. A tamp is any sort of tool used to flatten or compact and compress an aggregate like asphalt. It pushes the material tighter together creating a denser surface. If fixing a pothole than using a tool like a tamper will ensure the patch is strong, sturdy.
Crack Hoe
The asphalt crack hoe has a heavy steel tip that is used for cleaning cracks in the asphalt. Things like vegetation growing or debris in the cracks of asphalt create a tough surface to repair. When you’re planning a repair, use this tool first to dislodge debris, break-up particles, dirt, rocks, and remove vegetation before attempting to patch it.
Measuring Wheels
With probably the shortest handle of all our tools is the measuring wheel. These are built with balance and smooth rolling to be key. These wheels are used to measure out the exact dimensions of the area needed. If you’re working on the driveway at home, you probably don’t need this but for us in the industry having a precise tool can make the planning stage so much faster – not to mention accurate!
Asphalt Shoes
Bet you didn’t expect to be buying some new kicks for an asphalt job did you? Well, imagine if you were laying a fresh stretch of asphalt, properly squeegeed smooth. Now you gotta grab a tool on the other side, or you’ve accidently squeegeed yourself into a corner? If you were wearing regular shoes you’d be leaving marks all across the asphalt (not to mention melting your shoes!) You don’t want either of those things to happen! Asphalt shoes come in two varieties, metal or wood but they both work in the same concept. One size fits all design lets you step in with your work boots, strap them in and get to work without damaging the surface.
These are just a few of the common kinds of tools we use in our asphalt jobs. Like any other task, you want to make sure you have the right tools lest the end product suffer for it. When it comes to asphalt, that’s exceptionally critical. We paved roads and lots to provide long-lasting surfaces that we can count on, to have them fail early would be a terrible blow to their usefulness.
If you have an asphalt surface in need of work, or plans to get a whole stretch done, contact us at Sunrise Asphalt and we can get the job done, with the right tools, and the right know-how.
