infared pothole repair

[Dwan Hall]

Well I got this thing in the mail and thought I would give it a try. LOL

True story, Having to fight with the local asphalt co. (2 or them) to get someone to come and repair a few potholes in the lots I am responsible for and getting quotes of $1000.00 each for them to send a crew to repair them I looked into doing it myself.
This can be done with 1 man but with 2 it works out a lot smother.
Infared machine heats the asphalt to around 300 degrees in about 5 minutes, let it set for 5 more minutes then heat it again for about 3 more minutes to get up to 2" of penetration. I filled the hole with ground up RAP (ground up old asphalt) and reheated it. Ran a roller over it and called it good.
there are no seams to allow water to seep in making it go bad in the future. Takes about 1 hour for each 4' X 4' set from leaving shop till I am back in the shop. @ $500 per set that is not bad wages and 1/2 the price the big boys charge plus I don't have anyware near the overhead. I don't have to rely on the batch plant to be open, outside temperature makes no differance, (can do it in winter) and it is another feather in my cap.

Damm I keep asking for more work and keep getting it. At 60+ years old you would think I would learn.

[Dwan Hall]

Finished pothole took a total of 3 sets and 2 1/2 hours. income about $1500

[Grader4me]

Good looking job. Quite a machine. Hey you wouldn't be thinking of taking over for your local DOT fixing potholes would you? Maybe we better start discussing how to spread asphalt with your grader.
Maybe start a new branch of your company. You could name it "Dwan Hall's potholes r us" :) Thanks for sharing your pictures. Very interesting.

[Lashlander]

Looks good Dwan. Interesting approach. We have one asphalt plant and one concete plant. You want to talk about getting product when they decide to get around to it.

[Dwan Hall]

was going to do this job at night but thought doing it durning the day would attract attention. It did and I got 2 more jobs from it and a possible 3rd.

Anyone want to buy a small business that could gross 100K a year with little work?

[murray83]

What would a rig like that set you back?

[Dwan Hall]

What would a rig like that set you back?

I already had most of what I needed. Not including 10yd dump truck.
I tried it with a plate compactor and did not like the results.


The infrared unit under 10K
The roller e-bay 6K
1 ton truck w. roll off 40K
second truck w/roll off 40K
Hand tools $100
Trailer to haul roller 10K
high priced competition priceless

Dwan

[murray83]

10k for the unit seems within reason,interesting to see how it works for you long term.

[Dwan Hall]

Just did another repair.

Local asphalt co. finished a job and 2 days later it rained, Customer did not like the bird bath left in a drive area and held back $20,000 till job was corrected. Asphalt co was going to do a cut and patch on a new parking area, so I said what have you got to loose let me try to fix it first.
Results, cost asphalt co. $1000 for me to spend 3 hours there reheating and reshaping asphalt so it would drain. Customer was happy, Asphalt co got paid, I got paid, and I have future work from 2 happy customers. Picture before repair. after repair to fallow

[Grader4me]

How long before the finished product picture? I'm darn near out of :popcorn

[tonka]

me 2.....and:drinkup

[Dwan Hall]

Still raining but here you can see the 2" deep lake is draining. No seams and I like that. Saved about $2000 worth of work.

[Grader4me]

Looks good Dwan. Wonder how it will last compared to the other new asphalt?

[Dwan Hall]

This last job should last as long as the origional material.
The only thing that I did was to reheat the asphalt to about 325 degrees about 2" deep and remove a little over 1" of it then run a roller over it to reshape what was left.
If I didn't over heat it or over compact it then it should last. I think, I hope.

[cat320]

definatly a sweet deal and nich market to get into. with the way out streets are hear I could be working everyday all day if the town had the money.

[Dwan Hall]

I have't showed the city here yet. I would be scared of all the work they would hand me. Same goes for the state. As soon as the city sees how good of a job it can do they will buy one.

[ASPHALT04]

Not to rain on the parade, But this year I have been patching a lot of parking lots that the infrared guys had been doing in previous years. What I have found is a lot of infrared patches from even just last year are so dried out they are just like loose stone, even on asphalt that is not even all that old.
You could tell some of the patches had new material added to them, because you could peel it right from the top of all the dried out marbles under it.
I'm not saying that infrared doesn't provide a good repair for fairly new asphalt; however I'm not all that impressed with them on an older lot. For now I stick to sawcutting. :my2c

[Dwan Hall]

ASPHALT04;
You didn't notice, I live in a rain forest and found a little rain helps my mind grow.
On older asphalt do you think removing all of it and replacing it with new but having a mixed edge instead of a saw cut with a shear line would be better. As I said I live in a rain forest and everything is always wet. So water is our bigest enemy and not letting it get under a patch would make them last longer. Around here saw cut patches leed to another one the next year and another the next and so on. There are areas here ware there are 5 to 10 patches all joining each other and it is not the sub base that failed but seems to be the seam.
I am looking to give my customers the best job I can and if this system is not going to work the way I am doing it then I need to change my tactics. I want this system to work and am willing to try a multitude of things for it's success.
I am finding a lot of oil coming to the sacrifice the second time I heat a spot but the oil seems to mix back in well when worked.
Do you think adding more asphalt oil would help?

Keep raining please. it means I don't have to go outside and work. I can stay here and learn.

[stumpjumper83]

dwan, did you build the rig, or buy it? From the pics, it seems to do a great job.

[Dwan Hall]

bought it from ARS
http://www.asphaltreheat.com/

There are other makes out there but these people have been nice to deal with and only took a week to build it.

[ASPHALT04]

Dwan Hall;
I don't know if adding asphalt oil would do much unless you could mix it in the full depth of the asphalt and at that I don't know what the outcome would be either.
With asphalt the oil is aways working its way to the top anyways and once it has stopped thats when the asphalt pavement begins to fail because it loses it flexibility and cohesiveness.
I don't have all the answers and I just speak from my experience.

[cat320]

what about adding a rubber into the mix like they are doing on some state highways here supost to make it last longer ? maybe make it bind together better?

[Dwan Hall]

cat320,
We have some of that rubberized asphalt on the school track. Kind of cool stuff but I don't have axises to any for myself to try. Not sure it would work in spot applications but if it was available I would be willing to test it on a patch.

ASPHALT04,
In some of my readings I have herd of spaying a light amount or rejuvenater (sp) in with the mix. I cant get that here ether.
For what I have been able to accomplish so far I am going to stick with the co. and engineer I bought this thing from until I can get it to fail. I know it is not a cure all and there will be a lot of places it does not work. For that I can fall back on the asphalt co. whom I work with striping there parking lots. But for the 1/2 doz. jobs I have done so far it has worked as advertised or close to it.
I am learning so much at this old age.

[Tacodriver]

I was wondering if the I R heater could be also used to thaw the ground to get rid of frost, I have seen ground heaters similar to that being used to thaw the ground. Apparently they would thaw about an inch an hour. Maybe another use for that device. :)

[Dwan Hall]

If the surface is dark it should work great. it brings asphalt up to 250 degrees in 5 minutes about 1" deep. Light collard surface would not absorb as much heat and would take longer. I plan on trying it this winter. Just to see what happens.

By the way every patch except 1 has held up so far. and I went back and redid the 1 failure.