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infared pothole repair

Dwan Hall

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
Occupation
Self Employed
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.
 

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Dwan Hall

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
Occupation
Self Employed
Finished pothole took a total of 3 sets and 2 1/2 hours. income about $1500
 

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Grader4me

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
1,792
Location
New Brunswick, Canada
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

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
1,226
Location
Kodiak Ak.
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

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
Occupation
Self Employed
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?
 

Dwan Hall

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
Occupation
Self Employed
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
 

Dwan Hall

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
Occupation
Self Employed
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
 

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Dwan Hall

Senior Member
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Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
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Self Employed
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.
 

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Dwan Hall

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
Occupation
Self Employed
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

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2003
Messages
913
Location
Stoneham,MA
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

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
Occupation
Self Employed
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

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
137
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
Owner / Doing whatever it takes to pay the bills!
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

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
1,029
Location
Juneau, Alaska
Occupation
Self Employed
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.
 
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