Hold vs rebuild
If the same hole comes back, you did not have a pothole.
A bag of mix from a home-center aisle is not this page. Commercial parking lot repair is saw-cut, remove failed material, fix the base if it is gone, and compact a patch that can take cars or trucks until the capital mill. Skin patches on alligator that is already pumping peel in a season. Repeat potholes at the same inlet or dock are a drainage or base problem wearing a pothole costume. Patching is also how a mill package stays honest: full-depth panels inside the overlay, priced before the milling machine finds them at 2 a.m.
NEXTPAVE bids commercial and public patching from Charlotte — as a hold, as winter emergency work, or as the full-depth line inside a mill. We do not sell kits and we do not patch driveways. If the honest scope is overlay or reconstruction, the desk will say so. A cheap patch that fails before the capital job is not savings.
Right when
- Isolated failures on a lot that is otherwise holding: one aisle, one inlet, one dock panel.
- A hold until mill and overlay is funded — with the understanding it is a hold.
- Full-depth repairs called out inside a mill package so they are not a night extra.
Wrong when
- A court that is alligator end-to-end. That is mill or rebuild. Patching the whole lot is a rebuild priced as extras.
- Cold-patch bags on a commercial drive aisle. Different product, different industry.
- Sealcoat over open potholes. The sealer will not invent a section.
What fails
Patch jobs that become the next RFP.
Facility managers know these. Spec them out, or you buy them twice.
Skin patch on a full-depth failure
A thin lift over pumping mix looks closed on Friday and opens after the next truck dwell. Saw-cut to sound material or do not call it a repair.
The hole that keeps the same address
Same inlet, same dock, same winter. Water and base are the bid. Another dump of mix is a calendar entry.
Patch, then mill, no map
If full-depth areas are not on the mill plan, the night crew finds them with the machine. That is a change order with the lot already closed.
What’s in the package
A commercial patch, not a driveway kit.
Scope
- Saw-cut full-depth or partial-depth repairs to the spec
- Base repair where the failure is not only the wearing course
- Compaction and tie-in so the patch is not a trip edge
- Work windows on a live lot — night or staged aisles
- A map of patches that mill or overlay will still need, if capital work is next
Emergency vs capital
A winter hold so receiving can run is a real job. Pretending the hold is the five-year fix is how the same purchase order repeats.
Climate and the patch
Freeze-thaw opens edges. Heat shoves a poorly compacted repair. Wet seasons punish anything placed on a pumping hole. Say which.
What to send
What to send so patching is not a site walk guess.
Photos help. A marked plan of every failure helps more. ‘Fix the potholes’ is not a quantity.
- A marked aerial or site plan of each repair, not only a photo of the worst one
- Whether this is a hold until mill or the only work this year
- Truck vs car traffic on the failed panels
- Known drainage issues at the same locations
- Night or live-lot constraints
Related scope
Often in the same bid.
Mill & overlay
When patching is only buying time on a tired lot.
Read the scope
Parking lots
When the repairs sit inside a live-lot capital job.
Read the scope
Sealcoating
After the lot actually drains — not over open holes.
Read the scope
New asphalt paving
When the panel is a rebuild, not a patch.
Read the scope
FAQ
Commercial repair, not a home-center SKU.
- Is this the same as the asphalt patch sold at a hardware store?
- No. Those results are bags and DIY. This page is saw-cut commercial repair on parking lots and yards. Different product, different contract, different traffic.
- Can patching replace mill and overlay?
- Not on a lot that is failed throughout. Patching holds isolated failures or cuts out panels inside a mill. If alligator is the whole field, you are describing overlay or reconstruction.
- Why do patched potholes come back?
- Usually water, a failed base, or a skin patch on a full-depth hole. The repair has to remove the failure, not cover it. If the same spot returns, send drainage and cores with the next request.
- Can patches be in the same bid as mill?
- They should be. Full-depth areas discovered at night are how mill jobs grow. Map them in the package.
Estimating