Choosing the right asphalt for commercial surfacing projects is important. If you get this decision wrong, then your surface won't last as long as you want it to. You'll have to do more maintenance and repair work.

In some cases, a warm-mix asphalt is a good solution for even demanding commercial surfaces. How is this asphalt different? What are the benefits of using it?

What Is Warm-Mix Asphalt?

Like regular hot asphalt, a warm mix uses heat to create asphalt by coating aggregate bases with binders. However, you use special technologies to create warm asphalt at lower temperatures. This mix doesn't need to be as hot.

Here, you reduce the thickness of the binder before it is added to aggregates by putting additives in the mix. This reduced thickness allows you to coat the aggregates effectively without needing to use high temperatures.

Why Use Warm-Mix Asphalt?

While effective, hot asphalt has some limitations. These limitations can be problematic on large or time-sensitive commercial surfacing projects.

For example, you won't find it easy to use hot asphalt in cold weather conditions. External temperatures can affect the speed at which the asphalt sets. If it sets too soon, then you can't work on it, and the finished surface might not be as stable or as robust as you need.

This also sometimes affects when you can do surfacing work. For example, you might not be able to work at night if temperatures drop too low. Projects might take longer, and you might need to close roads down more often and for longer periods during busy traffic hours.

Warm-mix asphalts aren't affected by ambient temperatures as much. You can work with them in colder weather. So, you don't have seasonal limitations; you can also work outside of daytime hours if you need to. You can schedule projects in a more timely manner and complete them more quickly.

Hot asphalt also has some environmental downsides. Its production uses a lot of fuel. It poses some health problems for workers. It also produces more emissions. Again, this can affect working times. If local air quality is low, then you might not be allowed to put down hot asphalt because of its additional emission load.

A warm mix uses less fuel in its production. It is safer to work with and it produces fewer emissions.

To find out if a warm mix is a good surfacing solution for your project, contact commercial asphalt paving services.