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Asphalt Repair and Patching in Altoona

Asphalt Repair and Patching in Altoona, Wisconsin.

Pothole, patch and sinkhole repair in Altoona, cut back to sound material and rebuilt properly.

Get a Free Estimate Call (715) 450-9897

4.7 from 18 Google reviews

About 8 minutes from central Eau Claire. Free estimates, and a straight read on whether it needs doing yet.

A Bobcat skid steer beside two saw-cut sections of asphalt on a commercial parking lot, work area coned off while cars stay parked around it.
9,302 People in Altoona
4.7 Google ratingFrom 18 reviews
2-3 yrs Reseal cycleIn Altoona
400°F Crack fillerDirect-fire rubber

What an Asphalt Repair and Patching Job Looks Like in Altoona

The interesting thing about Altoona for pavement is the age gap. The 1970s subdivisions are at the point where their original surfaces are long gone and the question is whether the base is still worth building on. The River Prairie construction is the opposite problem: those drives and lots are new enough that leaving them alone for another year or two is usually the right call.

We get asked to seal brand new asphalt here more than anywhere else, and the answer is usually no, not yet. New asphalt wants six to twelve months to cure first.

Asphalt Repair and Patching specifically in Altoona

Shared drives and internal roads in the manufactured home communities take the heaviest wear per dollar of anything in Altoona, and close to a tenth of the housing here is manufactured, the highest share of any town we hold a page for. Failed areas on those are full-depth repairs and the bid names exactly which areas get cut, because on a shared road the difference between four patches and eleven is the whole conversation.

The Driveways and Lots in Altoona

Altoona sits immediately east of Eau Claire, close enough that Fairfax Street is most of what separates them. Lake Altoona and the Eau Claire River form the northern edge and Otter Creek the southern one. The US 53 bypass opened in 2006 with an interchange at River Prairie Drive, and essentially everything new in town has been built around that interchange since.

Altoona is the youngest town we serve after Lake Hallie, and it's split in two. Only about 12 percent of the housing predates 1960. The 1970s and 1990s each contributed close to a fifth of the stock, and then nearly a quarter has gone up since 2010, almost all of it in and around River Prairie.

It also has the highest share of manufactured housing of the five, close to 10 percent. That's a different kind of drive: often shared, often gravel or thin asphalt, and usually maintained by a community owner rather than a resident.

Where we work in Altoona

  • Downtown Altoona
  • River Prairie
  • East Hill
  • Hillcrest

Around Altoona: Lake Altoona County Park, River Prairie Park, Cinder City Park, The Yard, Otter Creek.

Identical freeze regime to Eau Claire next door, with the 48-inch footing minimum. Lake Altoona and Otter Creek mean the north and south edges of town both sit close to water, and the drives nearest them hold moisture longer in spring.

From our jobs

Job Photos

Two fresh asphalt patches laid in a worn parking lot, cones still around them
Full-depth patches laid and coned off
A crew member kneeling at a stall line working patch material by hand
Hand work at the stall lines
A fresh full-depth asphalt patch coned off in a commercial lot outside an industrial building with dock doors
A full-depth patch outside the dock doors

All job photos

Filled vs. repaired

The pothole that comes back every spring is being filled rather than repaired. Cold patch is a temporary measure and an honest one when it's sold as that: it's loose material tamped into a hole, with no bond to the sides and nothing done about the failed base underneath. It gets you through a winter. A real repair means cutting a clean square back to material that's still sound, taking out everything soft below it, putting the base back and compacting it in lifts, then laying hot asphalt and rolling it. The patch ends up stronger than what is around it, which is why the failure doesn't come back through the middle of it.

Filled

The quick version

  • Cold patch tamped into the hole as found
  • Ragged edges, so there's nothing to key against
  • Failed base left in place
  • Back within a season, usually wider

Repaired

What we do

  • Saw cut to clean vertical edges, back to sound asphalt
  • Soft material dug out until the bottom is firm
  • Base replaced and compacted in lifts
  • Hot mix laid, rolled, and the joint sealed

Cold patch has its place: it's the right call in February when nothing else can be done. It's the wrong call in July.

What Decides the Price in Altoona

Repairs are priced by area and by how deep the trouble goes, and the depth isn't knowable until it's open. These are the bands most jobs land in.

Single pothole

Up to a few square feet

Measured on site

  • Saw cut, dig out, base, hot mix, compact
  • Cheaper alongside other work

Failed area or apron

Roughly 50 to 300 sq ft

Measured on site

  • The common commercial repair, and the garage apron at home
  • Priced per square foot once the area is measured

Sinkhole or subgrade failure

Depth unknown until opened

Measured on site

  • Often a drainage or utility problem underneath
  • Assessed and quoted before the machine moves

Several repairs on one visit come down substantially per repair, because getting the machine and the crew on site is most of the cost of a small one. If you have three, have them all looked at.

Repair or repave?

Most lots that get deferred don't need repaving.

What we look at before quoting either one.

  • Two or three potholes, the rest of the surface is soundStraightforward patching. Nowhere near needing an overlay.
  • The garage apron has sunk where it meets the concreteCommon and fixable. Usually settlement under the transition, cut out and rebuilt.
  • Cracked into squares in a few areas, sound elsewhereCut those areas out full depth, patch, then seal the whole surface.
  • That squared cracking across most of the lotThe base has gone broadly. Patching it becomes a rolling cost with no end. An overlay or a rebuild is the answer.
  • Water sits in the same spot after every rainGrade or drainage, and it has to be solved before any surface work, or the new surface fails in exactly the same place.

Photos of the worst two areas are usually enough for us to tell you which it is.

How the Work Goes in Altoona

Same method on a driveway apron and on a loading dock approach.

Find the edge of the failure

The visible hole is smaller than the damage. We sound out where the surface is still supported and cut outside that, not around the hole.

Saw cut square, clean vertical faces

A patch keyed against a clean edge stays. A patch feathered against a ragged one fails at the joint, which is why so many patches fail in a ring.

Dig out to something firm

Everything soft comes out. If the bottom is wet, that's a drainage problem and the best patch in the world won't last sitting on water.

Base back in, compacted in lifts

Compacted in layers rather than dumped and rolled once. This is the invisible step that decides whether the repair lasts two years or twenty.

Hot mix, rolled, joint sealed

Laid to the surrounding grade so water still runs where it's supposed to, compacted, and the perimeter joint sealed against the next freeze.

Booking sealcoating and striping through October · Call (715) 450-9897

Questions We Get in Altoona

What Altoona calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
We manage a manufactured home community. Do you do shared drives?
Yes, and it's common work in Altoona given how much of the housing here is manufactured. Shared drives and internal roads are quoted like a small commercial lot rather than like a driveway.
How do we know whether our drive is an East Hill one or a River Prairie one?
By its age rather than its address, though in Altoona the two usually agree. The 1970s and 1990s stock on the east side is at the point where the surface is spent and the base underneath is normally still sound, which is the best case sealing has. River Prairie has been going up since 2015, and most of what's there is too young to want anything yet. If you're not sure which one you have, that's what the estimate is for.
The bypass changed the traffic past our lot. Does that show up in the pavement?
It can, and the tell is where rather than how much. The US 53 bypass opened in 2006 and pulled through traffic off the old routes onto the River Prairie Drive interchange, so the newer commercial ground carries the turning and stopping now while the Business 53 side carries the age. Those two wear differently: one ruts and scuffs at the entrances, the other simply gets old.
How much does pothole repair cost?
Square footage and depth, mostly. A pothole that stops at the surface is a different job from one where the base underneath has gone, and you cannot tell which you have until it is opened. What we can tell you before that: several repairs done on one visit come down substantially per repair, because the trip and the mobilisation are already paid for. The assessment is free.
Why does my patch keep failing?
Almost always because it was filled rather than repaired: no clean cut, no removal of the failed base, and nothing bonding it to the asphalt around it. The failure was underneath and it's still there.
Can you repair a sinkhole in a driveway or lot?
Yes, and quickly. Our newest review is a sinkhole repaired within seven days. A sinkhole means material is being washed out from underneath, usually by drainage or a failed pipe, so the repair includes finding out why.
Is it cheaper to repair the asphalt or repave it?
Repair, until roughly a quarter to a third of the surface has failed. Past that you're patching patches and an overlay becomes better value. The estimate measures how much of your surface has actually failed.
How soon can we drive on a new asphalt patch?
Hot mix takes traffic as soon as it has cooled, usually a few hours. That's the material rather than a schedule: what a specific repair means for your lot is one of the things the estimate works out.

Get a Free Estimate in Altoona

Tell us what it looks like and we'll come measure it. You get a written price before anything starts.

(715) 450-9897
  • Free on driveways and lots anywhere in the service area
  • A photo of the problem helps, and it can go in the message
  • Surfaces that are not ready yet get told so at the estimate

Get an estimate

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