Eau Claire, WI · Northwestern Wisconsin Closed now (715) 450-9897
(715) 450-9897

Crack Filling and Sealing in Bloomer

Crack Filling and Sealing in Bloomer, Wisconsin.

Hot rubber crack filling for driveways and lots in Bloomer, before the freeze does the expensive part.

Get a Free Estimate Call (715) 450-9897

4.7 from 18 Google reviews

About 30 minutes north of Eau Claire. Free estimates, and a straight read on whether it needs doing yet.

A web of freshly filled cracks running across a parking lot, the rubber still glossy.
3,646 People in Bloomer
4.7 Google ratingFrom 18 reviews
2-3 yrs Reseal cycleIn Bloomer
400°F Crack fillerDirect-fire rubber

What a Crack Filling and Sealing Job Looks Like in Bloomer

There are two commercial zones and they behave differently. Main Street is the historic downtown, tight lots with shared access and on-street parking, where the jobs are small and access is tight.

The highway strip along Seventeenth and Nineteenth Avenue is the other one: modern retail, larger lots, purpose-built parking and room to work. Bloomer also carries real medical parking for a town this size, on more than one street, plus industrial ground on the edges. Those are the square-footage jobs.

Crack Filling and Sealing specifically in Bloomer

The spring thaw arrives about a week later here than in Eau Claire, which compresses the early-season window at the front end. Crack work booked in fall beats crack work waiting on a northern April. It also matters more on the middle-aged stock Bloomer has so much of: a drive from the seventies or eighties is usually still sound underneath, and hot rubber into the open cracks is what keeps it that way for another decade.

The Driveways and Lots in Bloomer

Bloomer sits north of Chippewa Falls where Highways 40 and 64 cross, the largest town in the northern half of the service area and the one most of the smaller places up there drive to.

Bloomer is the most evenly built town in the service area. No single decade carries it: about a third of the stock predates 1960, but nearly a quarter has gone up since 2000, and every decade in between is represented.

That matters more than it sounds. In a town built in one burst, the driveways all fail together and the advice is largely the same. In Bloomer the house next door can be thirty years older than yours, and what its drive needs isn't what yours needs. We quote them separately rather than by neighborhood.

Bloomer

We work the whole village rather than a named handful of neighborhoods.

Around Bloomer: Main Street, Highway 40 and 64 junction, Bloomer Middle School.

Standard 48-inch frost depth, and far enough north that spring opens a week later than it does in Eau Claire.

From our jobs

Job Photos

The crack crew's trucks and melter working a tree-lined road, road work sign up
The crack crew working a town road
The company flatbed and the yellow crack-seal melter on a road shoulder, two crew in hi-vis working ahead of it
The melter on site, crew working ahead of it

All job photos

Hot rubber vs. cold pour

The stuff in a jug at the hardware store is cold pour. It goes in as a liquid, dries, shrinks, and sits in the crack like a rubber band laid in a trench. It's not bonded to anything. The first hard freeze pulls the crack open, the filler has nothing holding it to the walls, and it lifts out in a strip. Most people have seen this happen and assumed it was a bad batch. Hot-applied rubber goes in at around 400 degrees. At that temperature it's thin enough to run down into the crack instead of bridging it, and hot enough to melt into the asphalt faces on either side. When it cools it has bonded to the walls of the crack, so when the crack moves, the filler moves with it.

Cold pour

The jug from the hardware store, and what a cheap quote uses

  • Sits in the crack rather than bonding to it
  • Shrinks as it cures, leaving a channel down the middle
  • Pulls out in strips after the first hard winter
  • Cheap enough that it gets redone every year, which isn't cheap

Hot-applied rubber

What comes off our kettle

  • Flows to the bottom of the crack at 400 degrees
  • Melts into the asphalt faces and bonds to both walls
  • Stays flexible, so it moves when the crack moves
  • Holds for years, not for one season

This is the one place where the cheaper option isn't a smaller version of the right one. It's a different product doing a different thing.

What Decides the Price in Bloomer

Priced by the foot of crack, not by the area of the surface, because that's what actually drives the work. Usually done as part of a sealcoating job, where it costs less than it would on its own.

With a sealcoat job

Driveway

Measured on site

  • Most driveways need some, and it's included up to a point
  • Heavy cracking is quoted separately and said up front

Crack filling alone

Driveway, no sealcoat

Measured on site

  • Worth doing on its own if the surface is otherwise sound

Commercial lot

Per linear foot

Measured on site

  • Depends on crack width, depth and how much routing it needs
  • Most lots are quoted as a lump sum after a walk

Cracks wider than about an inch and a half, or ones that have broken into a network, are past filling. Those get cut out and patched rather than filled with something that will not hold.

How the Work Goes in Bloomer

Done before sealer, always: sealer can't bridge an open crack.

Clean the crack out

Blown out with compressed air, vegetation and old failed filler removed. Rubber won't bond to dirt any more than sealer will.

Rout the wide ones

Wide or heavily worked cracks get cut to a consistent reservoir so the filler has a proper shape to sit in. Not every crack needs it; the ones that do are the ones that have already failed once.

Fill hot

Direct-fire kettle, rubber at 400 degrees, wanded into the crack until it's full from the bottom up rather than skinned over at the top.

Squeegee and let it set

Struck off flush or slightly banded over, depending on the surface. Sets hard enough to drive on in under an hour in most conditions.

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

Questions We Get in Bloomer

What Bloomer calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
Our neighbor got told their driveway was past sealing. Is ours?
Possibly not, and Bloomer is the town where that comes up most. The housing here spans every decade rather than clustering in one, so two drives on the same street can be thirty years apart in age and construction. We look at yours rather than assuming the street.
When does the season actually start up here?
About a week later than it does in Eau Claire, and it closes a little sooner at the other end. Sealer needs the surface dry and the overnight temperature to stay up, and thirty minutes north is enough to move both. The practical answer is that fall work booked ahead beats waiting on a northern April.
Can you work a Main Street lot without closing us for the day?
Usually, but it's the first thing to talk about rather than the last. The downtown lots here are tight with shared access, so a section at a time is often the only way to keep a door open. Sealer needs about 24 hours before traffic goes back on it, and that's the constraint the schedule gets built around.
Is Bloomer far enough north that the drive costs us something?
Bloomer is about thirty minutes north and it's well inside the area we work. The estimate is free, and the number you approve is the number you pay.
How much does crack filling cost?
It is priced by the linear foot of crack rather than by the size of the surface, so a big driveway with four cracks costs less than a small one that has opened up all over. Width matters too: anything wide enough to need routing out first takes longer. On a driveway it is usually included up to a point when it is done with a sealcoat rather than billed on its own.
Why does the temperature of the crack filler matter?
At 400 degrees the rubber is thin enough to reach the bottom of the crack and hot enough to melt into the asphalt on both sides, so it bonds. Cold pour filler can't do either, which is why it lifts out in strips after a winter.
Should I fill cracks before sealcoating or after?
Before, always. Sealer is a thin wear layer and it can't bridge an open crack. Sealing over one changes its color and nothing else, and the crack reappears through the new surface within weeks.
Is there a crack too big to fill?
Yes. Past about an inch and a half, or once cracking has broken into a network of squares, filling won't hold because the surface around it is moving independently. Those areas get cut out and patched instead.
When is the best time of year for crack filling?
Spring or early fall in Bloomer and the surrounding area is ideal, because cracks are at a middling width. In high summer they're at their tightest and in deep winter they're at their widest, and filling at either extreme means the filler is working against the movement rather than with it.

Get a Free Estimate in Bloomer

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

Send the form and we'll call you back. The estimate is free.

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