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Crack Filling and Sealing in Chippewa Falls

Crack Filling and Sealing in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

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

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4.7 from 18 Google reviews

About 15 minutes from 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.
15,075 People in Chippewa Falls
4.7 Google ratingFrom 18 reviews
2-3 yrs Reseal cycleIn Chippewa Falls
400°F Crack fillerDirect-fire rubber

What a Crack Filling and Sealing Job Looks Like in Chippewa Falls

Old housing means old driveways, and old driveways in this valley were often laid thin over a base that was never really built. That's the honest problem in Chippewa Falls: more of the surfaces we look at here are genuinely past sealing than anywhere else we work, and telling somebody that costs us the easy job.

The commercial side is the opposite story. The industrial parks on the east side and out toward Lake Wissota are newer, larger and truck-heavy, with the kind of lots where catch basins and dock aprons carry real weight and fail on a schedule.

Crack Filling and Sealing specifically in Chippewa Falls

With 31 percent of the housing stock pre-1940, the highest share of any town in the valley, crack filling in Chippewa Falls is often the whole job rather than a step in one. On a drive that's otherwise sound, hot rubber into everything that has opened up will buy years for a fraction of what resurfacing costs. The West Hill grades change what an open crack does: water arriving from above runs into it rather than landing in it, so the same crack moves more material here than it would on the flat.

The Driveways and Lots in Chippewa Falls

Chippewa Falls sits on the north bank of the Chippewa River with Duncan Creek running through the middle of it and Lake Wissota about three miles east. The West Hill rises on a bluff west of downtown, so the town has real grade: the hill and the river flats drain completely differently, and pavement on each behaves accordingly.

Chippewa Falls has the oldest housing stock we work in. Thirty-one percent of the city's houses were built before 1940, which is nearly double Eau Claire's share and eight times Lake Hallie's. Only about 16 percent has gone up since 2000.

The West Hill historic district is the clearest example: 163 contributing properties across 66 acres, running from 1870s lumber-baron mansions to 1950s ranch houses, sometimes on the same block. What that means practically is narrow drives, steep approaches, tight turns beside a house, and a lot of hand work. It's not a spray-and-go town.

Where we work in Chippewa Falls

  • West Hill
  • Downtown and Bridge Street
  • East Hill
  • Riverside
  • Lake Wissota

Around Chippewa Falls: Leinenkugel's Brewery, Irvine Park, Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds, Heyde Center for the Arts, Lake Wissota.

Same freeze regime as the rest of the valley, with footings required at 48 inches minimum. The difference here is the bluff: water coming off West Hill has somewhere to go and takes the long way, so drives at the bottom of a grade see far more of it than the ones at the top.

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 Chippewa Falls

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 Chippewa Falls

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 Chippewa Falls

What Chippewa Falls calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
Our driveway is from the 1920s and very narrow. Can you still seal it?
Usually yes, and it takes more hand work than a modern drive. Narrow drives on West Hill get cut in by hand along both edges rather than sprayed, because there's no margin between the asphalt and the lawn. We price that in rather than discovering it on the day.
How do we know whether an old driveway is worth sealing at all?
Press on the cracked areas with your foot. If the surface flexes, the base under it has failed and sealer won't help; those sections have to be cut out. If it's solid underfoot and simply gray and cracked at the surface, it's a good candidate. Chippewa Falls has more of the first case than anywhere else we work.
Our house is in the West Hill historic district. Are there rules about the driveway?
Resurfacing or sealing an existing drive is maintenance rather than a visible alteration, and it isn't the kind of thing that normally raises a question. Changing the shape of a drive, its material or its width is a different matter, and the city is the right place to ask before anyone quotes it. The estimate says which side of that line your job is on.
Why does everything cost more per square foot on a small old driveway?
Because it isn't the square footage that costs, it's the edges and the access. A pre-war drive on the West Hill bluff is narrow, often steep, and frequently runs right up against a foundation or a retaining wall, so both sides get cut in by hand rather than sprayed. A wide modern drive with grass on either side takes a fraction of the time for twice the area. We price that in rather than discovering it on the day.
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 Chippewa Falls 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 Chippewa Falls

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

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