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Crack Filling and Sealing in Menomonie

Crack Filling and Sealing in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

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

Get a Free Estimate Call (715) 450-9897

4.7 from 18 Google reviews

About 25 minutes west of Eau Claire on I-94. 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.
16,709 People in Menomonie
4.7 Google ratingFrom 18 reviews
2-3 yrs Reseal cycleIn Menomonie
400°F Crack fillerDirect-fire rubber

What a Crack Filling and Sealing Job Looks Like in Menomonie

The rental belt around the university is its own kind of work. A converted single-family drive carrying four or five vehicles wears in a pattern the original surface was never designed for, and the owner is usually a landlord making a maintenance decision rather than a homeowner making an appearance one. Those two buyers want different conversations and we have both.

Commercially, Menomonie punches above its population. Manufacturing is the largest employment sector in the county, and names like 3M, Ford, Andersen and the Walmart distribution center mean industrial lots with genuine truck loading on them.

Crack Filling and Sealing specifically in Menomonie

The sand and gravel outwash under the Red Cedar valley drains quickly, so cracks here move water down and out rather than holding it. That takes fines out of the base with it, which is why filling early is worth more in Menomonie than the surface appearance suggests.

The Driveways and Lots in Menomonie

Menomonie sits at the south end of Lake Menomin, a reservoir on the Red Cedar River, right on the boundary between the Central Plain and the Western Upland. I-94 runs along the south side with exits at Highway 25 and again four miles east, and Highway 25 north is the commercial spine. The grade change between the lake flats and the uplands is real, and so is the difference in how they drain.

Menomonie has the most lopsided housing profile in the valley: nearly a quarter of all its housing went up in the 1990s, more than any other decade by a distance. Those drives are now 25 to 35 years old, which is exactly the age where the original surface has run out but the base is usually still good.

The other half of the picture is UW-Stout. Only 40 percent of the housing is detached single family, the lowest of any town we serve, and a third sits in buildings of five units or more. The city's own comprehensive plan notes that single-family homes near campus have been converted to rentals, which produces parking pressure on drives that were never built for four cars.

Where we work in Menomonie

  • Downtown Historic District

Around Menomonie: Mabel Tainter Theater, UW-Stout, Lake Menomin, Wilson Place Mansion, Wakanda Park.

Same 48-inch frost regime as the rest of western Wisconsin. Thick glacial outwash sand and gravel fills the Red Cedar valley, so the valley floor drains fast and the uplands behave differently again.

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 Menomonie

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 Menomonie

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 Menomonie

What Menomonie calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
We own rental property near campus. Do you work with landlords?
Regularly. Rental drives around UW-Stout carry more vehicles than they were built for and wear accordingly, and a landlord is usually making a maintenance decision rather than a cosmetic one. The estimate prices the cheapest thing that actually works rather than the nicest-looking option, and we can schedule around the summer turnover.
Our driveway is from the mid-1990s. Is it due?
Probably, and you're in good company: nearly a quarter of Menomonie's housing was built in that decade. A 1990s drive that has never been sealed is usually still structurally fine and simply out of wear layer, which is the best case there is. If it's been sealed a few times already, it's just due again.
Can the work be done between tenants rather than during the semester?
That's usually the sensible way round it, and it's the most common scheduling conversation we have in Menomonie. Sealer needs the surface clear and about 24 hours before traffic goes back on, which is easy in an empty August week and hard in October. Tell us the turnover dates when you call rather than after the calendar is set.
Does the sandy ground here change what a driveway needs?
It changes what a crack does. The Red Cedar valley sits on thick outwash sand and gravel, which drains fast, so water that gets through the surface keeps moving instead of pooling. That sounds like good news and isn't: moving water takes the fine material out of the base with it, and the crack that looked minor in October can be sitting over a void by spring. Filling early is worth more here than the surface appearance suggests.
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 Menomonie 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 Menomonie

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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