By Lori Helms

There’s a focus on health sweeping across our country as we move headlong into a new presidential administration, with a particular emphasis on ridding our food supply of the additives that can create or compound health issues, particularly in our children.

I think we can all agree that’s a great thing. But I have it on good authority that not all additives are bad, at least when it comes to the “health” and performance of the sealcoats used in your daily work.

They provide a valuable service by enhancing the durability and performance of sealcoating material, and while there are several available in the marketplace, this month we’ll focus on latex polymeric and rubber additives. For some expert insight, we reached out to a few pavement maintenance professionals to learn more about what those additives are, how they are best used and any advantages of one over the other.

The most commonly used additives in sealcoats are the latex polymers, thanks to how they improve a variety of characteristics such as withstanding thermal expansion and contraction while providing better adhesion and water resistance.

“Polymeric additives improve flexibility and durability,” says Mark McLeod, President and CEO of Maintenance Inc./Able Industries. “These are synthetic materials that improve the sealer’s elasticity and resistance to surface checking. They help the sealer withstand temperature changes and heavy traffic.” This multifaceted type of additive has even more beneficial properties, according to Nihal Pandrapragada, Technical Manager at STAR, Inc.

“Acrylic and copolymer-based additives are best known for resistance against UV radiation and water,” he says. “They also help with thickening, faster drying and improving chemical resistance,” adding that polyvinyl acetate-based additives are best known for improving drying and adhesion properties.

Pandrapragada says rubber-based additives (derived from recycled tires) area best known for rubberizing refined tar/asphalt/other resin-based sealcoatings. “This results in enhancing the properties of sealcoatings such as chemical and oil resistance, temperature susceptibility, flexibility, durability and thickening,” he says. McLeod adds that such additives also provide better skid resistance and reduce the risk of pedestrian slips and falls.

Whether latex polymeric- or rubber-based, McLeod offers a long list of benefits these additives provide for your sealcoating needs:

• Enhanced durability: Additives improve the toughness and flexibility of the sealer, making the sealer film more resistant to cracking, wear and tear.
• Faster drying times: Some additives speed up the drying (curing) process, allowing for quicker job completion and reduced time for parking lots and driveways.
• Improved adhesion: Additives help the sealer film bond better to the asphalt surface, leading to a longer lasting protective coating.
• Increased resistance to chemicals and oil: Certain additives make the sealer more resistant to vehicular fluids and other chemicals that can cause pavement deterioration.
• Better aesthetic appeal: Some additives enhance the color and overall appearance of the pavement surface, giving a richer, darker and more uniform finish that will enhance line markings.
• Reduced tracking and scuffing: Additives help prevent tire marking and reduce tracking of the sealer film, especially in high traffic and tight turn lane parking lots and roadways.
• Lower maintenance costs: Since sealer additives extend the life span of the pavement sealer, they reduce the frequency of reapplication and maintenance expenses.

Unlike the duplicity of additives so prevalent in our food supply (the aspartame in your favorite diet soda keeps you from gulping down all those sugary calories but is it worth the increased cancer risk?), Pandrapragada says there is really no downside to sealcoat additives, regardless of the type you choose to use.

“Every additive has its own advantages in the form of their respective property enhancement of the sealcoatings,” he says. “If the additives are used in the right proportion, there are no disadvantages. And if we are talking about different types of additives, every additive has its own purpose, so technically there are no disadvantages.”

Whether it means using a rubber additive to help high-traffic areas like a commercial parking lot resist UV degradation and increase durability or using latex polymers for ease of application on smaller, residential projects such as driveways, they all deliver on the promise of improved adhesion, increased flexibility and resistance to wear and tear.