Two lots, both 40,000 square feet, both "need the cracks done before sealcoat." One has a few long transverse cracks you could count from the truck. The other has a crack every ten feet running both ways, plus an overband on every one of them because the customer wants it to look finished. If you priced them the same, you gave one of those customers a free day.
To price crack filling, measure the linear feet of crack, figure the pounds of sealant per foot from the reservoir and the overband you'll leave, and build labor from your crew's production with and without routing. Add the kettle heat-up, drive time and equipment, then set your margin. Price it by the linear foot or by the pound, with the footage on the proposal.
Get the footage you'll really fill
Crack footage is the number everything else multiplies, and it's the one people guess.
On a small lot, walk every crack with the wheel. On a big lot, measure a sample and scale it up. Pick a block that looks like the rest of the lot, say 50 by 50 feet (2,500 square feet), and wheel every crack in it. If you get 180 feet, that's 0.072 feet of crack per square foot. Across a 40,000 square foot lot, that's 2,880 linear feet.
Sampling only works on a lot that cracks evenly. If the drive lanes are worse than the stalls, sample each one and add them up. Round up, not down, and write the footage on the proposal so the customer can see what they're buying.
While you're walking, sort what you find:
- Cracks you'll fill. Hot-pour sealant generally works best on cracks from about a quarter inch to about three-quarters of an inch wide. Check your product's sheet.
- Hairline cracks. They take almost no material and often aren't worth the crew's time. Say on the proposal whether they're in or out.
- Wide cracks and depressions. Past what your sealant handles, they need a mastic or a patch. Price them as their own line.
- Alligator cracking. The base has failed. Sealing it doesn't fix it. Mark it off as patching or an exclusion, and tell the customer why.
The crack filling vs. sealcoating article has the plain-words version for the property manager: crack sealing keeps water out of the base, sealcoat protects the surface.
Work the pounds per foot
Sealant is bought by the pound, so get from feet to pounds.
Start with the shape of what you'll leave behind. A routed crack with a half-inch by half-inch reservoir holds:
0.5 in × 0.5 in × 12 in = 3 cubic inches per linear foot
Now the overband, the flat band squeegeed over the top. At 3 inches wide and an eighth of an inch thick:
3 in × 0.125 in × 12 in = 4.5 cubic inches per linear foot
That's more sealant in the band than in the crack. An overband looks tidy, and it's where the pounds go.
Your product sheet gives either a yield in cubic inches per pound or a specific gravity you can turn into one. Say yours yields 25 cubic inches per pound. Then:
(3 + 4.5) ÷ 25 = 0.3 pounds per linear foot
Round the lot up to 3,000 feet, and that's 900 pounds. The kettle keeps a heel you can't use, and some gets left in the wand and on the squeegee, so carry a waste allowance. At 10 percent it's 990 pounds. If it comes in 30-pound boxes, that's 33 boxes. At, say, $1.10 a pound, material is $1,089.
Change the band to 2 inches wide and the same math gives 3 cubic inches in the band, 6 in total, 0.24 pounds a foot. On 3,000 feet, that's 180 pounds less. The customer's choice of band is a price decision, so put the band width on the proposal.
Price the labor with and without routing
Routing cuts a clean reservoir so the sealant has walls to bond to. It's slower, it takes a router and an operator, and on working cracks that open and close with the seasons it's the version that lasts. Blow-and-go (clean with air or a heat lance and fill) is faster and cheaper. Price them as separate lines, because the customer will ask what the difference is.
Build labor from your own crew's footage per hour. Say a three-person crew at a loaded $36 an hour, $108 for the crew, and your numbers from last season are:
- Blow and fill: 1,000 feet an hour
- Route, blow and fill: 450 feet an hour
On 3,000 feet, filling takes 3 hours without routing and about 6.7 hours with it. Then add what doesn't depend on footage:
- Kettle heat-up. Say an hour before the first foot goes down.
- Drive time. 45 minutes each way is 1.5 hours.
- Cleanup. Half an hour.
That's 6 crew hours for blow-and-go and about 9.7 with routing. For equipment, say the melter, the compressor and the truck cost $45 an hour for the whole time, and the router adds $20 an hour while it's cutting.
| Line | Blow and fill | Routed |
|---|---|---|
| Crew hours × $108 | 6 × $108 = $648 | 9.7 × $108 = $1,048 |
| Melter, compressor, truck × $45 | $270 | $437 |
| Router × $20 | none | 6.7 × $20 = $134 |
| Sealant | $1,089 | $1,089 |
| Direct cost | $2,007 | $2,708 |
At a 35 percent margin, blow-and-fill is $2,007 ÷ 0.65 = $3,088, about $1.03 a foot. Routed is $2,708 ÷ 0.65 = $4,166, about $1.39 a foot. Same lot, same sealant, and routing adds 36 cents a foot.
These are illustrative numbers. The shape is what matters: on a short job, the kettle and the drive are a big share of the hours, which is why a small lot needs a minimum.
Weather and prep change the day
Sealant needs a clean, dry crack to bond. Blowing out dirt and vegetation is part of every foot, and a damp morning means a heat lance or a late start. Read your sealant's sheet for pavement temperature and moisture limits, and price the rain days into how many lots a crew really does in a week.
If the crack fill is ahead of sealcoat, the sealant has to set before the sealer goes over it. Follow the manufacturer's time, and schedule the two so the crack crew isn't racing the sealcoat rig across the lot.
Put it on the proposal so the customer can compare
There are three honest ways to put crack filling on a proposal:
- By the linear foot, with the footage stated. Easy to read and easy to compare.
- By the pound applied, with an estimate of pounds. Fair when the footage is hard to pin down, and your crew counts boxes used.
- As a lump sum, with the footage and the band width written in. Fine on a customer you know well.
Whichever you choose, write down routed or not, the band width, the sealant type, what's excluded (hairline cracks, alligator areas, wide cracks) and a minimum charge. When the crack fill goes on the same proposal as the sealcoat and the restripe, the customer sees one price for the lot. The sealcoat pricing post covers the rest of that proposal.
Questions contractors ask
How many pounds of crack sealant per linear foot?
It depends on the reservoir and the overband. A half-inch by half-inch routed crack with a 3-inch band an eighth of an inch thick holds 7.5 cubic inches a foot, about 0.3 pounds at 25 cubic inches per pound. Work yours from your product's yield.
Is routing worth charging for?
Price it as a separate line and let the customer choose. Routing takes more crew time and a router, and it gives the sealant a clean reservoir on cracks that move with the seasons.
Should crack filling be priced per foot or per pound?
Either works if the proposal says the footage or the pounds. Per foot is easier for the customer to read. Per pound follows the material more closely when crack widths vary a lot.
What's the difference between crack sealing and crack filling?
Crack sealing usually means working cracks, often routed, with a flexible sealant. Crack filling usually means cracks that don't move much, without routing. See the crack sealing glossary entry.
Where Pavr fits
Pavr is job management software for paving, sealcoating, striping and concrete contractors. Crack sealing by the linear foot comes built in, next to sealcoat and striping. Trace the cracks as lines on the satellite view, or type in the footage you wheeled, and the feet are on the estimate with your sealant price and crew rates behind them. See how estimating works.
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