Nobody blames you for rain. Customers blame you for finding out about it at 7 a.m. when the crew doesn't show. Contractors who handle weather well make the call early, say so plainly, and already have the rule in the proposal.
The limits for each kind of work
Your spec, your product data sheet and your state DOT wins over any rule of thumb. These are common starting points:
Hot mix asphalt
- No paving in rain, or on a wet or frozen base. Water under the mat and on the tack keeps the new asphalt from bonding and cools it unevenly.
- Minimum temperatures, air or surface, often in the 40s °F and rising for thicker lifts, and higher for thin surface lifts, which lose heat fastest. Many specs use 50°F for a surface course.
- Wind cools a thin mat fast. A cold, windy day shortens the time the roller has.
Sealcoat
- Dry pavement, no rain in the forecast for the product's cure time (often a day), and temperatures at or above the manufacturer's minimum, commonly around 50°F and rising, day and night.
- Cool, humid or shaded conditions slow the cure. Lots opened too soon track.
Striping
- Dry pavement and the paint's minimum temperature, from the product data sheet. Rain on fresh waterborne paint washes it out.
Concrete
- Rain on a fresh surface ruins the finish. Have plastic on the truck.
- Cold weather slows or stops strength gain. Protect fresh concrete from freezing until it reaches about 500 psi, and plan for blankets when the overnight low is near freezing.
- Hot, dry, windy days crack the surface early. Start early and cure right away.
Making the call
Decide the evening before when you can. Look at the hourly forecast for the work window, not the daily high. A dry morning with rain at 2 p.m. is a different decision on a half-day driveway than on a full-day lot.
Set a go or no-go time for mornings that are close, like 5 a.m., and tell the crew and the plant. Plants need your cancel before they batch your mix.
Write down why in the job's daily log: the forecast, the conditions on site, and who made the call. If a customer questions a delay later, the note answers it.
Telling the customer
As soon as you've decided, not when the crew would have arrived:
- What's happening: "We're not paving tomorrow. Rain is forecast from 10 a.m."
- What's next: the new date if you have one, or when you'll confirm it
- What they need to do: move the cars again, keep the lot closed or not
A text or email is fine. Keep a copy. If they planned their day around you, a one-line acknowledgement goes a long way.
Rescheduling without chaos
One rain day pushes every job behind it. Keep the reschedule list in order: which jobs moved, who's been told, and which ones have a hard deadline, like a school that opens on a set date.
Tell every affected customer the same day you reschedule, not the morning of their new date.
The clause in the proposal
Put it in every proposal before you need it:
"Paving, sealcoating, striping and concrete work depend on temperature, rain and ground conditions. We schedule and reschedule work based on the forecast and conditions on site, and will tell you as soon as a date changes."
On commercial work, check what the contract says about weather days and schedule extensions, and give written notice the way it requires.
Related articles
- Running a five-person paving crew: roles, the night-before call and the daily log
- Change orders: get the extra work signed before you do it
- Deposits and progress payments: getting paid before the job's done
Pavr is job software for paving, sealcoating, striping and concrete contractors. Every account starts with weather rules for each trade, 50°F and no rain for asphalt and sealcoat, 40°F for concrete, and you can change them. Scheduled work that the forecast says won't make it gets flagged on the schedule board, and you can move a whole rain day to the next day that passes. Try it free →