How It Works | Locked In Lot Solutions

Why this page exists

Most of what goes wrong on a parking lot job is scheduling, not paving

The work itself is not complicated. What decides whether a job goes well is whether the property manager knew what was happening, when it was happening, and which part of the lot was closed while it did.

So the process below is mostly about information. When you get the scope, when you get the schedule, when you get told the weather has moved it, and who you call. The paving is the easy part.

The four stages

From the call to the walkthrough

01
We walk the lot

Before anything is quoted. We look at drainage, at the surface, at the cracks, and at what is causing what. You get a written scope with the work in the order it should happen, including anything we think sits outside what we do.
02
You get the schedule in writing

Which sections close, in what order, on which nights, and the window before each section reopens for your conditions. Before the first day, so you can pass it to tenants without translating it.
03
We work around your tenants

The lot is staged in sections so part of it stays open throughout, and crews work nights and weekends. If weather moves the schedule you get a call, because a coating rained on before it cures has to be done again.
04
We walk it with you

At the end, on the property, rather than sending an invoice and disappearing. If something is not right that is the moment to say so, while the crew and the equipment are still there.

The order

Repair, crack seal, sealcoat, restripe

This is the single most useful thing on this page if you are planning a budget, and it is the thing most often got wrong. These four services are a sequence, not a menu. Each one destroys the one before it if they happen in the wrong order.

Repair comes first, because sealcoat cannot bridge a hole and paint cannot bond to broken pavement. Crack sealing comes next, because sealcoat laid over an open crack hides it for a few weeks and then it comes back through the new coating. Sealcoat comes third. Striping comes last, because sealcoat covers markings completely, so a lot striped before it gets coated has been striped for nothing.

Work done out of that order gets undone by the next step. That is the most common way a property pays twice for the same square metres, and it is almost always the result of the four being bought separately rather than planned together.

1. Asphalt repair. Fix the failures and, where we can see it, what caused them
2. Crack sealing. Close the routes water uses to reach the base
3. Sealcoating. Protect the surface from sun and water
4. Striping. Repaint the layout onto the finished surface

Nights, weekends, and sections

A retail centre cannot close for two days. Neither can a medical office, a church on a Sunday, or a distribution yard mid-week. That is the real constraint on this work, and the reason night crews exist in this trade at all.

The lot gets divided into sections and worked one at a time, so part of it is always open. Which sections and in what order is agreed with you before the first day rather than decided by the crew on the morning.

Sections agreed in advance, in writing, so you can tell tenants
Nights and weekends so the closed section is closed when fewest people need it
The reopening window for each section, given for your lot and your conditions
A call if weather moves anything, rather than a crew that does not turn up

What you get in writing

A scope, not a number

A quote that is only a price tells you nothing about what you are buying or what was left out. Ours sets out the work, the order, the sections and the schedule, so you can compare it against someone else's like for like and take it to whoever signs it off.

It will also tell you what we think you do not need yet. A lot that has three more seasons in it before sealcoat is a lot we will say that about, because the alternative is selling you a coating now and a repair later when the thing that actually needed attention was the crack you paid us to coat over.

The work, in the order it should happen
Which sections close and when, before the first day
Anything we think is a cause rather than a symptom, including where it is outside what we do
Anything we think can wait, and why

Questions

What property managers ask before booking

How much notice do you need?

It depends on the size of the job and on the weather, and we would rather tell you a real date than a fast one. Tell us the property and what you are planning and we will tell you honestly what the schedule looks like, including when the answer is that the conditions are wrong and it is worth waiting.

Do I have to do all four services?

No. Most properties do not need all four in the same year. What matters is the order, so that whatever you do fund does not get undone by what comes next. If you are only doing part of it, do it from the structural end of the list down.

Can you handle more than one property?

Yes, and it is the work this business is built around. Multiple sites means one point of contact, one schedule and the same crew standard at each property rather than whoever happened to be available that week.

What happens if it rains?

You get a call and the schedule moves. Coatings and sealant need dry conditions to bond, and work done in the wrong weather has to be done again, which costs you a second closure. A contractor who reschedules on a forecast is protecting the work rather than being unreliable.

Who is actually on site?

You will know who is running the job and how to reach them before the first day, and you get a walkthrough at the end rather than an invoice by email. That is the part of this that the operations background in the About section is really about.

Will the lot be usable while you work?

Yes, in sections. Part of the lot is always open, and which part is agreed with you in advance. On most commercial properties tenants notice a route change rather than a closure.

Request a quote

Send us the lot and we will come walk it

Tell us the property and roughly how many spaces it has. We will walk it, tell you what we found and what order the work should happen in, and send back a written scope.

Rather talk it through? (512) 289-8415