The Spring Pavement Checklist for Tahoe Property Owners

Wait until it is actually dry

Snow leaving is not the same as the ground drying. The base under your asphalt holds meltwater for weeks after the surface looks clear, and pavement assessed too early reads worse than it is. Give it time, then walk it.

Walk it after a rain too, not just on a dry afternoon. Water shows you things a dry surface hides: where it ponds, where it runs, and where it disappears into the pavement instead of off it.

The four things worth noting

Cracks you can slide a card into. Areas where cracks have connected into a web rather than running as single lines. Spots that hold standing water. Edges that are crumbling or that a plow has caught and torn.

Those four cover most of what matters. A single wide crack is a maintenance item. A connected web is a base problem. Standing water is next year's damage. A torn edge is this winter's plow telling you where the weak point was.

Photograph it

Take pictures with something in frame for scale, a shoe or a tape measure. Photographs let somebody give you a useful opinion without a site visit, and they give you a record to compare against next spring.

Date the photos. Pavement changes slowly enough that memory is unreliable and fast enough that year-over-year comparison is genuinely informative.

Then decide what is worth doing

Most properties need crack work every year and surface treatment on a longer cycle. If your walk turned up mostly single cracks and a graying surface, that is a normal maintenance year. If it turned up webs and soft spots, the conversation is different.

Send the photos or call (530) 587-4161 and we will tell you which it is. We do not pave, so we have no reason to talk anybody into more than the pavement needs.

The mistake most owners make

Assessing too early is the common one. A property walked in April looks alarming because meltwater is still everywhere and the base has not drained. The same property in June often reads as a routine maintenance year.

The other is walking only the driveway. Edges, the apron where pavement meets the street, and the strip where snow was piled all winter take more abuse than the middle does and get looked at least.

More in the pavement guides, the FAQ, and the problem pages. For your community specifically, see the service areas.