Once contractors have ceased sealcoating, the most important thing they can do is take care of the sealcoating equipment that has been so productive for them all summer.

“Cleaning and inspection is the single most important thing a contractor can do,” says Gordon Rayner, president of Rayner Equipment Systems. “Be it a paver covered with a season of asphalt particles or a sealcoat machine covered with splattering, they all need to be cleaned to see what you really have.”

Rayner says that more than just being unsightly, dirty sealcoating equipment hides problems that need to be taken care of, including worn bushings, chains, cracked brackets, leaking hydraulics, and chaffed hoses.

  “Pretend your equipment is an airplane and you are betting your life on its condition,” Rayner says. “It’s not an airplane but as a contractor you are betting your business on the performance of your equipment, so clean it so you can see it.”

Once the equipment has been cleaned he suggests a full inspection, complete with written notes, to inventory any problems and the condition of each part of the unit. Then make any and all repairs necessary.