Preparing for Paving Season
February 25, 2022
Asphalt paving season is upon us. Now is the time to start thinking about preparing your equipment to hit the jobsite. As the temperatures start to rise, we want to help you prepare for the busy construction season. Here are some season start up tips to help.
Properly Inspect and Prepare Your Equipment
Perform a proper inspection of your equipment to get ready for the season by doing necessary cleaning and repairs to ensure your machine is in prime operating condition. By doing so, you won’t have to worry about it during the next few months of the paving season. For a truly pain-free season, create an inspection report and maintenance program. Include going through the sprockets, wear items, and other points, and ensuring that everything is up to speed with the engine’s final drives and other components.
At the end of every season, make sure to properly inspect and clean your machines instead of waiting until next spring. If there is any problem that hasn’t been addressed or documented at the end of the season, you may have to face it when it’s too late. By developing a post-season inspection, you will have a report for next spring to refer to so you can order any necessary parts on time.
Check Every Detail
The first thing your company should look at is wear items, especially pavers, auger flights, auger bearings, the supports, the screed, the screed plates, floor plates, and slat chains. Anything that moves materials should be your primary concern. If all parts are at 100%, you won’t have to worry or do anything mid-season that could risk job delays or interruptions.
Make Sure Your Employees are Properly Trained
Aside from well-maintained equipment, you need to ensure your employees are well-trained, your materials are of high quality, and that you are using only the best construction practices. Before a new season starts, it’s crucial that new and old team members go through proper training. The best practice is to create an employee handbook. This way, you can go over safety precautions, guidelines your employees must follow, and have procedures in place for every project.
Personal Protective Equipment
In addition to training, it’s important that every team member, both existing and new, knows how to operate safely within the jobsite. This includes providing the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and regular inspections.
Use Quality Cleaning Products
A good professional grade cleaner is vital. Not only in preparing your equipment for paving season, but for keeping your equipment and tools in top operational use for years to come. For a superior clean, Bitu-Ox™ 400 is a great option. Our formula is biodegradable and waterway safe*, so that you can safely clean up your jobsite while saving you money by omitting the need to pay for chemical disposal. This professional grade, solvent-based degreaser is perfect to use on truck beds, racks, shovels, paving machines, rollers, spreader bars, tools, wheelbarrows, and more. Bitu-Ox™ 400 is designed to liquefy and remove asphalt, tar, oil, grease, and asphaltene on contact, and will even remove last season’s caked on mess, making your old equipment shine like new and have you ready for paving season and beyond.
Order yours today and see for yourself just how well our products stand up against our competitors.
Shop Now*Product ingredients, except for surfactants, demonstrate an acute aquatic toxicity equal to or greater than 100 mg/L. Surfactants demonstrate an aquatic toxicity of greater than or equal to 10 mg/L, but contain no products of concern and are readily biodegradable.
