How Paved Assets structured a multi-faceted scope into clear "critical now" and "recommended" pricing tiers — so the owners of Haven at Patterson Place could fund the safety-first repairs immediately and schedule the rest deliberately.
Project At a Glance
| Property | Haven at Patterson Place — apartment community, Durham NC |
|---|---|
| Property location | Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham NC |
| Property type | Garden-style multifamily community, ~588 parking spots |
| Property size | ~207,559 sq ft asphalt + ~68,723 sq ft concrete sidewalk/curb |
| Project scope | Critical safety repairs, additional asphalt repair, full-property sealcoat, crack fill, restripe |
| Critical scope | 25 documented repair locations, including catch basin failures and ADA trip hazards |
| Suggested scope | Roundabout and side entrance asphalt repair (12,674 sq ft mill-and-overlay) |
| Maintenance scope | Sealcoat (~207,559 sq ft, 2-coat), crack fill (~15,000 LF), full restripe (588 spots) |
The Challenge
Haven at Patterson Place is a large garden-style apartment community on Old Chapel Hill Road in Durham — multiple buildings, ~588 parking spots, ponds, sidewalks, and the kind of integrated catch basin and curb infrastructure typical of communities built in the early 2000s. By the time the property's construction and community management teams reached out to us, the asphalt was reasonable for its age — but the concrete and the catch basin areas were not. Cracks and depressions had appeared in the back right corner of the property. Sidewalks had settled into trip hazards in front of the leasing office, near the playground entrance, and at multiple building entrances.
The team needed three things from a contractor:
- A clear separation of "this is a safety issue and must be addressed" from "this is good preventive maintenance. "Capital decisions for an apartment community at this scale rarely happen in one approval cycle.
- Documentation rigorous enough to defend internally. 25 distinct repair locations — each with sidewalk, curb, asphalt, and catch-basin status documented — needed to be measurable, visible on a site plan, and tied back to a specific line item on the proposal.
- An honest opinion on alternative methods. The team had heard about poly-foam injection as a cheaper alternative for sunken concrete. They wanted a contractor's honest read on whether that would actually work.
Our Approach
1. Aerial mapping software for full-property measurement
Our team mapped the entire community: 207,559 sq ft of asphalt, 68,723 sq ft of concrete, 588 parking spots, 11 ADA spots, 8,849 LF of parking stall striping. That measurement was the foundation for every line item — and the site map became the document the property's team used to talk through the scope internally.
2. A 25-location appendix tied to a numbered site map
Each repair location got a row in the appendix and a number on the site plan: sidewalk square footage, linear feet of curb, asphalt repair area, whether a catch basin was involved, criticality flag, and a brief note. Locations 1–5 — back right corner of the property — were flagged as the most critical. Location 16 (across from the leasing office) and Location 21 (at the playground entrance) were called out as critical despite not being at catch basins because they posed direct trip-hazard liability to residents and guests.
3. A clear position on poly-foam
We were direct: poly-foam injection was not the right solution at Haven. In many of the trip-hazard locations, the sunken concrete either had no proper subbase to begin with or had been ground down in a previous repair attempt and was no longer thick enough to survive being lifted. Poly-foam wouldn't solve the problem; it would likely accelerate it. Honest answer, even when the cheaper-sounding option was on the table.
4. Three-tier pricing structure
We split the proposal into clearly-labeled tiers:
- Critical— Locations 1–5 (back right corner concrete + asphalt, ABC stone backfill at catch basins), the trip hazards near the leasing office and playground entrance, all catch basin asphalt repair zones.
- Suggested— The asphalt mill-and-overlay at the main entrance roundabout and secondary entrance drive aisle (12,674 sq ft), where alligator cracking had progressed but wasn't yet a safety issue.
- Requested / Recommended Maintenance— Sealcoating, crack fill, and full restriping of the entire community.
Each tier carried its own price and could be funded independently. The team could approve all three at once for a single mobilization (with bundled-pricing savings reflected in the proposal), or stage them across budget cycles.
The Work
Critical asphalt and concrete repairs
- Location 1 (back right corner): ~2,398 sq ft of asphalt rebuild — saw-cut and mill to 4" depth, undercut and fill up to 30 tons of ABC stone to shore up the eroded subbase, install NCDOT i19 binder (2") + S9.5B surface (2") in two compacted lifts. Plus 295 sq ft of sidewalk replacement and 105 LF of curb replacement at the same location.
- Catch basin asphalt repair (12 locations): ~1,706 sq ft total at 4" depth across 12 separate basin failure zones, undercut + ABC stone, two-lift NCDOT-spec installation.
- Trip hazard concrete: ~2,781 sq ft of sidewalk rip-and-replace, 292 LF of curb replacement — including the high-traffic locations near the leasing office and playground entrance.
Suggested asphalt repair
- Roundabout and side entrance: ~12,674 sq ft of mill-and-overlay at 2" depth — addressing the alligator cracking before it required the deeper, more expensive intervention.
Maintenance
- Sealcoating: Two coats across ~207,559 sq ft of asphalt, divided into 5 sections so resident access stayed open through the project.
- Crack fill: Up to 15,000 LF of cracks (¼"–¾" wide) cleaned and filled with hot crack filler, focused in drive aisles where structural integrity matters most.
- Restripe: Full layout to existing pattern — 588 spots, 11 ADA stalls, arrows, stop bars, crosswalks.
Why It Mattered for the Property's Owners and Managers
- Defensible in a CapEx approval meeting.Every line item was tied to a numbered location on the site map, with photos and measurements attached. The asset and construction managers could walk leadership through the proposal without having to re-explain it.
- Resident safety addressed first.The trip hazards near the leasing office and playground — the locations where injury risk was highest — were prioritized as critical even where the underlying cause wasn't a catch basin.
- Honest counsel saved money.Poly-foam injection would have been cheaper upfront but would have meant repeating the work in 12–18 months. Recommending the right solution — even when it cost more — is what "playing the long game" means in this trade.
- One mobilization, multiple workstreams.Bundling the critical, suggested, and maintenance work into a coordinated project meant one set of resident notifications, one site-prep effort, one closeout — instead of three separate disruptions over twelve months.
Project Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Property type | Multifamily / apartment community |
| Total parking spots | ~588 regular + 11 ADA |
| Total asphalt area | ~207,559 sq ft |
| Total concrete area | ~68,723 sq ft |
| Critical asphalt repair | ~4,104 sq ft (Location 1 + catch basins) at 4" depth, NCDOT i19 + S9.5B |
| Critical concrete repair | ~3,076 sq ft sidewalk + ~397 LF curb rip-and-replace |
| Suggested mill-and-overlay | ~12,674 sq ft at 2" depth (roundabout + side entrance) |
| Sealcoat | Two coats over ~207,559 sq ft, in 5 phased sections |
| Crack fill | Up to 15,000 LF, hot crack filler |
| Restripe | 588 spots + ADA stencils, arrows, stop bars, crosswalks |
| Subbase reinforcement | Up to 60 tons ABC stone (Location 1 + catch basins combined) |
Frequently Asked Questions
What's a catch basin and why are they prone to asphalt failure?
A catch basin is the in-ground drainage structure that captures water flowing across a parking lot and routes it into the storm sewer. They're prone to asphalt failure because water is the enemy of asphalt — and a catch basin is the lowest point on the lot. Over time, water finds its way around the casting, into the surrounding subbase, and starts to erode the soil that supports the surrounding asphalt and curbing. Once the support is gone, the asphalt cracks, the curb sinks, and the failure compounds. The fix isn't just to repave the surface — it's to dig out and replace the eroded subbase with ABC stone, then build the asphalt back up properly.
Why did you recommend against poly-foam injection?
Poly-foam injection works when you have a sound concrete slab that has settled because the soil underneath has consolidated — you inject foam, the foam expands, the slab is lifted back to grade. It does not work when the slab itself is undersized or has been ground down by previous repairs and no longer has the structural thickness to be lifted without breaking. At Haven, many of the trip-hazard locations were in that second category. Lifting them with foam would either fail immediately or accelerate the crack pattern. Rip-and-replace was the right answer.
How long does sealcoating an entire 588-spot community take?
On a property this size, we divide the lot into roughly 5 sections and sealcoat one per day. Each section needs to dry before traffic returns — about 24 hours in optimal conditions. With residents living on the property, we coordinate the section schedule with management so people know which day to move their cars and which day they're back. Extending past 5 days adds re-mobilization cost; planning the sections carefully keeps the project tight.
Can you handle resident notification for a project this large?
Yes. For projects with this scope, we assign a project coordinator who works with corporate management, on-site property managers, and maintenance staff. Marked-up site maps go out before each phase showing exactly which areas are affected on which days. Resident communication remains the property's call — but we make it easy by giving them everything they need to communicate clearly.
