Parking Lot Sealcoating in Sioux Falls, SD

Parking lot sealcoating is the same protective film used on driveways, applied at commercial scale to a lot's stalls, aisles and entrances, and in Sioux Falls it is part of keeping a lot in the condition the zoning code expects. Section 160.556 requires parking and drive areas to be hard-surfaced with concrete or asphalt and striped, kept as free as possible of snow and ice, and maintained in good condition. Lots here take more abuse than driveways: plow blades, piled snow, sand and delivery trucks all winter, then summer heat. A sealcoat every few years slows the oxidation and water damage that turn a lot gray, raveled and cracked, and gives new striping a clean surface to sit on.

The city's growth keeps adding lots. In 2025 alone Sioux Falls issued permits for 138 new commercial buildings, 80 of them apartment buildings, and the year-end report lists apartment projects of 124 and 178 units among the largest. Each new lot follows the same arc as a new driveway: a few months to cure, a first seal, then a maintenance cycle. Older lots are further along that arc and more often need crack sealing and patching before any sealcoat goes down.

Traffic in a lot is concentrated, so wear is uneven. SealMaster recommends a minimum of two coats over the whole surface and a third in high-traffic areas such as entrances and drive lanes, where turning tires scrub the film fastest. Its typical resealing interval is about three years, shorter in harsh winters and under heavy traffic. The sequence matches a driveway job: clean, fill cracks, repair potholes, prime oil spots at the heads of stalls, then seal.

Keeping a business open is the scheduling problem. Sealer needs at least 24 hours without traffic, so a lot that must stay open is done in sections, part of the stalls one day and the rest the next, with drive aisles kept open by rotation. SealMaster's weather rule, no sealer when temperatures will drop below 50 degrees within 24 hours or when rain is expected, narrows the calendar to roughly June through August here, when Foss Field's normal overnight low stays above 50. Striping goes down only after the final coat has cured, and line striping covers the layout and accessible spaces.

Two more code provisions matter when sealing. Section 160.556 requires lots to dispose of stormwater so that it does not flow onto adjoining property or sidewalks in a harmful way, and requires lots of more than 200 spaces or 32,300 square feet to be divided into smaller fields. Ponded areas are worth correcting before sealer goes down, because water that sits on a lot finds every crack, and island curbs and landscaped dividers add edge work. Wherever snow is piled all winter, the pile site stays wet into spring and deserves a close look for cracking. The cost page shows commercial per-foot rates.