How to start a pavement maintenance business

Pavement maintenance keeps parking lots, driveways and private drives in service. The trade includes sealcoating, crack filling and sealing, striping, patching and small paving, sweeping and pressure washing, and snow and ice work.

It protects pavement that's still sound. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) says preservation work generally doesn't add structural value. FHWA's crack manual calls crack sealing or filling uneconomical and technically unsound when a lot has a large number of cracks or badly broken-down ones. Its guidelines send badly broken cracks to repair, like patching, and widespread broken cracking to rehabilitation. Recommend the repair, or refer it out, and put it in writing.

Your customers are homeowners, property managers, homeowners associations (HOAs), churches, schools and small businesses (B100.3). Start with small jobs: a driveway, a church lot, a small strip center. Property managers and HOA boards often set next year's budget months ahead, so ask when they plan.

Pick the line where four things overlap: demand near you, the length of your season, your skills and the cash the equipment takes (B100.3, B100.4). Start with one. These three fit together. Crack work comes before sealcoating, and striping comes after it, because fresh sealer covers the old lines. Snow and ice work can fill the winter later (B100.8).

Sealing a commercial lot also brings up accessible parking. The U.S. Access Board's guide treats resealing a lot as an alteration. The U.S. Department of Justice says a business that restripes must provide accessible spaces as the 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards require. If you seal it, make sure someone gets those spaces right when the lines go back.

Example. Dana (example) has run a sealcoating crew for six years and has a truck that can pull a small trailer, but not much cash. She starts with crack filling on Saturdays, using cold-pour material and a rented compressor. Her first three paid jobs are church lots near her house. She adds sealcoating by hand the next spring, once her savings cover the budget.

1. Run the honest math. Compare what you'd keep as an owner with your paycheck now (B100.1).
2. Choose your way in. Start from scratch, buy, or join someone already in business (B100.2).
3. Prove the demand. Talk with 10 likely customers and finish three paid jobs before you buy a rig (B100.3).
4. Learn the trade. Work beside an experienced operator, and ask your supplier what hands-on training it offers. Read the technical data sheet and the safety data sheet (SDS) for every product you'll use.
5. Budget, and pay with cash. Get three quotes for every big item and add working capital (B100.4). Never fund the start with a merchant cash advance or your retirement account (B100.5).
6. Set up the business. Choose a structure, register, get your employer identification number (EIN) and check licenses and permits (B100.6). The IRS issues an EIN for free, so never pay a website for one.
7. Get insured before the first paid job (B100.7).
8. Set up safety, using the basics below.
9. Write your first-season plan: a pricing floor, rainy-week capacity, a 13-week cash forecast and a winter plan (B100.8).
10. Decide: go, go small on the side, or wait with a date and a fix list (B100.9).

Licenses. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) says license and permit requirements vary with your business activities, your location and government rules, and it lists construction among the activities often regulated locally. Check your state, county and city. States sort this work differently. California, for example, puts protective coatings and directional lines on parking facilities under its C-32 Parking and Highway Improvement classification.

Insurance. The SBA notes that you may be legally required to buy certain types of business insurance. Talk with an agent before your first paid job (B100.7).

Safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to keep labels and SDSs for the chemicals workers handle, and to train workers to handle them. When other controls fall short, employers must provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and train each worker to use it. For heat, OSHA encourages water, rest and shade. OSHA's On-Site Consultation Program is no-cost, confidential, separate from enforcement and aimed mainly at smaller businesses.

Public roads. Road work is a different job. OSHA requires the traffic control devices that protect construction workers to conform to Part 6 of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).

Saturday jobs while you keep your paycheck are the safest way to test the trade (B100.1). Keep the work away from your employer's customers and equipment, and have an attorney read any non-compete you signed. The IRS says side income must be reported even when it's paid in cash and no tax form arrives. Set tax aside from every job.

• SBA: Launch your business, including licenses, permits and your EIN
• Small Business Development Centers: no-cost business consulting
• SCORE: free, confidential mentoring
• OSHA On-Site Consultation: no-cost, confidential safety help for smaller businesses
• IRS: Get an employer identification number