From the street, the Glen Ellyn strip center looked well-managed.
Six tenants, solid occupancy, professional signage. The kind of property that rarely came up in ownership conversations because it mostly ran itself.
But during a late-March exterior review, the picture changed.
Three years of deferred pavement maintenance had caught up in the span of one winter. What had been minor surface cracking was now a 40-foot stretch of deteriorating asphalt near the main tenant entrance — with two potholes deep enough to require ADA documentation, faded accessible parking markings, and a dumpster enclosure pad that had developed a drainage pitch toward the building.
The estimate came back at $38,000.
The estimate for the same work three years earlier: $9,200.
This is the math nobody wants to do — but every property manager should run once a year. Deferred pavement maintenance doesn't stay deferred. It compounds.
What the summer pavement walkthrough should still cover:
Surface cracking and pavement heaving — document severity and spread
Potholes — note location relative to high-traffic pedestrian crossings
ADA-accessible stall markings — must be clearly visible and code-compliant
Fire lane and loading zone striping — required to be maintained by code
Drainage pitch — water should move away from the building and toward collection points
Curb cuts — check for damage and proper slope
For most DuPage County commercial properties, the prime window for asphalt work was late April through May — stable temperatures, contractor schedules with room to move, work that sets properly before summer heat. That window is closing.
We're in June. Your options are narrowing. Wait until August and your costs don't.
If you haven't scheduled your pavement work yet, the time to move is now — not after the holiday weekend, not after the next tenant complaint, now. Summer contractor schedules fill fast and heat affects cure quality. Every week of delay is a week you're paying for.
One thing the asphalt contractor won't cover
Once the pavement work is done, the surfaces around it — entry aprons, dumpster pad areas, facade near parking — often look worse by comparison. Cleaned concrete next to a stained building entrance is its own kind of impression problem.
That's the exterior restoration cycle most properties skip. Don't be that property.
Request a Free Estimate
At Rolling Suds of Naperville–Elmhurst, we help commercial properties across DuPage County and selective surrounding cities identify exterior water issues, recurring runoff patterns, high-risk pedestrian zones, and preventable maintenance problems.
We combine:
commercial-first service
advanced surface cleaning equipment
practical maintenance insight
technology-forward documentation
smarter exterior maintenance planning
Rolling Suds of Naperville–Elmhurst
(630) 448-7014
rollingsudspowerwashing.com/commercial
