2017 Coal Tar vs. Asphalt Sealer Price Comparison: Coal Tar Unappealing; Asphalt Prices Flat
It’s time for our annual survey of the retail prices for coal tar and asphalt based sealers. Here’s the heart of what we know: 1. The average of 14 different retail asphalt sealers is unchanged since last year2. The overall use of coal tar sealers is in decline so much so that some believe that it […]
2016 Coal Tar vs. Asphalt Sealer Price Comparison Reveals the True Value of the Survey
For several years now, we have done an annual survey of the costs of pavement sealers. Primarily we do this to demonstrate the small, if any, price and performance difference between asphalt-based and coal tar based products and to monitor how the market is changing. Commercial PricingDecision-makers often rightly want to know regulating coal tar […]
2015 Coal Tar vs. Asphalt Sealer Price Comparison
Asphalt-Based Sealer Prices Flat or Falling; Retail Coal Tar Sealers Rare Nearly 20 years ago, a lab scientist went to the hardware store and bought a dozen buckets of pavement sealer to study their toxicity. 11 of those 12 were coal tar based. Today if you were going to do the same thing, you might […]
2014 Asphalt vs Coal Tar Sealer Prices: Costs Outpace Inflation
This year the price of driveway sealcoat continues its climb over previous years. Both coal tar and asphalt-based products saw the largest percentage increases in the last 4 years inspite of a dwindling variety of coal tar based products. 1973 Ad for Coal Tar Sealer The survey, which we have done annually since 2011, saw […]
Highlights of First Great Lakes Sealant Reduction Webinar
Cleaning up all of their stormwater basins, like this one, couldcost Inver Grove Heights, MN as much as $27 million. This week marked the first in a series of webinars hosted by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) which included important new information about the progress being made with sealant applicators, health-related effects from coal tar […]
2013 Coal Tar vs. Asphalt Sealer Price Comparison
Editor’s note: This is an annual survey from 2013. For more recent surveys go here. This post is the third time we have compared the cost of retail driveway sealers. The previous two were made in March, so it made sense for an update. Keep in mind that the cost of the two dominant products are sensitive […]
“Nasty Surprise” Awaits Communities with Coal Tar Sealant Pollution
Expensive cleanup costs of stormwater ponds throughout Minnesota constitute a “nasty surprise” according to one Minnesota League of Cities’ official. A recent Minneapolis Star-Tribune article exposed more details about the billion dollar cleanup expected if just 10% of the region’s stormwater ponds are contaminated with coal tar sealants. The State of Minnesota found that 9 […]
The High Cost of Cheap Coal Tar
Would you ever buy something that costs 45 times the purchase price to cleanup? Not in your right mind, would you. But pond cleanup costs, calculated by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and extrapolated here to a per gallon cost, show that the application of coal tar sealants is just like this. The costs go from […]
Annual Sealant Price Comparison: Asphalt Drops Twice as Much Vs. Coal Tar
A year ago, in one of this site’s most popular posts, I put up this comparison of retail products. That post was almost a year to the day of this post, so it made sense for an update. Keep in mind that the cost of the two dominant products are sensitive to the price of […]
Cleanup Costs “Huge Problem;” Drives Another Minnesota Town Toward a Coal Tar Sealant Ban
With more municipal coal tar sealant bans than any other state in the US, another Minnesota community is moving toward passage of a ban. The real cost of disposing dredged sediment from retention ponds has led the City of Inver Grove Heights to begin the process to pass a ban. According to an article in […]