Lockwood, MT
Asphalt seal coating in Lockwood is about buying time against three things: sun, water and fuel. Lockwood is the second-largest community in the Billings metro, 7,195 people at the 2020 Census, and still unincorporated. It grew fast enough that the district opened its own high school in the fall of 2019 with a first class of 100 freshmen, built on a $49.9 million bond. The refinery north of the freeway has run since 1949 and now belongs to Par Pacific, which bought it from ExxonMobil in June 2023. Fuel stops, truck yards and shops fill in around the Johnson Lane interchange. Every one of those surfaces bakes in full sun, takes diesel and oil drips all day, and drains to a roadside ditch because Lockwood has no storm sewer. Unsealed asphalt out here goes gray, dry and brittle years ahead of a sealed lot.
Ostermiller Construction seal coats parking lots, truck yards and driveways across Lockwood from Shepherd, a few minutes up the road. Sealing is the second half of the maintenance pair. The first half is patching the failures and sealing the cracks, and we do all of it in one visit. The paving work behind those surfaces is on our Lockwood asphalt paving page, the town-wide picture is on our Lockwood page, and the metro service lives under seal coating for the Billings area.
Tell us about your project — we’ll get right back to you.
Ultraviolet light is the main driver of asphalt oxidation. The sun dries the binder that holds the stones together, the surface turns gray, and loose aggregate starts to ravel out under tires. Water gets into the cracks that oxidation opens, and with the freeze-thaw swings this valley runs, every winter pries them wider.
Lockwood adds the third enemy. Diesel, oil and hydraulic fluid soften asphalt where they drip, and a truck yard or fuel-stop apron collects them in the same spots every day. A seal coat is a sacrificial layer that takes the sun and the drips instead of the pavement. Industry guidance puts the reseal cycle at every two to three years on hard-working lots, longer on quiet driveways.
Sealer over a pothole hides it for a few weeks. The Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association's published best practices for seal coats spell out the sequence we follow: remove failed pavement to the full depth of the damage and patch it, then let the patch cure 30 to 90 days before sealing. Fill cracks wider than a quarter inch with hot rubberized sealant, and treat cracks over an inch and a half as repairs, not fills.
Then the surface gets cleaned, and oil spots get scraped, scrubbed and primed so the sealer bonds there too. New asphalt is the one surface we will not seal on request. It needs at least 30 to 90 days of warm weather to shed its surface oils, and the check is simple: cast a gallon of water across it, and if the water sheets out without oil rings, the mat is ready.
Sealer is an emulsion, and it cures by drying. The published rules are firm: pavement at 50 degrees or better, air at 50 and rising, no freeze in the next 24 hours, and no rain within eight hours of finishing. That makes the Lockwood season summer into early fall, with a forecast check the morning of the job.
The other clock is yours. A sealed surface is dry to the touch in a few hours but should stay closed to vehicles for 24 to 48 hours, so lots get coated in halves and truck yards get staged around shifts. One more date matters out here: MDT plans to rebuild the Johnson Lane interchange starting in late 2026, and the easy time to get a lot sealed is before those work zones squeeze access. Call (406) 717-4103 and we will come look.
Free, no-obligation estimates across Lockwood and Yellowstone County.
(406) 717-4103From the first look at the job to the final walk-through, here is exactly how it goes.
We come see the actual job — the slab, the driveway, the lot, and the ground under it. What failed, why it failed, and what the fix really is. No blind quotes over the phone.
You get a free written quote with a real number and a real timeline. It says what's included — tear-out, haul-off, prep, materials — and it holds unless the scope changes.
The crew shows up when we said and does the job the way we quoted it — tear-out, base, forms, pour, pave, seal or stripe. Anything unexpected, you hear about it immediately, not on the invoice.
We walk the finished work together before we call it done. Clean lines, clean site, old material hauled off, and clear guidance on cure times and care. Done means you say it's done.
What Lockwood property owners ask us about seal coating. Don't see yours? Give us a call.
What seal coating costs around Billings in 2026: published per square foot ranges, driveway and lot totals, and how often to reseal in Montana.
Read MoreHow pothole repair works on a driveway or parking lot: which patches hold, how to spot a failed base, and when repaving beats filling the hole again.
Read MoreCracked driveway, new patio, a parking lot that needs sealing and fresh stripes? Call or send the form and we will look at the job with you and hand you a free written quote — concrete or asphalt, residential or commercial.
Tell us about your project — we’ll get right back to you.