Parking Lot Maintenance Plan for Bend, Oregon Properties

Quick Verdict

A parking lot maintenance plan in Bend is a written, multi-year schedule and budget that keeps your asphalt ahead of the high-desert climate instead of reacting to failures. For a property manager or board, it answers what gets done each year, what it costs, and when the big-ticket items like overlay or reconstruction land. The plan turns unpredictable repair bills into a funded line item and protects the lot from Deschutes County's freeze-thaw and UV. This guide walks through building a plan that works in Bend.

Why a Plan Beats Reacting

Without a plan, parking lot spending is a series of emergencies — a pothole here, a failed corner there, a surprise reconstruction when a board finally notices. Each emergency costs more than the planned version of the same work, and none of it is budgeted. A maintenance plan flips that: you schedule the cheap preventive steps on a cadence and forecast the expensive ones years ahead so the money is there.

For property managers in Bend, the plan is also a communication tool. It shows owners exactly what their dollars buy and proves the lot is being managed, not neglected. Our parking lot maintenance plan guide lays out the framework; this page adapts it to Deschutes County.

Step 1: Assess Before You Plan

Every real plan starts with knowing where the lot stands today. A condition assessment gives you a PCI score, a distress map, and remaining-life estimates — the raw material for the schedule. You cannot budget repairs you have not measured. Start with a condition assessment of your Bend lot, then build the plan on top of it.

Step 2: Build the Cadence

A Bend maintenance plan lays the recurring steps onto a calendar, tuned for the high desert:

• Crack sealing — yearly, before winter. Non-negotiable in Bend. This is what stops freeze-thaw from making potholes.
• Sealcoating — every 2 to 4 years. Protects against the strong high-desert UV; lean toward the shorter interval.
• Drainage maintenance — twice yearly. Keep water off the surface and out of the base before it freezes.
• Striping — every 2 to 3 years. Keeps ADA compliance and traffic flow current.
• Overlay or major repair — forecast year. Planned years ahead from the assessment's remaining-life estimate, not as a surprise.

Step 3: Fund the Reserve

The expensive items — overlay, mill-and-overlay, reconstruction — should be funded gradually through a reserve, not paid for in a panic the year they come due. A good plan estimates when each major item lands and sets aside money each year so the cash is there.

Plan element	Timing	How it is funded
Crack seal	Annual	Operating budget
Sealcoat	Every 2–4 yrs	Operating budget
Striping	Every 2–3 yrs	Operating budget
Overlay	~Years 8–15	Reserve
Reconstruction	End of life	Reserve / capital

This is where a maintenance plan and a reserve study work together; our reserve study and budgeting guide goes deeper on funding the big items.

What a Bend Maintenance Plan Costs

The recurring portion of a plan is budgeted per square foot per year, with the major items forecast separately into the reserve.

Industry Baseline Range: the ongoing maintenance portion of a plan (crack seal, periodic sealcoat, striping, minor patching) commonly runs in the range of $0.15 to $0.40 per square foot per year+, averaged across the cycle, with overlay and reconstruction forecast as separate reserve items. These are industry baseline ranges for planning only — actual pricing depends on lot size, access, condition, and current market conditions. Get a site-specific quote.

Current Market Reality

Bend's short, high-elevation work season means scheduled work has to be booked well ahead — crews fill the May-to-October window early, and a plan that slips its timing can lose a whole year. The plan's value is partly in that scheduling discipline: when the calendar is set in advance, you get on the crew's list before the rush. Material costs track the asphalt index, so building a little headroom into the reserve protects against price swings.

The Bottom Line

A parking lot maintenance plan in Bend converts unpredictable repair bills into a funded, scheduled program that beats the high-desert climate. Assess the lot, set the cadence, forecast the big items into a reserve, and book the work ahead of the short Central Oregon season. The result is lower lifetime cost and a lot that does not surprise your board. Cojo helps Bend property managers build and run these plans alongside our asphalt maintenance services — build your plan with us.