A commercial parking lot is a significant depreciating asset that most budgets treat as an expense category. Treated as an asset on a maintenance cycle, it generally stays serviceable considerably longer before replacement becomes unavoidable.
The curve is not linear
Pavement condition declines slowly at first and then sharply once water reaches the base. Pavement management literature has described this pattern for decades: intervening while the curve is still shallow costs a fraction of intervening after it turns.
What it looks like on a typical lot
A maintained lot absorbs a modest recurring cost each year and stays in service through repeated maintenance cycles. A neglected lot in Alberta's freeze-thaw climate reaches full rebuild sooner, as a single capital event. The exact figures depend on your surface, traffic and drainage — which is what the assessment is for.
Deferral compounds against you
Every year of deferral adds construction escalation on top of accelerating deterioration. The rebuild you avoided this year is more expensive next year in both real and nominal terms.
The short version
Run your own numbers with the deferral calculator on the home page, then have us verify them against your actual surface condition at no cost.