Residential I brush.
Commercial I Squeegie first coat for coverage, then spray the final coat for finish look.

 

I do residential and what I would consider small scale semi commercial such as fraternal lodges, insurance offices and churches. I dont do huge retail store places that have traffic seven days a week.

I do all my work with a squeegee. Reason being we have so many travelers that will do residential and spray it for $0.10 to $0.13 psf and within a year the sealer will be over half worn off or even worse weathered off the surface.
There is a difference between being worn off and weathered off.

So my main selling point is I charge more than the majority of the guys who spray (refering to the travelers and lowballers who overcut the product) but that I use a squeegee to apply my product. In order to justify my higher price I tell my customers I will put down a much better sealer application and I will be on their property for a longer period of time with the inclusion of me performing a more labor intensive work.

In doing this i prevent the customer from making a apples to apples comparison between me and the competition.

 

All depends if you really are comparing apples to apples. Any application be it brush, squeegee, or spray of a REAL sealcoat such as coal tar will be better than a spray application of oilbase, or similar gypsie seals.

Now if you are talking squeegee vs. Spray application of coal tar or a.e. in that case I settle the debate all the time with customers. Spray does apply more material to the pavement and that's how I justify higher prices than squeegee or brush guys. The customer can decide if they want to pay for more material on their lot or pay for more labor. I find most prefer more material which spray provides.
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I WILL AGREE WITH YOU 100% THAT COAL TAR SEALER IS IN A CLASS ALL TO ITS OWN AND BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME IN PROVING IT WILL OUT PERFORM ALL OTHER TYPES OF LESSER SEALERS.

And I wont argue with you when you state that you can apply more sealer by spraying than I can by using a squeegee.

But however the bulk plant operator where I buy coal tar sealer has looked me directly in the eye and told me there is very little difference in the amount of sealer that can be applied between the two methods (spray vs squeegee) if the two contractors are well practiced and experienced in their trade. I personally have never sprayed any asphalt sealer so therefore i have little choice but to take his word on it.

Honestly I dont want to spray coal tar because I am extremely sensitive to it.

What I was refering to is me applying a coal tar sealer according to the manufacturers specification which is 30gallons of raw sealer product with 10 to 11 gallons of dilution agent (aka water) and the lowballers using 30 gallons of raw sealer with 20 or more gallons of dilution agent.

If im applying a 3 to 1 mix with a squeegee and the lowballer is applying a 3 to 2 mix by spraying then yes I will in fact be able to apply more sealer with a squeegee than the lowballer who is spraying.

But my main point is there are lowballers and travelers who will come through spraying their sealers and a year later their watered down pseudo-sealer shows a 75% wear off. I can come along behind them and apply a properly mixed ratio of sealer with a squeegee and my work will still look brand new one year later.

So therefore I am pretty sure I am not comparing apples to apples.

 

I've never sprayed, but I'm getting into it next spring. In my experience using a squeegee or a roller applicator I've found that application rate depends alot on how porous the pavement has become due to wear or what type stone the asphalt contractor used in the mix. Using a squeegee I found filled all the little spaces between the stones because it's more of a leveling tool. Using a roller I found that it covers well, but uses much less sealer because as you roll you pull the roller over the area and it puts a layer of sealer down but doesn't let extra sealer fill the little spaces. I'm not sure if there's much of a difference but I had to switch to using just the roller because using the squeegee I had to put my price way up to cover the cost of using all the extra sealer and people didn't want to pay the difference when I offered them the option. I still squeegee if it's requested though.

 

Brush next to buildings and small drives. Spray open areas and we also do 2 coats.