Patching driveway

We have a tiny area around a gate where the contractor who moved the gatepost was going to come back and relay a small area to tarmac after moving the gatepost. That was about 17 years ago. He died about 5 years ago, so I think we can assume he won't fulfil his part of the contract. The temporary cement he put down has now broken up.

Son has a long drive where tree roots have pushed up the asphalt in places, so there are some small holes and some longish narrow cracks. Where you can lift the broken tarmac out, the soil is about 3/4 inches down, and there seems little or no preparation.

We are thinking of trying to repair some small bits of his path and maybe try first on mine. Today we invested in a bag of "Rake and Roll Cold Tarmacadam" from the local builders merchant. It cost about £8, but internet searches show what look like similar bags from about a fiver to about £50, some in tubs, some in bags. Is there any difference? Our bag feels as if it would need a titanium, powered rake to be manipulated at all.

We don't have any sort of wacker to pummel it down, but we do have things like lump hammers. Would hitting a bit a ply over the repair be good enough to settle it? If we end up with a bit too much and a sort of dome, what do we do?

We propose to pressure wash, then allow it to dry out before opening the bag, and will leave the bag indoors overnight before starting. We hope to be able to start at one house then drive to the other house before the open bag starts to set.

Son has a weed killing blowlamp thing, which he thinks might help. I have my doubts.

Any advice, anyone?

Reply to
Bill
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Thanks Phil for the reply.

Ahh, the young. He had "accidentally" torn the end of the bag by the time I got back to his house, and had tried a sample fill of one small patch.

He put a bit in, hammered it down with his normal hammer, and then applied his flame thrower to the top and hammered a bit more. When I got there, we applied my club hammer to beat it a bit more into submission. So far it's looking good.

He thinks that a dollop over the tree root cracks and frequent repeat performances will have to be OK. The tree is in the middle of the tarmac turning round area and is absolutely huge, may be subject to a preservation order and is a sort of ancient feature, so removing it is not an option at the moment.

The bag is now gaffer-taped back up.

Reply to
Bill

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