Resurfacing driveway

[leenowell]

Hi All,

We have a tarmac drive which is looking a bit tired and has had a couple of trenches dug across it to lay some pipes and these have been concreted ove r...

Today a guy knocked at the door asking if we would like a quote to have a l ayer of bitumen and gravel put on top of the existing. He seemed pretty ge nuine and no hard sell so I got a quote and his card. Does anyone have any experience of this type of coating? He reckons it will be fine on top of b oth the tarmac and the concrete. Also, what sort of price per m2 (Surrey) should I expect. He was saying it is usually £28 per m2 and currently on sale at £14 per m2. When he measured he was generous (to my benef it) in his sizing and then reduced to a round £2k for 166 m2. Is this about right?

thanks

Lee.

[Lobster]

On 13 Sep 2016, [e-mail] grunted:

Whatever it was for, the answer is always NO!

[Tim Watts]

Noooooo!

It's a pikey - or similar.

Rule #1 of resurfacing drives: if they knock at your door, tell them to go away!

Rule #2: If you actually want a drive resurfaced, ask around your neighbourhood and call someone in from an actual firm.

[Jethro_uk]

Having researched paving in too much detail to really go into here, I can tell you that the ONLY

*only*

_only_

correct way to use tarmac as a paving material is for it to be ROLLED IN (*rolled in*, _rolled in_) hot nusing a proper (i.e costs a fortune) "steam" roller.

Anything else will do exactly what my drive (and my neighbours drive) did, about 5 nanoseconds after your friendly "expert" has f***ed off. It's a waste of time.

They relaid our pavements with tarmac 3 years ago - and they did it properly. Sadly the days when you could slip them a few quid to cover my drive "while they're at it" are long gone. Every kilo of tarmac had to be accounted for, so they couldn't put any extra out without someone somewhere knowing. Which struck me as a bit stupid ... if they had charged (say) £200 to do all 56 drives in my road, they would have almost recovered the cost of the pavement ....

Obviously the need for a proper roller makes decent tarmacing expensive - and a ripe trade for cowboys.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Our pavements were redone some years ago (perhaps 6 or 7).

I saw after they'd finished the other side, and assumed it was tarmac. However, when they did my side, I saw it was actually something completely different. It was laid like wet tarmac (except it was not heated, and no tar smell). Then they sprayed something on it and that made it set. I presume it was resin based. It doesn't soften/melt in the sun. It still looks brand new. There's a little patch where the surface broke away immediately after it was laid where some mare's tail weed pushed through, but it hasn't happened anywhere else.

I can't recall if a roller was used, although I do recall backs of rakes being used to level it.

[AlanC]

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 2:39:42 PM UTC+1, [e-mail] wro te:

I had this happen many years ago. The guy gave me a rough quote. I said I would think about it and told him to send me the details of the quote in t he post. The next day my wife and I left for work as normal. a couple of hours later I received a telephone call from my mother-in-law (she was stay ing with us for a week while house hunting in the area) saying that some me n had turned up and were raking up the shingle on the drive! She asked the m what they were doing and they said that I had agreed to have my drive don e. I rushed home but they had left, leaving a big pile of shingle in the m iddle of the drive. The "boss" had left his number. Apparently me shaking his hand when he left was my agreement to have the work done! A few words were exchanged and I never heard/saw them again.

Alan

[Adrian Caspersz]

It does look good, some folks around here have had it done - though I can't find any comparative ideas of costs vs. tarmac and block paving.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes I was thinking that. I'm sure some are OK but most of these blokes tend to scrimp on the materials when they do it. The obvious issue is do they have a fixed telephone or just a mobile? Anyone with a mobile and no validated street address is not to be trusted. Always get at least two quotes, especially with cold callers making the first move. One of the problems I've seen is poor quality of materials, poor adhesion to part or all of what is underneath resulting in j water geting under it and freezing and making it basically fall to bits. I think to do it properly you need to get down to the solid concrete then a layer of some stuff I've forgottentthe name of then the final top coate and seal any joins with one of them hot tar melt machines.

Brian

[Jethro_uk]

If MiLs drive is anythng to go on (c. 7m2) a ****ing fortune.

But that was resin that had been cast (on site) to look like stone paving.

[The Natural Philosopher]

whatever quote you get will be 10x the going rate.

My ex FIL had a quote to regravel his drive fir £300. They spread about £30 of gravel, badly....in an hour....

[The Natural Philosopher]

And take a photo of them and their vehicle and pass it to the police

[pamela]

That is so correct that I wonder why the OP gave the matter any more than 5 seconds thought.

[Tim Watts]

Yes - the resin stuff is often used at heritage sites where you want a "gravel path" without the gravel buggering off. So they put gravel down and spray it with resin - the end result looks like gravel but feels like tarmac.

I gather there are a lot of finishes and styles that can be done with resin.

[rick]

ah .... NO ..... No

Just putting a top layer on looks wonderful for a couple of weeks then starts lifting. To be done properly is a big task .... with lost of prep work.

[rick]

Sadly the days when you could slip them a few quid to cover my

Not quite ... new bypass being built locally .... as I had a new build with no drive yet laid .... every week I'd get a Pikey offering a deal .... neighbour had it done - fell apart after 2 years.

You need a fully consolidated sub-base, a binder course and a top 'wearing' course laid hot with a machine

If you want more details read :

[Jethro_uk]

No, it was some sort of shiny plastic resin. It's a menace in winter ....

[Jethro_uk]

That was the guide 15 years ago - which steered me away from tarmac for small areas :)

[rick]

still hold true .... if a guy knocks your door offering tarmac ... then with 99% probablity it will be a pikey ..... avoid.

[lee]

You can never tell but... From their business card they look ok. They have landline, free phone and mobile numbers and also a website...

Anyone any experience?

Thanks

Lee.

[leenowell]

You can never tell but... From their business card they look ok. They have landline, free phone and mobile numbers and also a website...

Anyone any experience?

Thanks

Lee.