DIY tarmac repairs

I was quite surprised how effective the cold laid stuff was, on a warm day it slowly oozes into place a bit like giant demerara sugar, I had borrowed a proper metal tamper, but a big lump of wood and club hammer were handy too.

Depends how deep you've got to fill, and wither you've got a good edge to work to, I gather it's not so good if it just tails off to a thin sliver.

Bagged Bitmac is easy to lay. If doing so on a cold day leave the bag in a bin of hot water for a while and it almost flows. Make sure the area your filling has square sides not tapered to a thin edge. Over fill by about 15% then tamp down. I finish by covering the area with a sheet of ply and driving the car over it a few times.

Mike

My neighbour used some to seal a 4-6" wide strip after he laid a new paved drive. It's not as good as proper asphalt, but it does the job and it's by no means a "bodge". It certainly won't fall out if done right - square cut clean edges are a must so it gets packed in well.

I bought some aerosol bitumen to spray on the edge of the old asphalt, might not have been necessary ...

get a firm in. Sub base is best to be whackied down MOT/hardcore blinded with sand or fines.

Then hot laid tarmac by a pro firm

One bag of this stuff goes nowhere. There are calculations on the net of the coverage.

Council replaced the pavement along our road 10-15 years ago. It looks exactly like tarmac, but it wasn't tar - the macadm was coated in resin which set to hold it in place. It still looks like new.

Looks like this is called Resin Bound, but it was much thicker than the web pages I can find suggest (several inches).