Heating stuff

[GMM]

I was quite impressed with a little job I saw the other day which had used cold-lay tarmac and would like to replicate this on a few patches I have. Talking to the blokey who did it, he said the secret was to heat it up (kinda contradicts the name I know!), for which he used a roofing torch. Trouble is, it seems quite an investment to slash £100+ on a torch, regulator and propane bottle just to lay a couple of £5 bags of tarmac, especially as I don't have any felted roofs I could also use it on in the near future, so I'm wondering if there are any viable alternatives to getting all that clobber. I always have a bottle of butane for the bbq, but it doesn't look straighforward to adapt that for this use: Perhaps someone here knows better though?

Cheers

[newshound]

Something like the bottom foot of a steel oil drum on the barbecue? Or a drum cut in half lengthways, if it is a big one.

[Andy Burns]

Wait for the missus to go out, and stick it in the oven?

[John Rumm]

ISTR machine mart did fairly cheap roofing torches... having said that even a decent hand held torch with a 2" burner on it would do the job.

With propane cylinders you buy the first one, and then just buy the gas each time you swap it. You may well sill be able to flog the cylinder back to the supplier.

[tabbypurr]

Lay it cold then. The main difference is it takes days to set, keep traffic off until good & hard. To get good adhesion, paint the hole with bitumen p aint before filling with cold-lay.

NT

[Andy Burns]

No problem with the small area I've cold-laid, an aerosol of spray-applied bitumen is convenient for sealing the edges beforehand.

[Tim Lamb]

It has been suggested that an agricultural solution might be to pour on some red diesel and set fire to it:-)

[Steve]

Would one of those weed burners that crop up in Aldi promotions be any use for this sort of thing?

[GMM]

I suspect my bbq would collase under the weight of a bag of cold lay.....Maybe I need a new bbq!

[GMM]

And who doesn't like a little danger in their work? :-)

[GMM]

I think the point is that warming it up allows the bitumen component to flow a bit so you get better compaction when laying

[GMM]

Thanks - I'll try to look into that, though I wonder if they generate enough heat for this sort of application.

[Mark Allread]

and not to lay it too thick in one go - build it up gradually if its a deepish hole.

[Muddymike]

I have used this cold lay bitmac a few times now. If its really cold just stick the whole bag in hot water before opening it.

Mike