Materials for patch repair to tarmac driveway.

[Anode]

A tradesman's van has gouged out a small area from my tarmac drive. The damaged area is about 100mm x 50 mm, and about 6mm deep.

There is a wide variety of products that claim to make cold repairs to damaged tarmac. Can anyone recommend any particular product suitable for this (minor) level of damage?

I am more interested in a repair that inhibits further disintegration/weather damage taking place around the existing damage, than I am in the cosmetic standard of the repair. It may be helpful to just pour on some suitable sealer, but I don't know what.

(I live near to a tarmac making plant: could I usefully try to get a small amount of anything from them that would help with this specific repair?)

Anode.

[NT]

any cold lay tarmac is good.

bitumen, but its soft, so be sure to include some stone - you then have tarmac, albeit without the fine powder in the bitumen.

yes, a bit of tarmac, add a tiny amount of paraffin, let it work its way in, then you have cold lay tarmac.

NT

[Paul - xxx]

Put some money in a local charity and I'll send you enough for a patch that size! reply email is legit ..

This is what I use on our playgrounds and car-park/driveway at school.

small areas, as you describe, I use a wooden mallet to tamp it down, the more you flatten it the better for water dispersion. It works brilliantly and can be merged or formed around grids quite easily using the mallet, if necessary.

[NT]

Last time I looked, cold lay tarmac was about =A36 in wickes

NT

[Paul - xxx]

>

We don't have an account with Wickes and we don't pay retail prices anyway .. and ICBA to pay for stuff out of my own pocket and claim it back!

[Bill]

In message , NT writes

After getting advice here, we invested in a bag of this stuff for about a pound more than that at the local woodyard. I saw the cheaper Wickes price the next day. My son put some over some tree root damage. He didn't trust the instructions and heated it up with a blowlamp after he had laid it. I think the blowlamp was unnecessary.

I 'borrowed' some of the bag and filled in a deep hole (dug through the drive by some animal) and another shallow area. I laid it cold, but had put it in the front footwell of the car beforehand with the heater running flat out to improve the "give".

We used my lump hammer at both sites, and I think it has worked brilliantly, but we haven't yet seen its performance under frost..

[Anode]

any cold lay tarmac is good.

NT

Thank you for letting me know that when I do this repair I would be all right using cold lay tarmac - I appreciate your help, and the further information you added.

Anode.

[Another John]

So ... 4" by 2" by 0.25"? I need to know more about tarmac drives: why isn't this so tiny as to be completely insignificant? (This is a genuine question!)

Or are we all assuming that Anode got his mms and his cms mixed up?

Cheers John

[Phil L]

Following on from the cold lay advice you've received so far....

the gravel size of the cold lay stuff is 6mm, so you won't get any in without mashing the stones.

If it were mine, I would deepen the hole to 25mm minimum and square off the sides too, then fill proud and flatten with a piece of wood and lump hammer, then just the hammer

[Anode]

Thank you for your kind and helpful reply, Paul. Have emailed you with further information.

Anode.

[Anode]

That sounds very sound and sensible advice, Phil. If I use cold lay material. I shall certainly follow the way you suggest.

Thank you

Anode

[Roberts]

[dennis]

When I needed to repair the tarmac around a carport post I put in, I put the removed tarmac in a low oven for an hour and then hammered it back in the hole. It works if the tarmac is newish, it may work for older stuff but I haven't tried it. You could try it on the stuff you dig out, it may save you having to buy some stuff.

[Anode]

Thanks for sharing that information, Bill.

Anode

[Anode]

That is very encouraging, Robbie. Thank you for the information.

Anode.

[Anode]

Interesting idea - thanks for the suggestion.

Anode.