We had a major water leak under the pavement right in front of our driveway one night a couple of months ago. A failed valve meant that it took them over 3 hours to finally turn the water off.
Our driveway (2 cars) is made up of a single piece of concrete (sorry, not sure of the correct terminology?), with some stencilled rectangle-shaped indentations in it, all dyed in a pinkish colour? A very ugly thing indeed. The water pressure was high enough to wash a large amount of silt and sand from under the concrete, resulting in parts of it cracking and collapsing by a few centimetres, leaving the driveway damaged and uneven.
The water company agreed to do whatever it takes to bring it back to its original condition or similar.
They sent the sub-contractor that they use to have a look at it today. He suggested two possible solutions:
- Remove the damaged parts (80% of the driveway - he said that they won't approve doing the whole thing), and use concrete again to re-do. He thinks that it would look horrible as he would never manage to exactly match the colour and pattern.
- Remove the whole concrete driveway and the equally as ugly edging stones that need replacing anyway and re-do it in tarmac instead and edging of our choice.
We are not particularly house-proud, and can happily live with the 2nd option (he assured us that it would be done properly), but is there a reason not to go with that? We live in a neighbourhood of around 100 houses, and none of them has a tarmac driveway? Is it just a matter of taste?