Tarmac driveway?

[JoeJoe]

Thanks a lot everyone - always happy to be educated!

Tarmac it is then...

[Johnny B Good]

Puts me in mind of the computer repair shop's slogan:-

"We do good fast cheap repairs, pick any two options as per the list below".

Good and fast... won't be cheap Good and cheap... won't be fast Fast and cheap... won't be good

[Adrian Caspersz]

10 years? I yield to your longer report with disappointment :(

[NY]

Many many years ago, my parents were conned by one of these gangs of labourers who knock at the door and say that they notice our driveway is looking in need of repair and that they have a load of tarmac that will go off if it isn't used today. Do we want them to tarmac our drive? Classic technique :-(

The drive was admittedly crap beforehand: lots of river-washed rounded pebbles about the size of an egg partly embedded into concrete to leave a very knobbly bumpy surface. And these charlatans just dumped the tarmac on top of this knobbly surface and then rolled it flat. Within a week or so it was starting to wear through wherever there was a stone, and elsewhere it peeled away from the concrete.

I can't believe my parents were taken in by these con-artists.

[sintv]

My next door neighbour is a joiner. He decided to get the rear tarmacked. T he base was dug out and hardcore added, edging put in and drains added. As he is in the know I assume the squad used knew their stuff and it took abou t 4 days. This was about 6 months ago and Ive already noticed small weeds c oming through in a few places. Price for driveway and rear of our propertie s was about £7k to which I contributed £2k

[Mark Allread]

If weeds are indeed coming through then they clearly did not know their stuff.

It may be that they are growing in from the sides but unlikely if proper groundworks were done.