Advice needed please - Help with a driveway

[weymouth1416]

Hello all, i have a major problem with my drive way, had it flagged with blue/black lime stone 12 months ago. I believe its round about 22mm thick. Now, i know little about stone and flagging, but the guy who did it advised me that this stone is fine for a driveway and its all down to the foundation, infact he stated that if the foundation is solid he could lay glass on it and it wouldn`t break. Now theres no way i believe that but i did take him for his word that these limestone flags, if thats what you call them, would be ok to park my car on, if the foundation was solid.

Now i was here when they were laid and he did dig out around a foot, fill it with hardcore, wack it then lay the lime stone on a pretty dry mortar base. It was then pointed with a dry resin based powder, which set hard.

My problem is that a month or so after i started to get loose flags, and the pointing was breaking up. He has been back 4 times now as over the 12 months i`ve had around 17 flags coming loose every 3 or 4 months. Her lifts them, puts them back and sprinkles in this resin pointing. I leave it for a week or so, then park on it, and it all starts again with 1 or 2 loose ones leading to a lot!

He tells me he has know idea why this is happening as he does it all the time? From what i can see this resin based powder is no where near as strong as sand/cement pointing as it cracks very easily and i can flick it out with a finger nail.

I have a 2.5 tonne landrover on this drive, which he knew about when he quoted me for the job, and told me i could park a train on it if i wanted too.

Now i`m obviously a little naive, but like a lot of people i took a tradesman at his word and now 12 months after the job was done and 4 attempts at him putting it right, its still a mess.

so can you tell me:-

Is this thickness stone suitable for driving on?

Is this resin based powder pointing any good/suitable to drive on?

Should i have thicker stone 40mm to 75mm?

Should the stone be bonded to the mortar mix?

Im at the stage of starting legal action, so any input will be greatly appreciated.

I have some pictures, but don`t know how to put them on.

Many thanks in advance.

[lutonlagerlout]

1 not imho

2 has it got a name? again not IMHO

3 hard to get stone that thick these days

4 not necessarily

5 to lay flags on a drive way they need to be laid on 100mm of concrete over 150 of type 1

I find a wetter mix is better

i wouldnt lay flags if i knew a big motor like that is going on it


LLL

[weymouth1416]

Thanks for your reply LLL, looks like i`ve paid a fair bit of cash to a guy who talks the talk! He`s due back on 29th of sept (if he shows) to pull it all up, he says he will use traditional pointing and sbr bonding, but it seems from your reply the foundation is also a problem. If the foundation was as you say would the flags stay down, or is my car too heavy regardless?

cheers

[lutonlagerlout]

fair play to him for agreeing to come and put it right
its a tough one as we often get people wanting stone flags on driveways and I dont like doing it
realistically you have to give him a chance to put it right
cheers LLL

[weymouth1416]

Hi LLL,

Yeah he has agreed to come back, he also did my entire back garden in the same stone, which has no car on it and after less than 3 months several of these have come loose as well, he tells me he is packing it all in after crimbo, and it is only due to my consistent hounding that he says he will come back. Do i need to tell him the drive needs to be on the foundation you stated, as he didn`t do this. Or is my car too heavy for this kind of stone, regardless of what he does. It also hasn't been sealed on the drive due to consistent problems, but i have since read that if it is sealed my car will leave tyre tracks as your not meant to drive on sealer, again i took his word for this too. I did infact want pattern concrete on the drive, but he doesnt o it and talked me out of it at the time!!!!

[lutonlagerlout]

what you have described to me is someone laying patio flags as you would council greys

for most indian stone the mix needs to be wetter and also SBR needs to go in the mix and be applied as a bond bridge to each flag prior to laying

why would anyone "pack it in " at the start of the next boom?

LLL

[weymouth1416]

He says he`s fed up of the hassle, i assume im not the only one constantly on his case!