New tarmac on old tarmac drive - Advice needed

[padster]

Advice needed - accepted quote for relaying tarmac drive which involved scraping existing surface on day 1 and then laying and rolling 20mm bitumen macadam base course and then 25mm wearing course on day 2. Thought OK as I could check on day 1 that existing surface had been removed. However - contractor has finished all the work on day 1. How can I be assured that existing surface was removed and that I'm not just paying for some more tarmac to be laid on top? Any advice?

[lutonlagerlout]

use a 50mm corer on an out of the way spot to see what he has laid
then plug with black cement
LLL

[mickg]

other than boring a hole using a core drill bit or breaking a bit of the tarmac at the edge away so you can see the different layers you have no way of knowing

[mickg]

haha beat me too it Luton

[bobbi o]

You cant unless you put a core drill thro it and measure the thickness.

spec sounds a bit dodgy. 20mm base course relates to the size of the aggregate in the mix,hence it is not possible to lay it 20mm thick. the base course should be thicker than the wearing course,hence a spec of 50mm thick base course and 20 or 30mm thick wearing course would be more suitable

[padster]

Sorry my mistype - should have read 50mm thickness of 20mm base course and 25mm thickness of 6mm wearing course.
Would one day normally be sufficient for completing this work which is approx 100sqm?

[DNgroundworks]

hmm in a word no, not realy, was it machine laid?

[padster]

that's my problem. I presume it was hand laid but I don't know. I was at work! How long would you expect such work to take?

[GB_Groundworks]

thats some muck to shift, and to do it cleanly with no signs of debris around etc, your looking at a few wagons or skips to shift 100sqm of bitmac etc,

you thinking they just threw some 6mm over the top of the old surface.

[Mikey_C]

have you not got a datum point such as a pavement height, height down from the DPC, fence height drainage point?

[padster]

yes that's my concern. I may be concerned for no reason but I did not expect the work to be done in a day.

[padster]

to MikeyC - no -tarmac was for bottom of driveway and is not near the house.

[DNgroundworks]

is it all rounded off at the edges? how about a photo :p

[DNgroundworks]

is it all rounded off at the edges? how about a photo :p

[padster]

Getting a bit dark for a photo today as area is under tree cover. Have not checked the edges but I think that one butts up to the dry stone wall and the other flattens off towards the neighbours banking.