A Tarmac Contractor laid me a new SMA Driveway, whilst the tarmac was being laid the roller driver went over the drain cover situated in the middle of the driveway in front of my front door.
The drain cover was tilted fron level to a drop on one side of 20mm over the drain cover width of 335, this was not noticed by myself until after the contractors had gone home. It looked bad.
I called the foreman who told me that he could rectify the problem, he cut a square around the drain cover approximately 220mm from the sides and re set the cover in concrete.
A couple of days later two workers arrived with some sma on the back of a truck, one of the men puured a liquid on the tarmac, I asked him what it was and he replied its red diesel, it makes it easier to lay.
I thought no more ablot this until reading this website.
The men proceeded to pour a black liquid onto the bottom of the excavated hold, and then put the tarmac in.
The "cold pour" was only put onto the bottom of the hole and not on the sides.
On checking with this site I now know that this is wrong too as the repair does not stop water penetration damaging the repair. The tarmac was then whackered flat and the men left.
The "repair" was finished and the next day, I looked at the job, it looked worse than it did before. I called out the owner of the company, I explained that I was not happy with the repair, firstly because it was more prominent than it had been previously and it stood out like a sore thumb as the slopes on either side of the drain were uneven.
I then told the owner that his men had used red diesel on the repair, he replied, "my men dont thin tarmac down, they never use red diesel", well they did and it was witnessed by both my parents.
I told him that they had poured cold pour onto the bottom of the hole but not on the verticle sides, left by the stihl saw.
He said that If the cold pour had been put on the sides then the cold pour would have made a right mess on the surface.
The owner said that diesel had not been used on the tarmac and that he was more than happy with the repair.
I said that I wasnt happy with the repair, he said that the only way the situation was going to be resolved was by putting a joint further down the driveway, scraping the bad area around the drain and by re tarmacking it.
He however said that this would be a more obvious repair than the original repair and that I would have a cold pour line from one side to the other of my new driveway.
The Contractor has given me my bill of £6600, he is unwilling to give me a discount for having a second rate repaired, either way I turn i am left with a repaired job which I am unhappy with.
Further problems are that the roller man drove onto the edging block pavers and crushed them, altering the level of the tarmac meeting the edge.
I would appreciate some advice with this from readers, am I obliged to accept the repaired job or can i insist on having the driveway taken up and re done properly. It looks like this will end up in court because I am unwilling to pay for a third rate job.
