Couch grass thru tarmac

[daggman]

HI

Not been happy with my tarmac drive since it was laid 6 months ago, after a couple off weeks i parked a car in the same place for 2 weeks at it left deepish tyre imprints in tarmac, contractor came up with all sorts of excuses, and were i have been parking the car the tarmac has slowly been sinking, and today i found grass coming thru the tarmac , been told its couch grass and can come thru anything !!!!!!

should i just ring trading standards , do they actually come and look at the work that has been carried out ?

I paid just under £2k for this drive so it did not end up like the drive over the road(can see in pic) that some cowboys did, but worried it will end up just the same in a couple of years.

[local patios and driveway]

thats not couch grass, looks more like a plant of some kind. could be a seed from something local trapped in there thats germinated

[daggman]

so it something that defo should not manage to come thru tarmac then?

[local patios and driveway]

could be growing on top. pull it and see. i can tell you have a gripe with your contractor maybe you should be airing your concerns with him and then take it to trading standards after that?

i dont price tarmac but 2k sounds like peanuts to have the job done right...

[ilovesettsonmondays]

hi , looking at your pic of the drive . the tarmac is badly laid.ruts , bumps , dips you name it etc. broken gulley pot . dont know if they did the step , rough pointing .

[ilovesettsonmondays]

looking at your pic again . look at the seventh brick along the top row . now look at the first brick ,if u put a level across those two points . youve got fresh air

[daggman]

well what ever it is , is defo coming thru the tarmac, I am awaiting for the guy to come round. When it was first done it looked smooth and level , now looks bumpy and rutty every time i leave the car parked on it for a few days(have an old classic which does not get used a lot) , it seems to leave a new mark.

Looks worse at night when u turn into drive and the car lights just highlight all the marks in the tarmac.

[bobbi o]

its mares tale,roots can go down 12 feet,thats why a surface treatment dont work.its easily spotted if you know what to look for. i put a disclaimer on quotes if i know its there.(no allowance made for treatment of persistent weed,prior to commencement of works )if i dont then i have to carry the can and fix it.

in your case you need to treat it everytime it appears and hope it'll go away. the other solution is to get a good hand digging man,go down as far as you can,then soak the area in a mixture of diesel and strong weedkiller. nowt else works .

on the tyre marks front,you cant tell from the pics,but its either,insufficient depth of tar/sub-base/poor compaction or a combination of all these. if your going to pursue this,you'll need to employ a structural engineer or two,who'll take a core sample,give you a report which you'll need to pursue the contractor,who presumably doesnt live in a lay-by on the local industrial estate.

[GB_Groundworks]

i cant see a pic? or a link to a pic in this post am i missing something here?

[bobbi o]

i cant see a pic? or a link to a pic in this post am i missing something here?

ilovesetts,link to his deviant homemade porn vid link isnt working either! - The URL contained a malformed video ID.

[ilovesettsonmondays]

there were about 3 pics posted for this thread . think my youtube link was the one about hitler selling torres to chelsea!!!

[Big Phil]

i can't see any pics either.

[rab1]

neither can I

[Stuarty]

nor I, but if its coming through tar it definitaly sounds like mares tail, bash the waxy stems and get raw weedkiller on it, paint it on with a brush and it starts to take it in a bit

[Pablo]

tbh your driveway needs ripped out and started again from the sub base upwards. With regards dealing with Mares Tail a 4-1 solution of agritox 50 or similar pastureland weedkiller will remote it with ease. I've never had a single site needing redone after I've used it and that includes tarmac.