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Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 12:23 pm
by ke99
Hi everyone,
I have searched the excellent pavingexpert.com and the forums on this site plus google, plus 8 'phone calls to sealant suppliers (including Tarmac building products), to find suppliers of bitumen sealing grit but unfortunately I have drawn a complete blank.

It is mentioned several times on pavingexpert.com, and is exactly what I need.

Can someone please let me know of a supplier, it is for a small tarmac repair made to my drive and one bag would probably suffice.

Thank you very much indeed for your help :)

Keith

Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 10:45 am
by Dave_L
All tarmac coating plants have it - often used for coating the bottom of trucks prior to loading material. It is heated, so not possible to bag it.

Whereabouts are you located? I have tons of the stuff, you'd be welcome to a bag - this is stuff that I've had for jobs which is excess. It's obviously cold but it will be fine.

Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 1:49 pm
by ke99
Hi Dave,
Thank you very much for your swift reply and your kind offer :)

I have this morning (Sat. 13th September) now contacted 'Express Asphalt' in Coventry. They are 30 minutes from me, and they have it. I explained that I only wanted a modest amount and they said they would help me out.

I want the sealing grit to improve the appearance of a repair to my drive. It was created with hot rolled asphalt, 30% stone, but some of the drive collapsed due to excavations for drain works underneath it. Yet another amateur job!
The company that repaired the drive a few weeks ago told me that they would match the existing asphalt as closely as possible, but ended up laying what looks like plain tarmac to me, containing stones of differing sizes.

My intention is to sweep the sealing grit over the repaired area to improve the look of it by filling in between the stones to give a smoother overall appearance.

Do you think that this will do the trick, or is it likely to wash away again over time? Would stamping it down be best?

Thank you very much for your help,

Keith

Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 1:57 pm
by Dave_L
A contiguous repair in an asphalt surface is impossible, but bit-grit is the only thing you can really do to disguise it - HRA on a domestic driveway is very unusual and will only make any repair stand out even further.

A picture would help - sometimes I spread a stone dust over repaired areas to make them blend it, works fairly well too.

Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 7:31 pm
by ke99
Hello Dave,
I have some photos to show you, only problem is I just can't work out how to insert them into a post.
My Posting Abilities are "Dynamic image posting: Disabled"

I have tried:
o FAQs
o Help
o Index searches
Using image, photo, and picture posting or insertion
but to no0 result.

Can you or anyone else please tell me how I can include a photo in a post?

Thanks very much,

Keith

Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 11:19 pm
by seanandruby
Go to main page noticeboard and photo post instructions on there.

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 7:54 am
by Dave_L

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 9:11 am
by ke99
Thank you Sean! :)

Dave,
Here are some before and after photos, do you think that sealing grit would improve the appearance of the repair?
Also, is stone dust the same thing as sealing grit?

BEFORE

Image

AFTER

Image

Image

Image

Thanks very much,

Keith

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 7:50 pm
by Dave_L
Nope, nothing is going to hide that or make it much less black looking.

What would I do? Perhaps try a little stone dust but that's as far as it goes.

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 8:02 pm
by ke99
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your reply.
I appreciate that there is nothing that will make it less black looking, what I was hoping for was something to just smooth over the surface a little to make it look a bit less like a lot of dissimilar sized aggregate with voids between the stones.

I take it that you don't think sealing grit could smooth it out at all?

Thanks very much for your advice,

Keith

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 9:16 pm
by RAPressureWashing
What about one of the Tarmac colouring products? I think there is one out there called "Back to Black" Might get the Grey area close to the "new Black area? Just a thought.

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 10:24 pm
by ke99
Hi Roger,
Thanks very much for your suggestion.
I have seen something called 'TarmaSeal' which appears to make the drive a uniform colour, however at this stage my priority is give the repaired area as smooth a surface as possible by filling in between the voids in the aggregate.

Any thoughts on sealing grit vs stone dust would be helpful.

Thanks for your post :)

Keith

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 3:27 pm
by ke99
Hi,
Could anyone tell me please tell me whether bitumen sealing grit is a powder, or whether it is a mixture of powder and small stones, or something else?

Thanks very much!

Keith

Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 10:54 pm
by bobbi o
I'ts 6mm > dust with a roughly 5% bitumen content, haven't seen the stuff for years. its no use for your application.

Hand applied Slurry seal would be ideal for your job, but you'd need to find a crew working in your area and pay them dot dash.

Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 10:59 pm
by ke99
Hi Bobbi,
Thanks very much for your help.

Keith