The Brew Cabin

Dear Paving Expert,

I think I know the answer to this but I wanted to share it.......A few months back you kindly confirmed that bob the builder had left me with a shoddy crazy paved patio - I had hoped that the drive would fare better as the pointing seems harder. HOWEVER - we have been filling up a skip with builders rubble (left behind by bob) over the last few days - the lorry collected said skip today - lo and behold there is now a wheel shaped dip on the drive with cracked and broken pointing all around it. I know the chaps laid a layer of what they called MOT down first and used a wacka(?) plate on it but I can't recall how they bedded the slabs after that. Not correctly it would seem. Is there any point in us lifting and rebedding this bit or should we just watch it all crumble around us and get someone in who knows what they are doing? :-(

Well, to be fair to you Bob, most residential driveways could not cope with a skip wagon. They are designed for loads of up to around 3-5 tonnes, whereas a skip lorry, even before it has the skip on its back, is the best part of 10 tonnes - you can double that once it's carrying a fully loaded skip!

I'm not sure how extensive is the damage caused by the skip wagon, but I'd guess that your best bet is to lift and relay whatever has been disturbed, if only for safety reasons, and then consider a full reconstruction next year, once you've had a chance to see how the rest of the driveway performs over the summer. It may be that, once normal traffic resumes, the drive copes adequately, and there would be no need to re-construct, or, if you're really unlucky, it might be that it gradually deteriorates as it's trafficked leaving you no real option other than to start again.

If you've any photos of the damage done, send them in to me and I'll take a look.