Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 2:03 pm
Hello all, i have a major problem with my drive way, had it flagged with blue/black lime stone 12 months ago. I believe its round about 22mm thick. Now, i know little about stone and flagging, but the guy who did it advised me that this stone is fine for a driveway and its all down to the foundation, infact he stated that if the foundation is solid he could lay glass on it and it wouldn`t break. Now theres no way i believe that but i did take him for his word that these limestone flags, if thats what you call them, would be ok to park my car on, if the foundation was solid.
Now i was here when they were laid and he did dig out around a foot, fill it with hardcore, wack it then lay the lime stone on a pretty dry mortar base. It was then pointed with a dry resin based powder, which set hard.
My problem is that a month or so after i started to get loose flags, and the pointing was breaking up. He has been back 4 times now as over the 12 months i`ve had around 17 flags coming loose every 3 or 4 months. Her lifts them, puts them back and sprinkles in this resin pointing. I leave it for a week or so, then park on it, and it all starts again with 1 or 2 loose ones leading to a lot!
He tells me he has know idea why this is happening as he does it all the time? From what i can see this resin based powder is no where near as strong as sand/cement pointing as it cracks very easily and i can flick it out with a finger nail.
I have a 2.5 tonne landrover on this drive, which he knew about when he quoted me for the job, and told me i could park a train on it if i wanted too.
Now i`m obviously a little naive, but like a lot of people i took a tradesman at his word and now 12 months after the job was done and 4 attempts at him putting it right, its still a mess.
so can you tell me:-
Is this thickness stone suitable for driving on?
Is this resin based powder pointing any good/suitable to drive on?
Should i have thicker stone 40mm to 75mm?
Should the stone be bonded to the mortar mix?
Im at the stage of starting legal action, so any input will be greatly appreciated.
I have some pictures, but don`t know how to put them on.
Many thanks in advance.
Now i was here when they were laid and he did dig out around a foot, fill it with hardcore, wack it then lay the lime stone on a pretty dry mortar base. It was then pointed with a dry resin based powder, which set hard.
My problem is that a month or so after i started to get loose flags, and the pointing was breaking up. He has been back 4 times now as over the 12 months i`ve had around 17 flags coming loose every 3 or 4 months. Her lifts them, puts them back and sprinkles in this resin pointing. I leave it for a week or so, then park on it, and it all starts again with 1 or 2 loose ones leading to a lot!
He tells me he has know idea why this is happening as he does it all the time? From what i can see this resin based powder is no where near as strong as sand/cement pointing as it cracks very easily and i can flick it out with a finger nail.
I have a 2.5 tonne landrover on this drive, which he knew about when he quoted me for the job, and told me i could park a train on it if i wanted too.
Now i`m obviously a little naive, but like a lot of people i took a tradesman at his word and now 12 months after the job was done and 4 attempts at him putting it right, its still a mess.
so can you tell me:-
Is this thickness stone suitable for driving on?
Is this resin based powder pointing any good/suitable to drive on?
Should i have thicker stone 40mm to 75mm?
Should the stone be bonded to the mortar mix?
Im at the stage of starting legal action, so any input will be greatly appreciated.
I have some pictures, but don`t know how to put them on.
Many thanks in advance.
He`s due back on 29th of sept (if he shows) to pull it all up, he says he will use traditional pointing and sbr bonding, but it seems from your reply the foundation is also a problem. If the foundation was as you say would the flags stay down, or is my car too heavy regardless?