Tarmac or concrete for sloping driveway?

[cyanspeaker]

I'm partway through redoing the front driveway which has involved widening it for more vehicles. The old drive was a mess so it was all broken up. I spent best part of last autumn helpin a guy dig out the front and laying down a decent subbase.

Now that Im onto the main surface I don't know whether to go for concrete or tarmac. I've spent a fair bit of time myself laying the kerb edging which I think would look ok regardless of what surface was used. You can see the drive is sloped and in wet weather it can be quite slippy. If I went for concrete I wouldn't even consider laying it myself with readymix but would want something like the straight brushed finished look.

Also I would like the dropped kerb extending on either side. This is partly because the road is so narrow that I end up having to drive up the kerb to get in the driveway. Presumabley I get an approved contractor for this, but do I need written permission from the council or can they just do it?

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Out of interest, this is what it looked like before work was started! When I think back now I didn't quite realise the amount of work that was required! pic before

[lutonlagerlout]

is that type 1 you have used mate?
and if so it looks a tad high for block paving or tarmac
regards LLL

[cyanspeaker]

Yes I realise its a little high nearer the middle. I'm going to get the guy with the mini digger back to scrape it down a bit -if thats possible. At the time I should have been a bit more careful with levels, but it was my first driveway project.

Turned from skinny lad to Arnie overnight using that single drum roller for two days on that lot!

[cyanspeaker]

Type 1? It was about 2 ton of road planings if that means the same. It certainly has lasted well like that for a year and I probably could carry on with it other than the fact it tracks in asphalt into the house

[lutonlagerlout]

i was under the impression that road planings are not a suitable subbase for anything except farm tracks

have the lot out and get some type 1 in mate

sorry LLL

[Tony McC]

They're barely suitable for farm tracks!

The big problem with road planings is that they are primarily asphalt or bitmac. These are both oil-based products and so they degrade over time, breaking down, disintegrating and reducing in volume, taking whatever lies on top with them. They should never, ever be used as a sub-layer for a pavement. As a top dressing for low-use, low-budget access paths, car parks and farm tracks, they are just about acceptable, but they shouldn;t be used for anything even vaguely structural.

[dig dug dan]

up in my neck of the woods (and LLL's) they are widening the M1. when i came off at junction 8 the other day they were building the new A414 slip road and they were using road planings! I hope it is just temporary for the works traffic, and not sub-grade layer!!

[cyanspeaker]

Ouch. I realise now I may have taken wrong advice at the time. I didn´t intend to do a bodge job and the subbase was crushed up concrete from the old driveway. On top of this I laid a woven fabric membrane. The planings were then rollered/vibrated.

I guess my only option is to have it concreted in sections with a very high strength mix with wire mesh. Bearing in mind the old driveway which was a good 30 years old was laid on on soil and hadñ´t cracked I´m pretty sure it will be ok for a domestic driveway... It will have to be as I ain´t taking up that lot now.

You live and learn I suppose :rock:

[dig dug dan]

I am confused. The old driveway was crushed up as a sub-base? and the old drive was concrete?,
then where did the road planings come in? are they on top of the crushed concrete? or was the old drive tarmac crushed up?

[cyanspeaker]

The old driveway was concrete. This was crushed up. Around a 150mm layer of subsoil was scraped off. then the crushed concrete put back, then fabric sheet, then road planings.

So its not just road planings directly on soil.

[cyanspeaker]

dig dug dan - I just noticed your website! That was exactly the model of crusher I used on the driveway.

However, I can´t say I operated anywhere close as that girl is doing! Looks a bit dangerous what she is doing. Mine had a ´wire´safety skirt around the throat of the machine linked to microswitch cutouts. I had great respect for the machine given the amount of impact force it delivered

[dig dug dan]

ahha! you must of hired directly from TCP in maldon?

Can you ell me how much you were charged for a day inc. delivery?

I have removed the saftey skirt as it is a pain in the proverbials. It just gets in the way and evey time you drop a brick near it it cuts the machine off.Youv'e got to be pretty stupid to stick your hand in it in any case, which you can do even with the safety fence in place by climbing up and under it.

Back to your problem, sounds lke you can get away with removing the road planings from the fabvric sheet, then put more crushed concrete down.
I have seen a driveway where road planings were used and it sunk about a year later. not good

[Rookiepaver]

What is type 1 and who do I ask to deliver it and will I be asked if need it different grades?.
Its for front garden converting into a hard standing for a 17ft boat and 4 x 4.
Started to clear the area last week of shrubs etc.
Blocks arrived today. Still have to remove the turf and check levels.
The site is sloping towards the house.
I was hoping wouldnt have to bother with a concrete base.
Was going to consolidate with a wacker some hardcore, not yet sourced, and lay 50mm paving blocks onto mortor.
Will this withstand the weight of boat and also general parking use?
And what is type 1?


:rock:

[IanMelb]

And what is type 1?

Using the main website's search facility, I came up with this set of results:

http://www.google.com/custom?....ert.com

[lutonlagerlout]

read the flipping manual!!!

main site answers all those question,in depth

LLL