The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Fri Jun 20, 2008 9:31 pm**

Hello all,

First post so I shall try and be brief!

I have a vintage 1968 concrete drive, which although is solid enough looks tatty.

I do not want with an impending wedding in 2010 to rip out all the concrete and have pavers or PIC done due to cost, so looked at overlays.

Here's the thing:

1. Are overlays any good? do they last? is it worth it?

2. Anyone had dealings with National Driveways?

3. Anyone used Macismo products? - they are based down the road from me and have an interesting "Slurry Seal" service.

I really dont want to outlay thousands to tart up a house I will be selling in 5 yrs when I ship us all to Canada, so was interested in the Â£1k budget applications, as long as they can stand car wear and look ok for a good few years.

All suggestions will be most welcome!

Thanks

Adam

P.S. Excuse lack of knowledge here, but I do computers not drives lol

Posted: **Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:13 am**

whatever you do you need to ensure you don't go with in a 150mm of the DPC.

don't know about the company or overlays you mention.

However if the concrete is solid and not cracked have you considered resin bound gravel over the top.

Failing that your old concrete, when put through a mobile crusher would make a good sub base material for a tarmac/block paving/gravel finish.

Posted: **Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:40 pm**

Overlays done properly are fine, but they must be done properly, they must overlay a sound substrate, and they must be done properly. The biggest cause of problems with overlays is contractor incompetence.

Nationwide Driveways: unlike lots of other "one-man-and-two-mates" driveway contractors, Nationwide have a large number of gangs, some of them are transient and will only be with the company for a matter of days or weeks. Further, there is enormous variation in skills and competence amongst the gangs. You have NO control over which gang you get.

A problem common to many larger country-wide contractors is this use of subbies. When summat goes wrong, the contractor blames it all on the subby, who is inevitably no longer working for the company (allegedly), and the customer then has a battle royal trying to get work put right. The contractor tries to appear as all innocent and put-upon, complaining about how they have been let down by the subby, and that they will have to pay for the remedial work out of their own pocket because they've already paid the subby.

TOUGH! That's the risk you take in using subbies. You either ensure they do a proper job and oversee their work to be certain it meets your standards, or you don't use subbies full-stop.

The customer's contract is with the contractor, not the subby, and so it is the contractor that has to accept responsibility, and not try to 'pass the buck' as so many of them do.

</gets off high horse>

Macismo - don't they do carriageway work? I wasn't aware they did private driveways.

The Brew Cabin

Nationwide driveways, macismo etc... - Overlay systems