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Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 1:21 pm
by techauthorbob
I have an existing concrete drive, laid about 2 - 3 years ago that is wearing badly, especially where vehicles torn or stop/start.
The concrete mix seems to be not staying together, as though there is not enough cement in the mix, although the colour suggests that there is.
The builder thinks that at the time the cement manufacturer had problems with their cement.
This drive was mixed on site and not a premix job.
He is coming back to fix it and suggests about two inches of cement with granit chippings and using bonding to stick it to the existing.
The drive is about 120 feet long, with a 30 foot sloping section to my garage.
Does this remedy sound reasonable ?, is there anything better for this?.
I really do not want to dig up the whole drive again though if it can be avoided.
Thanks guys (and gals of course!) in advance.
Bob
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 4:40 pm
by GB_Groundworks
that might give you another 2 years but to do it properly it wants to be a minimum of 150mm thick for vehicular use, a 2 inch top coat is likely to crack and separate from the lower slab.
why didn't they use premix for such a big drive. assume a width of 3 metres x 36.5 metres by a minimum depth of 100mm thats 11 cubic metres of concrete or 22 tons. a lot to mix by hand in one pour?? working the quantities out its something like 140 bags of cement(3500kg) for that mix assuming a minimum depth of 100mm?
did they use a steel reinforcing mesh or fibres??
i'd want to break it up and relay it properly 150mm thick with strong c25/c30 concrete mix, tamped or roller screeeded off and a brushed finshed.
you could get away with 100mm just if something heavy runs on it like bin wagon etc it better to be a bit thicker.
see http://www.pavingexpert.com/concrete.htm
giles
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:07 pm
by Dave_L
Sounds like a complete bodge job to me - the on-site mixing for starters as Giles has said is completely ridiculous!
The only viable option I see is complete re-construction.
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:04 pm
by Tony McC
One of the better quality thin-surface overlays might tide you over for a few years, but if the concrete substrate is beginning to crumble, it's a short-term fix and the only permanent cure is rip it up and start again (as Orange Juice once said!)
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:20 pm
by techauthorbob
Thanks guys, the drive has steel reinforcement already and only fairly light vehicular traffic over - up to about landrover discovery size.
What thin - surface overlays are available then? and are they any good.
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:26 am
by Tony McC
Resin bonded - see this page
Cementitious - I don't currently have a page covering these specialist products as they haven't really caught on in Britain, but you can read more about them here
Bituminous - again, I don't really cover them on the site but read more about them on CJ Sumner's excellent Highways Maintenance website
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 6:29 pm
by GB_Groundworks
in honor of tony's favorite saying i made this haha 
giles :p
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:57 am
by Dave_L
Ahhhhhhh wonderful Giles, I'll have to save that somewhere for future use! (If that's OK?)
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:01 am
by Dave_L
Tony McC wrote:Resin bonded - see this page
Cementitious - I don't currently have a page covering these specialist products as they haven't really caught on in Britain, but you can read more about them here
Bituminous - again, I don't really cover them on the site but read more about them on CJ Sumner's excellent Highways Maintenance website
Footpath slurry sealing - what an abortion of a job! Just had them done round my area, what an abysmal job!
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:39 am
by lutonlagerlout
concrete mixed by hand is generally poor quality
this is because its nigh on impossible for the donut mixing to get 2 gauges exactly the same
the premix companies buy their cement a lot cheaper than us and so are not afraid to mix a decent batch
in my youth i can remember knocking up crete for a garage floor and when i told the boss there was only 2 bags of dust left he simply said "stretch it!"
not good
LLL
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:56 am
by Tony McC
The H-U-U-U-G-E car park at a local discounter has just been slurry sealed. The finished effect is very good. It looks as though the whole area has been re-surfaced; the levels are spot on; and the traction is much improved. But when you look at the detailing: by eck, it's rough!
Lips have been ground down, slurry splashed onto adjacent areas of block paving and not cleaned up, slurry allowed to flow into gullies and linear channels. Makes you wonder why they can't have one man supervising the detail.
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:50 am
by GB_Groundworks
Dave_L wrote:Ahhhhhhh wonderful Giles, I'll have to save that somewhere for future use! (If that's OK?)
yeah thats the idea i put the brew cabin on it, it'll be staying on my server just copy the address
Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 3:29 pm
by simeonronacrete
There are solutions to your problem including a thin bonded screed, for example using Ronafix screed
Or you could lay Ronadeck Fast Grip
But both require the surface to be strong enough with sufficient tensile strength to allow the bonded screed to stay bonded or the Resin Bonded to stay bonded.
By all means give us a call and we can discuss.
Regards and good luck.