The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Wed Oct 21, 2009 4:17 pm**

Hello all,

My driveway is quite steep (approx. 10-12m long and rising by 2.5-3m i.e. 1:4ish) and I had tarmaced last year. I chose tarmac as I like the simplicity of it and thought it would be the most durable and low maintenance finish.

I was and still am pleased with the look of the job, but from the off I had problems with the back wheels of my car leaving depressions in the tarmac. Since then I've parked on the drive no more than a dozen times but still have the depressions and slight 'tearing' by the back wheels (done on a hot day) and also visible wheel tracks.

I now believe that the gradient of the drive meant that the guys that did the job were not able to compact the tarmac as much as necessary (i.e. their roller was skidding and struggling to get up the drive) and it's been left very soft.

I guess it's too late to do anything about this now (?) but if I were to replace it can anyone suggest a solution (i.e. I like tarmac but can't afford for it to happen again) or a better surface (i.e. bp or concrete) for the gradient, please?

A friend of mine suggested putting what he called 'soldier bands' of bricks across the tarmac at regular intervals, though I don't know how/if that would enable the tarmac to be better compacted?!

Any advice gratefully received.....

Thanks, Sinbad.

P.S. Sorry, this would perhaps have been better posted in the 'Other Pavings' forum. I'm a novice here ???

Posted: **Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:46 pm**

Im no expert on tarmac so i cant comment, maybe your friend meant to put soldier courses cross ways in the proposed new block paving??

Posted: **Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:55 pm**

Plane it off and relay in a 10mm SMA 50pen tarmac.

That won't move.

Compaction is going to be an issue here as the rollers won't be able to climb that gradient.

Posted: **Thu Oct 22, 2009 7:22 am**

asphalt being 'flexible' isn't the best surface to withstand severe point loading stresses. also bitumen is thermoplastic (soft when hot, hard when cold), so hot tyres on a hot sunny day will cause the material to soften as the black surface absorbs the heat. this usually lessens after the first summer as the bitumen is constantly ageing (oxidising - getting harder). The bitumen grade has a lot to do with this, as softer grades are easy to hand-lay but soften up at lower temps. material technology has embraced SMA which has excellent rut resistant properties.

We've kinda learned from experience and found that not all conventional asphalts are suitable for driveways as all modern cars have power steering and most new houses have shared drives (some contractors don't keep up to date and use old methods and materials). I'd take DaveL's advice and go for the 50Pen SMA. It may not look as smooth as your 6mm Dense etc, but it'll perform much better. aye, and many a job can be ruined by insufficient compaction.

Posted: **Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:28 am**

Thanks for all your replies.

I'm pretty sure that my tarmac is 10mm SMA (if that's the stuff that has the thin fibrous strands in it), which makes things even more annoying.

Have I just had a particularly bad job done (not enough hardcore and/or very little effort at compaction), or is my drive simply too steep for tarmac?

I'd be interested if anyone can advise on either how to compact 50Pen SMA properly on such a slope, or whether a completely different solution (bp or concrete?) would be better?

Thanks again.

Posted: **Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:39 pm**

i prepped a drive steeper than that, and they laid it with tracked paver and rolled it no problem. i would say that your contractor was at fault or badly kitted out, yeah rollers can slip but if you have the right roller and a good driver they'll go up pretty steep drives. sounds like you had a bad job, i'm not a fan or blacktop on steep drives, the first 10 metres of our drive in bitmac as it rises off the lane then goes into cobbles as it gets steeper, always slip on the bitmac bit never on the duck stones.

Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1256686107

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:43 am**

Hi

Have you considered resin bonded aggregate?

Have a look at our Ronadeck Fast Grip system.

You may need to remove all of, or the top surface of, the "soft" tarmac, otherwise you'll find the overlay will fail. If you;re removing all of the tarmac, concrete is a good base for Ronadeck.

If you want to talk it over, give us a call.

Good luck.

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:16 pm**

Dave_L wrote:Plane it off and relay in a 10mm SMA 50pen tarmac.

That won't move.

Compaction is going to be an issue here as the rollers won't be able to climb that gradient.

is it possible to get a planer that fits on 3 ton digger if so anybody know where to hire one got a tarmac drive to replace and they dont want to overlay as it will be too high on damp only been down 5 years

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:21 pm**

a planer fitted to a bobcat will do the job

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:28 pm**

cookiewales wrote:a planer fitted to a bobcat will do the job

Just like we've got, such a useful tool. Especially when coupled with a bucket brush.

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 7:55 pm**

anyone know any body in north west that hires one

Posted: **Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:00 pm**

the big national ones carry them A plant and such, speak to decent sized local black top lads most likely they will have one or know someone, we always use gatley surfacing for all our blacktop work based near stockport.

The Brew Cabin

Best surface for steep driveway