Driveway topping/Surfacing

[lozcb]

Just about to engage a company to either resin bound or tarmac my drive , at the moment its all concreted , 70 percent of it newly concreted last year, any of you guys have experience of either surfaces layed in the last 10 years , previous tarmac drives ive had have always been laid on mot type 2 and have sunk some years later down the line , brick weave is out of the question thoughts/ experience please part of my worry is the weight of the Masser and or Bentley on turning will disrupt the base on warm days

 

[c4sman]

Im not an expert but a well laid tarmac surface will always strike the best low maintenance longevity balance for most. Just had ours extended and the old part have to deal with huge fully loaded grab lorries carrying the spoil from where the new drive was being dug out. Held up well with no damage which was remarkable. Guess that’s why they make roads out of the stuff. Resin (if light coloured) would give me nightmares every time a deliver van with the mandatory oil leak came to visit

 

[CatmanV2]

We had ours laid a couple of years back by an organisation that, if you wrote a series about them, it would never get on TV as it would be considered racist. Zero issues to date. No signs of wear. No break up. Scrubbing only happens in the summer from delivery vans and so on. It's not our actual *drive* but its the shared road.
It's tarmac (per my limited understanding)
They had a guy going up and down with a whacker for a whole day.....

I'd not seek to accurately judge if it was type 1 or 2 it was laid on, but they stripped off the original rough gravelly type surface and went from there.

C

 

[Scaf]

I think the resin has a short life span if it takes heavy use, a mate of mine had his pulled up after 5years or so and has gone back to gravel.

 

[DLax69]

Can you float and skim coat the concrete to refinish it...?

 

[lozcb]

Cheers guys , food for thought .....thus far im leaning towards a 30mm fine hot laid tarmac , Hopefully Newton will come on shortly , also crossed my mind as to the rubberised compounds they use on childrens playgrounds etc .............there are some good colour options , something i would like to do once so it looks pleasant without costing a fortune

 

[Gazcw]

Cheers guys , food for thought .....thus far im leaning towards a 30mm fine hot laid tarmac , Hopefully Newton will come on shortly , also crossed my mind as to the rubberised compounds they use on childrens playgrounds etc .............there are some good colour options , something i would like to do once so it looks pleasant without costing a fortune

Tarmac it and paint it with a coloured epoxy if you want to seal and colour it.

 

[madmanmart]

Having done groundwork for a bit after I left school I can tell you Tarmac laid properly on a good base will not sink.
Same for paving, and I paved my 120 square metre drive myself in 2020 as I was bored at evenings and weekends.
I have my 3 tonne Landcruiser parked on mine.
You can lay tarmac on concrete.
I wouldn’t have resin but groundwork’s love it as it’s extremely expensive, apparently lay it on anything and easy to lay, but I don’t know the longevity of it.

 

[Wack61]

A neighbour had some men in transit vans do his sloped drive back in the 80s

It looked OK when they'd finished but they told him to stay off it for a day for it to go off ( and them be at least 100 miles away)

He did as they asked, next night he parked his car on it, I got up for work at 6am, looked at his drive, the car looked like a half sunken boat, the passenger side in it at least 4"

He backed his car off it and it left 2 grooves, he still used the drive but by the end of the week it looked like a volcanic ski slope

Cost him a fortune to get it all dug up and done properly, turned out what they'd done was just use the really fine surface tarmac with nothing underneath it, it looked OK but was soft so just sank when a car was on it

 

[Hexadex]

Had mine done in resin, took up block paving, relaid hardcore. It looks really good but not cheap. I’ve had delivery vans And copious amounts of cars have traversed it, two years later still looking good.

 

[mjheathcote]

Our tarmac drive is 20 years old. Couple of years ago had ours extended and the local tarmac company came and did their stuff in a couple of hours, with a crew of 6, obviously on their way back to their depot after a commercial job.
Reassuring the old gaffer passed comment that he laid the original 18 years ago.
If proper thickness ect, no sinkage at all, hard as nails.
It's coped and recovered from a few disasters, worst a massive leak of power steering fluid from my father in laws van.
Maybe not the prettiest or trendy, but does the job if done properly.

 

[lozcb]

Theoretically my head says it shouldnt be a problem going down on fresh clean concrete base, with the suitable sealers /primers etc after all, as someone said thats what they did to the original concrete roads years ago ....im probably faffing over nothing, semi retirement does that to people especially when is coming to the end ones earning life

 

[DLax69]

Theoretically my head says it shouldnt be a problem going down on fresh clean concrete base, with the suitable sealers /primers etc after all, as someone said thats what they did to the original concrete roads years ago ....im probably faffing over nothing, semi retirement does that to people especially when is coming to the end ones earning life

Still like just concrete. Cheap (relatively), quick, durable, heat reflective...

 

[2b1ask1]

Patio and driveway are resin bound 2-5mm grit, the patio is 15-20mm thick, I paid extra to have the driveway laid 25-30mm thick as when I originally laid the zero-fines pea shingle concrete mix 180mm thick on the driveway (back in 2008) I was expecting to use clear binder macadam to top it off. The resin bound grit has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years; my neighbour has had it down for near on 10 years and has parked a jag on it every day since with no issues save a bit of iron grit staining (rusty 10p size spots) and general bleaching over time. Mine is now 2-years old more or less and is perfect front and back. Anyway as discussed Loz; I'd suggest a clear binder macadam in your situation. As with any surface it is all about the base prep to avoid cracks and movement. Consolidate, consolidate and if in doubt consolidate a bit more!

 

[Moz1000]

We had resin laid 5 years ago. The firm dug out the old drive, laid and compacted some hardcore, installed some drainage channels including a soak away, then laid 4 inches of reinforced concrete and then floated 17mm resin. Came with a 10 year warranty, but only because they laid the concrete base. Still looks great and the drainage takes care of puddling, unless it's a heavy downpour.
Moz

 

[zagatoes30]

As you may imagine, tarmac layers are 10 a penny here and surprisingly they are very good. Apparently they don't sh1t in their backyard, they go to the UK to do that

 

[lozcb]

As you may imagine, tarmac layers are 10 a penny here and surprisingly they are very good. Apparently they don't sh1t in their backyard, they go to the UK to do that

True to form though there maths is still bad when it comes to assessing the required quantities , lost count of the number of pikies over the years that have knocked on my door saying they are just working up the road and have a load left over ....enough to have my whole drive done

 

[DLax69]

True to form though there maths is still bad when it comes to assessing the required quantities , lost count of the number of pikies over the years that have knocked on my door saying they are just working up the road and have a load left over ....enough to have my whole drive done