tarmac drive bowing - anything that can be done?

[cheeky_chops]

Had our house for 3 years and the drive was laid before we moved in. I have noticed where we park the 1 car (2 on drive) that the tarmac has started to bow under the front right wheel. We got rid of our old rover 214 shed 4 months ago and replaced it with a heavy saab oil burner cab, this has made the problem worse. Its quite a narrow drive so no option to move cars over

Is there anything that can be done before it gets worse? The tarmac is in good condition and no more than 5 years old

[mrmaggit]

cheeky_chops said:

Had our house for 3 years and the drive was laid before we moved in. I have noticed where we park the 1 car (2 on drive) that the tarmac has started to bow under the front right wheel. We got rid of our old rover 214 shed 4 months ago and replaced it with a heavy saab oil burner cab, this has made the problem worse. Its quite a narrow drive so no option to move cars over

Is there anything that can be done before it gets worse? The tarmac is in good condition and no more than 5 years old

Sounds like either there is insufficient hardcore underneath the tarmac (most likely) or there has been some settlement/sinking/subsidence in the area. Whatever happens, you will need to repair the problem, either by putting patching tarmac in the hole, which will then be obvious as it will be a different colour to the rest of the drive; or by digging up the affected area and possibly re-laying the hardcore to a deeper depth and re-laying the drive.

Your choice.

[Sam_68]

mrmaggit said:

Sounds like either there is insufficient hardcore underneath the tarmac (most likely) or there has been some settlement/sinking/subsidence in the area.

And/or the hardcore was insufficiently well compacted.

Whichever way, only proper, long-term solution is gonna be to dig it out and do it again, I'm afraid.

[cheeky_chops]

cheers for the bad news!

I was hoping they could drill some holes and inject some resin or similar to stop/slow it down... Think i will live with it - patch will look crap and certainly not having it all relaid.

I take it it may just stop getting worse?

[mrmaggit]

cheeky_chops said:

cheers for the bad news!

I was hoping they could drill some holes and inject some resin or similar to stop/slow it down... Think i will live with it - patch will look crap and certainly not having it all relaid.

I take it it may just stop getting worse?

Eventually (unless you happen to be on the top of an old mineshaft ) the settlement will cease, unless there is an undergound spring involved. How much it is going to settle, and how deep the depression is going to be is anybodys guess.

[eddie1980]

As as been said not much you can do, even if you did manage to stop it sinking by injection of something runny that will set you still have a dip. Unless of course you go with a can of expandable foam and some light praying.

You could always spread the load from the Saab by fitting some MUCH wider tires :-)

Edited by eddie1980 on Monday 6th July 14:42

[Brabus Jord]

or lay a plank down that your front wheels sit on to spread the weight...

[Poledriver]

I know some pikeys who are laying tarmac just up the road from you. If they have any left over they could come and re lay your drive, nice and cheap!

[Silent1]

We had this problem so we laid 5 inches of gravel over it all it now looks nicer and there's no more humps and lumps as the gravel has pressed into the Tarmac making better that gravel & hardcore

[Silent1]

We had this problem so we laid 5 inches of gravel over it all it now looks nicer and there's no more humps and lumps as the gravel has pressed into the Tarmac making better that gravel & hardcore