Tarmac Driveways

TARMAC DRIVEWAYS SOLIHULL & SOUTH BIRMINGHAM

We specialise in creating stunning designs with tarmac and have our own dedicated team to ensure you get the best quality driveway the way you want it.

Although mostly used for pavements and motorways, tarmac driveways have become more and more popular with residential property owners. It is fairly quick to install and keeps the costs low, it also looks great when installed properly. Here at Central Driveways of Solihull we have our own dedicated team to ensure your tarmac driveway is fitted and installed just right.

With over 25 years experience we offer a professional and fast service seven days a week. Family run, we offer a personal service that is increasingly uncommon in today’s world.

Ensuring the highest possible level of quality and customer satisfaction has ensured our ongoing success. To view our full range of service, please take a moment to look through our website. This includes all manner of specialist surfaces from playgrounds, landscaping and fencing and All manner of Driveways.

Recent Tarmac Driveways Completed in Solihull

Pros & Cons of Tarmac Driveways

As mentioned earlier, bitmac can be a cheap, reliable surface over larger areas. Small areas can often prove quite costly as the ‘set-up costs’ of transporting a roller and other plant, an protected bitmac wagon, and a laying gang account for a larger proportion of the overall cost. For residential driveways, it is often wise to embolden a few neighbors to have their surfacing work done at the same time, thereby reducing the impact of the fixed, set-up costs.

All bituminous materials will slowly degrade in UV light, which results in the binder becoming ‘brittle’. This is the primary reason why older bitmac drives often have a crumbly appearance and the cumulative tends to be scraped free of the surface quite easily. While there are some products that can ‘rejuvenate’ old, tired bituminous surfacing, they may not work too well on badly weakened surfacing.

Modern binders are much more light-stable than those of just a few years ago and we estimate that a newly-laid bitmac driveway or pathway should give at least 10 years trouble-free service. We know of bitmac driveways that have survived in excess of 30 years, and while they may be thought satisfactory for a private householder who requires only a firm surface on which to park the car, their condition is generally poor and, in the public area, they would be thought unsafe and warrant immediate replacement.

As bitmac is an oil-based product, discharges of light oils, petrol, diesel, paraffin etc. will dissolve the binder, and this dissolution can penetrate to a significant depth if left unchecked. The only remedy is to cut out the contaminated material and patch-in with new.

The Installation Process

The surface to be covered must be clean and sound and free of organic material or other debris. If the new material is laid over a badly cracked concrete base, old blocks, or any other flawed base, any joints or cracks will soon be transmitted to the surface of the new bitmac, and the surfacing will fail.

This phenomenon is known as “Reflective Cracking” and is a well-documented problem for all types of overlay surfacing, not only with bitmac, but with all other surfacing materials, such as concrete and resin-bound cumulatives. Any ‘contractor’ recommending an overlay of badly cracked concrete or old flagstones should be told to get back on his horse and take a ride back home!

It is important that any proposed overlay to a residential driveway will not raise the level of the surface to an unreasonable height, such as at garage door thresholds, and that it the new surface is at least 150mm below any damp-proof courses in the brickwork of the house or garage. It may be necessary to cut-out ‘keys’ at the thresholds to lodge the new surfacing.

Also, the level of any utility covers within the pavement being overlaid will need to be adjusted. These include water Stop Tap boxes, manhole and inspection chamber covers, cable tv boxes, etc. Unless there is a significant “lift” in level of 50mm or more, ravines, linear pipes and the like are best left at their original level and keys cut around them, much as demonstrated opposite for a threshold, and then the new surfacing is feathered-in to meet the original level.

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TARMAC DRIVEWAYS SOLIHULL & SOUTH BIRMINGHAM

We specialise in creating stunning designs with tarmac and have our own dedicated team to ensure you get the best quality driveway the way you want it.

Recent Tarmac Driveways Completed in Solihull

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