Help! Driveway advice and company info - tar and coloured chip.

judgefoozle

Have been looking at tar and coloured chip driveway - best option for us and within budget.

For a 250sqm driveway, any ideas out there of price per sq m?

Have had a few quotes in. One from a company called 'traditionaldriveways.ie' which I can't find anything about on boards.

Any opinions on them, good or bad?

Thanks

BryanF

Comments on company by PM only thanks

macadam

Caveat Emptor !!!

judgefoozle

macadam wrote: »

Caveat Emptor !!!

As with anything, of course!

But any opinions or advice besides?

BryanF

judgefoozle wrote: »

As with anything, of course!

But any opinions or advice besides?

Get 3 quotes. and ask each for recommendations & examples of there work. Make sure they are pricing like for like. This may sometime mean you need to go back to them to modifiy their quotation.

Best of luck

macadam

When you say tar and coloured chip, what are you referring to, is it coloured tarmac ( which is quite expenxive) or liquid bitumen and a chip thrown in it, as in tar and chip.
If it's the latter do not waste your money as tar and chip is a surface dressing sed to extend the life of minor roads, it is not suitable to be laid on just a stone driveway.
And regarding caveat emptor I was referring to the company you mentioned. Did you get a quote for the works.

Gumbo

macadam wrote: »

When you say tar and coloured chip, what are you referring to, is it coloured tarmac ( which is quite expenxive) or liquid bitumen and a chip thrown in it, as in tar and chip.
If it's the latter do not waste your money as tar and chip is a surface dressing sed to extend the life of minor roads, it is not suitable to be laid on just a stone driveway.
And regarding caveat emptor I was referring to the company you mentioned. Did you get a quote for the works.

Macadam, what do you recommend to lay in a front garden in an urban setting of a typical house. Owner doesn't want any maintenance and washes his car in the garden every week or so.

macadam

kceire wrote:

Macadam, what do you recommend to lay in a front garden in an urban setting of a typical house. Owner doesn't want any maintenance and washes his car in the garden every week or so.

When you say garden do you literally mean the front lawn or the whole front, is there a front driveway?

Gumbo

macadam wrote: »

When you say garden do you literally mean the front lawn or the whole front, is there a front driveway?

Sorry, yeah the whole front!
It's about 6m deep by about 6m wide.

May put some form of rockery or plantation in the corner at the boundary but essentially it will be for drive way parking, washing the car with no maintenance.

looksee

We had a large tarmacadam drive done years ago, very expensive, but. Roadstone put it in for us, we were near to a depot. The drive was dug out and the various recommended layers of rough stone, fine stone and the dust stuff, and all rolled hard. Then a good covering of tarmacadam. We were in that house 10 years and the drive was perfect, never a weed or a bump or any sort of problems. You get what you pay for.

macadam

kceire wrote:

May put some form of rockery or plantation in the corner at the boundary but essentially it will be for drive way parking, washing the car

Washing a car not recommended for tarmac or porous asphalt and tar and chip won't last you 12 months, you'd be best looking at a concrete drive also it would be worth checking with your local council regarding washing the car and you will also require good drainage.
36m2 in concrete would probably set you back approx €2700 andcwouls ladt a lifetime, this would include excavation compacted stone and 150mm of 30 neuton concrete and a drainage channel approx €300
So your looking a guide price of €3000 a picture of the property could help give a more accurate price.

ewood1981

got a quote of £6500 for 430m2 bitmac driveway. this includes levelling up, graded stones and drainage channels put in around path. 50mm compacted thickness of 10mm bitmac. how does this sound? we have seen his work from 8 yrs ago and he's been recommended by different people. just wondering how that sounds

laurie88

Depending where you are up north, that's about average pricing.
Properly done pattern printed concrete would be around 15 to 20 per square meter.
I have done (installed both) but not anymore
for the quote you got that's around £17 per sqm.

got a quote of £6500 for 430m2 bitmac driveway. this includes levelling up, graded stones and drainage channels put in around path. 50mm compacted thickness of 10mm bitmac. how does this sound? we have seen his work from 8 yrs ago and he's been recommended by different people. just wondering how that sounds

laurie88

36m2 in concrete would probably set you back approx €2700

I am pretty sure this is inaccurate, well I know it is, I've poured more sqm of concrete than had hot dinners
36 sqm is around 4 cubic meters, give or take. Order from a good server and you will get that concrete for around 400 Euro.
Or at least your installer would. What you pay for, is the tradesman's finishing skill.
How he leaves your property, does the water fall where it's meant to fall after the job is finished.
Excavation, 804 and a plain concrete finish would run you around the 1200 euro mark give or take
Imprinted would be around 2K 2500 mark depending on ease of access. Also colour added should not be painted on at a later date but included in when the curing process takes place, hence the colour lasts as long as the concrete will.

lbyrne121

Does anyone know how much a square meter of tarmac for a driveway would cost?

macadam

laurie88 wrote: »

I am pretty sure this is inaccurate, well I know it is, I've poured more sqm of concrete than had hot dinners
36 sqm is around 4 cubic meters, give or take. Order from a good server and you will get that concrete for around 400 Euro.
Or at least your installer would. What you pay for, is the tradesman's finishing skill.
How he leaves your property, does the water fall where it's meant to fall after the job is finished.
Excavation, 804 and a plain concrete finish would run you around the 1200 euro mark give or take
Imprinted would be around 2K 2500 mark depending on ease of access. Also colour added should not be painted on at a later date but included in when the curing process takes place, hence the colour lasts as long as the concrete will.

For a start 4m3 of concrete over 36m2 is just over 100mm depth this is not sufficient to drive a car on, never mind oil delivery truck etc, I would recommend a minimum of 150mm and a minimum strength of 30N with A393 reinforcing mesh. I dont see you mentioning drainage or do we just let it run off to the road?
Excavation and sub base is where the real toughness comes from I have seen far too many driveways sinking and cracking because of sub standard sub base due to sub standard workmanship.
Regarding the imprinted concrete, after the hard frost of 2010/11 90% of imprinted concrete driveways in my locality were destroyed, from speaking to a contractor who does this type of work in the UK for Lafarge he reckons the concrete here is far substandard than the stuff he uses in UK to many additives used here and not enough cement.

macadam

lbyrne121 wrote: »

Does anyone know how much a square meter of tarmac for a driveway would cost?

Size of the driveway and location would help me answer you..

laurie88

macadam wrote: »

For a start 4m3 of concrete over 36m2 is just over 100mm depth this is not sufficient to drive a car on, never mind oil delivery truck etc, I would recommend a minimum of 150mm and a minimum strength of 30N with A393 reinforcing mesh. I dont see you mentioning drainage or do we just let it run off to the road?
Excavation and sub base is where the real toughness comes from I have seen far too many driveways sinking and cracking because of sub standard sub base due to sub standard workmanship.
Regarding the imprinted concrete, after the hard frost of 2010/11 90% of imprinted concrete driveways in my locality were destroyed, from speaking to a contractor who does this type of work in the UK for Lafarge he reckons the concrete here is far substandard than the stuff he uses in UK to many additives used here and not enough cement.

thanks for this.
100mm depth is fine for any residential driveway. 30N and steel, no car would ever crack that. however yes anything above 3T would but you should find that out before you agree on a price. I assumed this was a residential Property with family car use only.
didn't mention any drainage because it was a basic summary and not an in depth quote.
Sub base, like any knowledgeable person in the concrete game is where you either make it or break it and I can't agree with you more.
10 years here and 15 in NZ and Australia pouring concrete and I have never had to pull up any job because of frost damage etc. And if you dont think it gets below in Aus, go to Canberra in the winter and pour concrete.
In the south Island NZ is almost identical weather to Ireland.
The concrete quality here is a bit sub standard, a lot harder to work, but get a good report with a supplier, know what to add into the mix and how much of and you will get a better mix.
Whether working for Sisk or a private ran business once you find a great supplier who will listen to your 20+ years in the game, stick with them. Thats what I did and got the mix I wanted, everytime.