Cement driveway

pbergin

I have a cement driveway infront of my house and it is starting to show its age (20 years), there are few cracks and chips on it and I was wondering what is the best way of repairing it? I also want to widen the driveway by about 4 feet. I dont really want to take it all up because it is hardest substance known to man, no kidding, it is the hardest concrete I have ever come across.
The driveway is sloped and I should be able to rise most of the driveway by and inch, if I dug out the bit that connects to the foothpath is it possible to lay more cement ontop of what is there already? what is the min dept needed to prevent more cracking?
We are planning on selling the house in the next 12 months so I am looking for something cheap and easy. I had a quote of 2500 to take up and lay tarmac, it was alot more than I was planning on spending and I also find tarmac very dark.
Anyone got any ideas for me?

gregos

You can widen the driveway easily enough by digging out the extra four feet, backfilling with 804-type material and casting a slab of about six inches thick. If you feel like including a light steel mesh (A142), so much the better. As for the existing ravelled concrete, you could skim that with an inch of screed, but it's life expectancy wouldn't be as good. Since the surface already seems to be roughened, you possible have a chance that the overlay would adhere well enough but expect the possibility that it might curl at the edges. Maybe not an issue if you're moving out next year. Don't underestimate the work involved in screeding the drive. It's as hard to do an inch thickness of concrete as it is to do six inches thick.

If you just want to disgiuse the cracks, you could always work a sand/cement slurry into them and see how that looks when the whole thing becomes uniformly dirty.

pbergin

Thanks Gregos
Im not too worried about widening the driveway, I was mainly worried about skimming the existing parts, I wasnt sure if the top layer would stick properly to the old drive.

prospect

Yeah, it wouldnt be to hard fill in the cracks, but it will end up with nice clean cement stripes acroos the existing cement, and it will be an awful long time before they come close to matching.

With regard to widning, can you widen it 2 feet either side? If so you could do it with 2 feet of cobble lock, or red brick, and it will look more like a nice edging, rather than a add-on...

pbergin

Nope, I can only widen it on the one side.
I think the best option would be just to pour around 1 inch on top of the existing drive and 6+ inches to the side.

Lex Luthor

I got a guy a few years back to widen my concrete driveway about 7 feet wide by 25 feet long.
He did all the clearing, supplied the hardcore, cement etc for £680.
He was a neighbour so I presume he was doing me a favour.

My neighbour did almost the same job himself a few months back...probably saved himself a grand

pbergin

Thanks Lex. I see you are in Kildare, I am in Celbridge, could you pm me with some more details of the guy that did your drive?

Lex Luthor wrote:

I got a guy a few years back to widen my concrete driveway about 7 feet wide by 25 feet long.
He did all the clearing, supplied the hardcore, cement etc for £680.
He was a neighbour so I presume he was doing me a favour.

My neighbour did almost the same job himself a few months back...probably saved himself a grand

Lex Luthor

pbergin wrote:

Thanks Lex. I see you are in Kildare, I am in Celbridge, could you pm me with some more details of the guy that did your drive?

will do...

rooferPete

Hi Pbergin,

I see two things that may be a little off target here, the first is do you intend the 4 ft to be load bearing ?, what I mean is do you intend driving on that section ?

Maybe you could use 6" deep where the wheels are going to drive on it anything more than 4" or 100 mm would be waste if it's just taking foot traffic.

As to a skim coat of one inch it will be gone by this time next year if we get any frost over the winter, water will travel between the layers and the frost will just crack it again.

You intend selling the house within the next 12 months, so a bad job if spotted will make buyers nervous, you only get one chance at a first impression it doesn't mean you won't sell the house what it does mean is the honest looking houses in the same price range will sell first.

Ruberoid have a product that makes the driveway look nice and black, I know you don't want tarmac but you might bear it in mind coming closer to sale time, you won't be hiding anything just making it look better.
.

pbergin

Thanks Peter
cracking was my main worry and that was the main reason I asked.
I will need to park our car the extended part of the driveway so it is going to be load bearing.
I will take a look at Ruberoid, is it just a thin layer they add over the top? If so I presume it will not rise the driveway my much.

MorningStar

I was reading a book the other day and I looked at driveways. Basically the whole thing should be done like a raft foundation. I wasn't shocked as it made sense due the weight of a car. The strange thing is I have watched a load of people get the cobble locking done recently and nothing seems to be done for the weight. I have seen loads of this work that has been there for a while and it has become damaged due to car ware. I know you are meant to maintain them but I can't see how they suit driveways

rooferPete

Hi,

The Ruberoid coating (Irish Roofing felts) is very thin it is similar to a heavy coat of paint.

Hi MorningStar,

If you look at the data sheets on the Roadstone web site you will see that cobble lock is supposed to sit on sand then be compacted with a whacker plate, the idea is the bricks lock into each other and the weight is distributed when any any pressure is applied.

Cars a strange things we look at them as being heavy but in a driveway the weight is only on four points the wheels.

While the wheels are moving there would a little shock on the surface but the points to watch for are where the car is parked, if the bricks are dipping at those points it means the whacker plate was not applying enough pressure.

What does happen in residential is the edges are sometimes left for flower beds and the kerbs are not sitting on a proper foundation so the bricks move over time.

Cobblelock should have a good base and the original concrete paths removed because they prevent the new slab from settling evenly, they can look terrible when the edges become uneven.

.

MorningStar

rooferPete wrote:

Hi,
Cars a strange things we look at them as being heavy but in a driveway the weight is only on four points the wheels.

While the wheels are moving there would a little shock on the surface but the points to watch for are where the car is parked, if the bricks are dipping at those points it means the whacker plate was not applying enough pressure.

.

The worst place I have seen with problems with the cobble lock is in commercial property (east point and a few petrol stations). I could be when they were done people were not skilled enough but I think it was the maintainence. Apparently it's advisable to sand them twice a year.
The parking points are pretty notable but even with well compacted build I can't see how you can avoid it. Even with the whacker and sand helping the interlocking irish weather and the car movement and preassure at slightly differnent points will loosen the brick. I could be wrong but it probably a combination of bad building and design.

rooferPete

MorningStar wrote:

The worst place I have seen with problems with the cobble lock is in commercial property (east point and a few petrol stations). I could be when they were done people were not skilled enough but I think it was the maintainence. Apparently it's advisable to sand them twice a year.
The parking points are pretty notable but even with well compacted build I can't see how you can avoid it. Even with the whacker and sand helping the interlocking irish weather and the car movement and preassure at slightly differnent points will loosen the brick. I could be wrong but it probably a combination of bad building and design.

Hi Morningstar,

The sand used between the joints is a very fine grade almost dust, I think you have hit the spot regarding maintanace, a lot of people use power washers on the cobble lock.

The power washers are very good for cleaning the surface of the bricks but they also remove the sand between the joints.

The likes of service stations take a lot of heavy traffic and then they are power washed to remove petrol and diesel spillage, I expect a combination of all of the above doesn't really give the product a fair chance.

.