[Closed] Tips for instant tarmac today.

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Are you using cold lay macadam?

If so get a fire going so you can heat your spade. It's really hard to work with in fact near on impossible if your spade isn't red hot.

I'd just cement it ...maybe even concrete it for strength. Wont look great but will look a damsight better than tar.

If its a concrete slab drive, I think I'd use concrete.

pnik - Ive - domit - isnt - sussex - Ive - (stop the thudding up and down) - cant - probalby - i - stuffm - (it tarmac)

I can't cope with that. I'm going home sick.

I was planning to take a trip to wickes or travis perkins etc. It would be cold lay i suppose. I had originally thought concrete, sounds like that might be easier after all. I assume i can uy bags and mix on a board with shovel and a bucket of water type thing. Can you tell i work in IT?

Can you tell i work in IT?

Not with those typing skills. 😆

Sorry DezB I was typing on a tablet in a rush. You are right it is awful. I apologise unreservedly.

Others managed to get the gist thankfully. The point is there is a step at the bottom and it makes a loud noise as we drive up or down it, which i suspect is quite annoying to the neighbours and and not great for the car's suspension either.

I want to even it out with my basic DIY skills and the time i have today, before kids return from school and the madness recommences.

Yes, Drac fair point. I do detest the samsung sometimes.

Definitely concrete. Mix it in a barrow or a gorilla tub. Pretty easy DIY job especially if you aren't super fussy about the surface. Less weather dependent, just don't do it in the rain or just before a frost

For the purpose you want even in optimum conditions Cold Lay tarmac wouldn't harden up sufficiently to drive over for weeks. You'd only lay about an inch or so at at time and allow that to set before adding more to. Its also more suitable for levelling holes and filling cracks than trying to build up a shape like your ramp as the weight of the car going over it will just cause it to squish out sideways.

OK thanks, concrete it is. Now just the matter of working out how much!

I used some bags of tarmac from Wickes to form a driveway ramp. Used a vibrating plate to flatten it and it still looks much the same now as it did four or five years ago when I laid it. Only used for cars and motorcycles though, I'm sure an HGV would have disfigured it by now.

Choose concrete or tarmac based on what you want it to look like. You can buy dye for concrete if you want a colour.

The point is there is a step at the bottom and it makes a loud noise as we drive up or down it, which i suspect is quite annoying to the neighbours

If its just the noise issue, could you use some carpet or something as sound deadening material?
Plastic grass perhaps, small inexpensive rug from IKEA ?

Personally, I would avoid using leaves due to rustling and small animal issues.

Presume you will need to build a frame to hold it while it sets? Will cement hold it's shape well enough to build a slope?

Noise is a factor, but its annoying to drive up and down too. Anyway, i've dug a load out and put 6 bags of ballast and about 1.5 bags of cement, hopefully 1:4 ish, in the hole. The pavement and the slabs give it boundaries top to bottom and just hoping the sides were deep enough for it to stick to. Looks OK, just need to keep stuff off it for a couple of days, hoping dry days. The slope is relatively gentle so seemed to accept being pushed up hill, a relatively dry mix. I dunno, time will tell, if its sh1t i'll pay someone next time, i'm knackered, not used to real work,

Nice one. You don't need completely dry days just no significant rain for a few hours, in fact if its sunny you might need to give it a little sprinkle with the hose but that shouldn't be an issue at the moment

I've got plastic sheets and a sprinkler on standby, its that kind of day.