Driveway Black Top Issue

eekie34

I had a new driveway installed back in october of 08. The installer went over the exisitng driveway becasue he said it was sound enough and i would have no issues. I own a masonry business and tend to start form scratch when i do things. He assured me he does this all the time. We also extended the driveway a few feet. Long and short of the matter, come jan, feb, noticed sinking on new section of driveway. come april, i can see a lot fo the old outline of the driveway. I just did a major roofed patio etc on front of my house, and the driveway looks like . after a few phone calls, i got the guy back, and he has no idea why his work is sinking. He said he would "repair" the area and melt with a torch to blend. I think this is going to look like crap. Should he have put a base coat in on the extension first, and let it sit before doing top coat? He did the job in one day. I think i am going to cut out sinking area to see what is causing the problem. this would look better than a patch over top of the existing. I have pics, but not sure how to post. If there are any thoughts i would appreciate them.

Leo G

It really depends on what you paid for. If you paid for a recoat, that is what you got. If you paid for a new driveway and were told that the old was going to be removed you got ripped. Why would you think if your old drive was in bad condition that coating it with a few inches of blacktop was going to make it sound again. The old drive failed because the original fill was failing. Sounds like it needed to be peeled off and then filled in, hammer rolled and drove on for a few weeks to pack it down. Then cover it over with blacktop. That is the way to get a lasting drive.

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WarnerConstInc.

Or just rip it all out and pour some 'crete.

Maybe even stamed concrete.

Sounds like the extension has no base under it.

loneframer

Remove the extension and get a refund for the square footage. I don't believe it will ever look right at this point.

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eekie34

was told it was going to be a recoat. I asked about removing exisitng, and he said it didn't need to be done. I guess at this point I will cut out area and make sure of what is going on, have him repair area, and i guess i will seal driveway so it at least looks uniform.

WarriorWithWood

I've had that happen to me, but it was my fault. The job timeline was tight and I put the driveway in before the ground had a chance to completely settle. Has the ground been disturbed recently?

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Niner

You can't put lipstick on a pig with just a seal coat. And it sounds like the extension is sinking from poor compaction.

Was this guy licensed?

TERM101

I would suggest tearing it out and starting from scratch. I just finished a job where some dumba** had paved over top of concrete with 1/2 inch of aspahlt....1/2"! Oh, did I mention he didnt use any tack(tar in laymens)? You could practicly tear this stuff up from the concrete just by looking at it. I would tear the existing out, confirm stone depth/re-compact, and repave. As for the deal you got, if the guy has any sense at all...then he should of known better or atleast of applied b-paper and heavily forwarned you. Always happy to help! 25 years experience in masonry, grading, and asphalt.

eekie34

well this morning. I cut out the effected area to see what the heck was going on. I was in fear that maybe there was a broken pipe below since it has continued to get worse. Well, i got my answer pretty quick. where the main sinkholes were, there was modified on top of.... Old driveway chunks they decided to throw in for fill. Every area that had a pothole, had chunks of old driveway there, surrounded by stone. There existing driveway had sections of new driveway that were in some areas, no more than an inch. I left a message for the guy not to comeback, and he would be hearing from me. no wonder he didn;t want to take my suggestion of cutting it open. he knew wha was down there. At this point I have had to chase him down to get him out here to look at it, and he was out about three weeks ago, and i haven't heard boo from him. I guess I will have to start from scratch as I should have from the beggining.