Tarmac Adds £££ To House Price

[matroskin]

Local rag has an advert from civil engineering company saying

We supply and lay Dense Bituminous Macadam surfacing to British Standard thickness, rolled and consolidated for ONLY £1195 per sq m

All work guaranteed for 10 years.

One pence coin has diameter of 20.32mm meaning one needs 50 x 50 = 2,500 coins to cover 1 sq m.

£1195 in 1-pence coins will cover 1 sq m 47.8 times over.

No wonder roads in my area are falling apart from various patchwork repairs here and there For the last 10 years my town's most often used roads were never wholly resurfaced, only patchwork-repaired.

Hi-cost, hi-tax economy, here we go

[Guest Noodle]

Local rag has an advert from civil engineering company saying

One pence coin has diameter of 20.32mm meaning one needs 50 x 50 = 2,500 coins to cover 1 sq m.

£1195 in 1-pence coins will cover 1 sq m 47.8 times over.

No wonder roads in my area are falling apart from various patchwork repairs here and there For the last 10 years my town's most often used roads were never wholly resurfaced, only patchwork-repaired.

Hi-cost, hi-tax economy, here we go

Has to be £11.95. Surely?

[_w_]

Has to be £11.95. Surely?

I've looked it up, £11.95 is the correct scale I believe.

[Guest Noodle]

I've looked it up, £11.95 is the correct scale I believe.

Is that a Pikey rate?

Oui've taaarmacccc'd ya droooyve dar, t'll be £1200.

[Redcellar]

Is that a Pikey rate?

Oui've taaarmacccc'd ya droooyve dar, t'll be £1200.

lol

[RufflesTheGuineaPig]

Local rag has an advert from civil engineering company saying

One pence coin has diameter of 20.32mm meaning one needs 50 x 50 = 2,500 coins to cover 1 sq m.

£1195 in 1-pence coins will cover 1 sq m 47.8 times over.

No wonder roads in my area are falling apart from various patchwork repairs here and there For the last 10 years my town's most often used roads were never wholly resurfaced, only patchwork-repaired.

Hi-cost, hi-tax economy, here we go

So it's cheaper to pave your drive with pound coins?

[matroskin]

So it's cheaper to pave your drive with pound coins?

With 1-pence coins, yes. 1 pound coins have diameter of 22.5mm and 1195 of them could cover only 76.5cm x 78.8cm area, less than 1 sq m.

Not sure about banknotes though - they are just wearing out too quickly

[Guest Noodle]

I prefer paving for driveways, asphalt is tacky.

Fine river gravels with cement, 2:1. No sand. Spread on whatever thickness of concrete underneath, I went 4 inches on the base for the path here because I was hopeful it may have to support a big bike.

Now. lathe it over at a thickness of about 1.5". Before it sets, take medium mixed colour pebbles and tamp in until 3/4 covered. Now sponge off lightly to remove cement from pebble surface. Keep a tight spacing.

Worked out half the price of tile and looks 10 times better. Non-slip too. Can use colour cement, but that can really go wrong.

[Guest Noodle]

As long as you properly wash the cement paste off as cement staining is tacky. Are the river gravels a brown color ?

Yes tiles are very expensive. I prefer the rustic cobble types with slightly rounded edges. They actually put them in a tumbler to get this finish. Must be laid as a diaganol herringbone pattern and must have a very neat straight border longitudinally placed surrounding all of the pavers. You can buy over fired ones a bit cheaper but yes it is top dollar.

Subbase is 6 inches of crushed rock compacted in with a plate compactor. Once cobbles in place brush in fine sand and then hit with plate compactor it will lock them in and they will never move provided the sides are restrained. Absolutely no cement anywhere as it will absorb into tile and discolor it and will catch my eye and ruin my life.

That's the tricky bit. Too much water and you get the fat up on the cement and it goes white and you lose the brown gravels colour.

Dab . . . dab . . .

Good tile here is £3 a square metre, £2 if you look. I did the patio and pathways here for about £1.80 a square metre. Sub-base sand, then 4" concrete, then the emulsion with cobbles. Looks good. Real good.

Mix it up with turf, render and acrylic paint walls, rustic teak furniture, orchids, old art wheels restored, stained and varnished up on the walls . . . you don't need to spend a fortune . . . improvise.

[Guest Noodle]

Sounds nice I like stuff like that. If you are doing the work yourself then you will definitely be adding value. Do they have asphalt up there is the regional areas for driveways and the like ?

Other than my current house they are all old colonial type houses. Very high ceilings and tongue and groove internal wall lining with picture rails etc. Need the space as I have some very large antique furniture pieces that were made a long time ago in your part of the world.

We just had a new road put in, smooth as glass, asphalt. Rest are either concrete or dirt.

I can now drive all the way to town on paved roads.

I get the teak furniture up here, made to order. All rustic. Large dinning table and 6 stools . . . £135. Coffee tables, £30. Double bed (awesome thing) . . . £180. Teak root from trees hit by lightening (reckon a few get plugged in the mains).

I'm just right now listening to the woman next door beating this mornings breakfast to death.

Cart wheels a did for a tenner each, elbow grease included.

Edited July 9, 2010 by Noodle

[_w_]

Fine river gravels with cement, 2:1. No sand. Spread on whatever thickness of concrete underneath, I went 4 inches on the base for the path here because I was hopeful it may have to support a big bike.

Now. lathe it over at a thickness of about 1.5". Before it sets, take medium mixed colour pebbles and tamp in until 3/4 covered. Now sponge off lightly to remove cement from pebble surface. Keep a tight spacing.

Worked out half the price of tile and looks 10 times better. Non-slip too. Can use colour cement, but that can really go wrong.

Good God, you are a professional!

Could you do a paving laminate on asphalt instead of the real thing? I'm sure it would save a few bob.

[Guest Noodle]

Good God, you are a professional!

Could you do a paving laminate on asphalt instead of the real thing? I'm sure it would save a few bob.

Oui've pebb'ed ya droyve dar . . . t'll be £2800.

[Guest Noodle]

Sounds a lot more progressed from when I was up there we were getting around on bikes off the beaten track though I guess.

Believe it or not I got a great deal on my furniture. I was looking to buy dutch Batavian type antique pieces in Jakarta and they were quite expensive to buy even up there. Then Suharto fell and the rupiah devalued 1200%. I was getting paid in US so that meant my buying power increased 1200%. The dealers were just happy to sell as nothing was moving and most of them were Chinese so they were getting burned down anyway. Used to do the deals after the mid morning prayer time. Ending up filling two shipping containers jam packed with antiques.

That comes along in a blue moon.

To be honest, these days it's difficult to find differences in general living standards between this East and my old West.

Maybe I've been here too long, just used to it. There's poverty, but that's usually just because they are chav equivalents that don't clean up . . . fewer and fewer. People are into better homes and gardens now, won't be long until Country Life is on the shelves here.

Only thing threatens this right now is rainfall. It's still bone dry and we should be floating down the street. Quite a few years of this now. Groundwater from deep aquifers is being abstracted for rice paddies, soils getting more and more saline each year reducing crop yields.

[JOliver]

Hate to spoil the party but there are no one pence coins.

[Guest Noodle]

Hate to spoil the party but there are no one pence coins.

Wot?

I've heard those bastards have robbed me of the twenty quid note in my wallet too? Apparently that's useless now, is this correct?

[benthebuilder]

Please don't come here with tarmac talk.

Been involved in heated discussions re tarmac this week.

Had subbed a tarmac drive overlay to a mates surfacing firm.

They did a good job.

During last weeks hot weather there was a slight scuffing of the surface due to the lady of the house giving it plenty of power steering to reverse off the drive.

Now they are kicking off saying that I got pikeys to do it on the cheap whilst charging them top whack. I did load the price plenty but nothing like they're insinuating.

Spending my day explaining the technical details regarding bitmac compostition has not been pleasant. Told em I'd sort it next week. I'll just ignore their phone number from now on.

Told em to have block paving at the time.....cheap muthafookers.

This reply could also go in the "Things that shouldn't be stressful" thread.

Edited to add.....the lady in question told me, when my van didn't start, that all of lifes troubles could easily be fixed by praying. I said I hadn't got time and would be ringing the AA not God. Our relationship soured at that point.

Edited July 9, 2010 by benthebuilder

[_w_]

Oui've pebb'ed ya droyve dar . . . t'll be £2800.

Where's the rope.

[Guest Noodle]

Please don't come here with tarmac talk.

Been involved in heated discussions re tarmac this week.

Had subbed a tarmac drive overlay to a mates surfacing firm.

They did a good job.

During last weeks hot weather there was a slight scuffing of the surface due to the lady of the house giving it plenty of power steering to reverse off the drive.

Now they are kicking off saying that I got pikeys to do it on the cheap whilst charging them top whack. I did load the price plenty but nothing like they're insinuating.

Spending my day explaining the technical details regarding bitmac compostition has not been pleasant. Told em I'd sort it next week. I'll just ignore their phone number from now on.

Told em to have block paving at the time.....cheap muthafookers.

This reply could also go in the "Things that shouldn't be stressful" thread.

Watched a couple of pikey's rebuilding some poor old dears chimmney once. They papered it in brick pattern wallpaper.

Seriously.

[Guest Noodle]

Where's the rope.

Nay, 'f ya donwt pai da monie . . . we be rownd 'gain wit de jake, ya 'nderstand?

[@contradevian]

Please don't come here with tarmac talk.

Been involved in heated discussions re tarmac this week.

Had subbed a tarmac drive overlay to a mates surfacing firm.

They did a good job.

During last weeks hot weather there was a slight scuffing of the surface due to the lady of the house giving it plenty of power steering to reverse off the drive.

Now they are kicking off saying that I got pikeys to do it on the cheap whilst charging  them top whack.  I did load the price plenty but nothing like they're insinuating.

Spending my day explaining the technical details regarding bitmac compostition has not been pleasant. Told em I'd sort it next week. I'll just ignore their phone number from now on.

Told em to have block paving at the time.....cheap muthafookers.

  

This reply could also go in the "Things that shouldn't be stressful" thread.

Edited to add.....the lady in question told me, when my van didn't start, that all of lifes troubles could easily be fixed by praying. I said I hadn't got time and would be ringing the AA not God. Our relationship soured at that point.

Wasting your time dealing with the general public. Most are deranged.

[benthebuilder]

What kind of profit margin do you put on ?

Has she paid for the job yet ?

I put 100% on it but I got it at mates rates so it wasn't like they got ripped off. Worked out around £18 a metre to them, which for granite bitmac aint bad. Pikeys use the cheaper limestone bitmac which shows through white with wearing whereas the granite stays darker.

Problem is in the "pen oil" that is used to make bitmac easier to use when hand laying rather than paving machine laying. It "can" have a tendency to reactivate in hot weather anything up to two years after laying, making the surface slightly soft.

This explanation was rejected.

I got paid last year.

[JOliver]

Wot?

[Guest Noodle]

What about it?

[JOliver]

What about it?

Never mind. They will probably start minting One Pence coin by popular demand...

[eejit]

Never mind. They will probably start minting One Pence coin by popular demand...

you can buy "one pence" coins on ebay for only 99 one pennies