On Jul 28, 12:20*pm, "Bradley V. Stone"
wrote:
EXT wrote:
A lot of the problem is in the base. A driveway should NEVER be built on
top of topsoil. The organic topsoil should be stripped down to the
subsoil or clay then the driveway built up on top with granular
material. My house driveway can take any load, including a fully loaded
concrete truck without as much as a dent. This is because it is laid on
the clay base with 2 to 4 feet of surplus granular material removed from
a highway rebuild 35 years ago.

If your driveway has organic topsoil under it, which can be anywhere
from 8 inches thick to several feet, it will never be stable, as the
material the driveway is made from will mix and sink into the soil. I
don't know what an "overlay" is, but it probably just means another
layer of asphalt. This will crumble at the first heavy load just as the
layer under it did. A quick fix, but will have to be babied if you want
to keep it in good shape.

But, as mentioned recently, shouldn't an asphalt company know what might
happen if they drive a dump truck full of dirt on it, and rip around in
their skid steers with no thought as to what doing 360s on it might do?
* And take appropriate measures or at least warn the customer?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


I think the answer here is it depends and there is no clear answer.
If the driveway appeared sound to begin with and the company drove
typical equipment over it in a responsible fashion, then I'd say they
are not responsible. After all, without invasive testing, they can't
determine what the base is that's under your driveway.

If the driveway had obvious problems and they did not warn you that it
might not stand up to their traffic, or take steps to minimize the
potential damage, possibly by using smaller trucks, eqpt, different
paths, etc, then I'd say it's their fault. Of if the damage was due
to careless use of the driveway, driving on edges, sharp turning, etc,
then it's their fault.

I'm surprised knowing the real problem is lack of a stabilized base,
that you chose to spend $2000 for a solution that isn't likely to
last, as opposed to spending 2X that for the correct and durable
fix. I would have tried to get them down to maybe $3000 to do it
right. I also don't see why there was any risk of them walking off
the job. You could have let them finish the current job and then
pursue resolution of the other damaged area. If they did walk off,
you'd have a pretty much slam dunk case for the original work in small
claims.

I'm also surprised that they don't have some boilerplate in their
contracts that address this type of thing. If I were bringing heavy
eqpt over a customer's driveway, I'd have a standard section in the
contract that protects me.