Paving Question

[myager]

I am looking to having the road to my house repaved. The current asphalt road is showing some "rutting" and other cracking. Its not huge but I thought it best to repave before it gets so bad that it needs to be replaced.

The contractor I have talked with has recommended putting down petrotac and petromat first and then topping with 1.5 inches of new blacktop.

Has anyone had experience with the petromat and petrotac products? My current road was paved with an inadequate base. Amoco, the manufacturer of the Petrotac and Petromat products claims these products will make up for not having an adequate base by making the existing road the new base. The Petromat and Petrotac products will spread the weight on the road and keep water from penetrating.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[Junkman]

not familiar with those products, but I had my road and driveway done with a base coat 10 years ago and never got around to putting on the top coat. My base is compacted gravel, stone dust, and 3/4" stone. I then have a 2' layer of asphalt that was mixed to the state highway specifications. It is for this reason that I think that I have been able to get by without the topcoat for so long. I didn't skimp on the base and didn't skimp on the course coat and went with the best product available. I was hoping to get the top coat done before this winter, but the contractor that did the original work is so busy that he won't have time to do it until next spring. You can always tell the people that do the best work, because usually they have the most work..... the Junkman

 

[Junkman]

One other thing to consider is the cost involved in the materials and labor as compared to having a grinding machine come in and grinding up the old asphalt and using that as a base. After going to the manufacturers site, I realized what the products are and remember inquiring about them in the past, thinking that it would be an added benefit to use them on my driveway when I have the final coating put down. I do remember them as being very expensive. I believe that they are used on highways to do repairs because of the time factor and they are never used for long stretches of pavenment...

 

[Soundguy]

The company I work for is currently doing some overlaying in putnam county, florida. Primarily we are using the existing ( damaged ) roads as the base, and using the petro -products as the layer betwenn the existing roads and new asphalt courses. Our big consideration was water content. Many of the areas we are repairing has a water table close to the surface.. real close.. as in the road bed region. Mixing a new road bed wouldn't have been an option.. and as you can see, we are using the petromat more or less as water controll.

In some of the slightly dryer areas we used soil cement.. and that is holding up well.

Soundguy

 

[Currmudgeon]

If you have rutting, you have base failure. Adding material to the top is a weak way to fix the bottom.

How thick is your existing pavement? I'm guessing it's something like 1-1/2" Adding another 1-1/2 inches to that probably won't make up for a poor base.

What's the underlying soil like? If you can rip out all the bad material, replace it with sound fill, put an aggregate base on that and then pave, you'll have a fine road. But if you've gotta pull out two feet of crap before you get to decent material, you may never get ahead of the curve, economically.

One advantage of grinding out your old pavement is that you can use the material for aggregate.

You also may be able to rip up the old pavement with a tooth and break it up by pounding it. Time consuming, but if money is worth more than time, it may be an option.

 

[myager]

Thanks for the the help on this. The existing pavement is about 2". The problem is that the previous owner skimped on the base. There are points where the base in only a couple of inches. There is a lot of clay in the soild underneath here in Virginia.

I think I the road will need to be ripped up, a new base put in and recoated with several inches of asphalt.

 

[Junkman]

I have since asked a paving contractor about these products and he told me that they were used when making a roadway over unstable ground such as where a swamp was filled or similar conditions..... He said that they do work well in those instances, but the cost is a major factor..... Sounds like what you need...........