Asphault problems - how to fix?

[horsebroke]

Hi, all. I'm one of those gullible fools who allowed myself to be taken...

Last Summer, I had a person knock on my door - and he explained that he was with an asphault company who just completed a job in our town - and he had a crew and a bunch of excess asphault. Like a dummy, I contracted him/his crew to lay down an asphault path from my house to my shop - 8 feet wide, by appx 150 ft long...

Now, in hindsight, I see he obviously did it wrong - didn't prepare the ground surface, etc. Now that spring is here, and stuff is starting growing, when he scraped the ground clear to lay down the asphault, he didn't put down weed block/barrier or spray the ground. Me, being the dummy, "assumed" he knew what he was doing...

He did - but his object was to get my $$ - not do the job right...
(I can't go after him to fix it - he's long gone and not in business any more)

Anyway, now weeds are coming up thru the asphault. I keep spraying weed killer every bump I see coming up - and there are HUNDREDS.

Finally - go my question: How do I fix this? Keep spraying and tamping down the bumps - until it gets HOT in the summer and the weeds quit trying to come thur? Then, what can I use to SEAL resurface the asphault? It's getting crumbly where the bumps/weeds are coming thru...

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

[sal64]

are u taking blacktop? i never herd putting down weed block , the only thing that will push through blacktop is dandalion u need to spray vegitation killer weed killer isnt strong enough then tamp it down, i have sean this alot with dandalion.

 

[MarkV]

I am no expert but a couple of things come to mind. For the weed you might look into a soil sterilizer. It should keep anything from growing for a number of years if it will seep into the cracks in the asphalt. The other issue is that you have cracks in less than a year. That sounds like they didn't put much of a layer of asphalt down. You may want to contact a local asphalt contractor and see what it would take to add another layer.

I have had the same types of guys stop at my place three times in the last five years. I alway wonder how they order so much extra asphalt if they know what they are doing.

MarkV

 

[brin]

First of all he should have put down a gravel base like crusher run at least 4 inches thick and rolled it - packing it good and then top it with 4 inches minimum of asphalt and then rolled it again, I agree with Mark V about the soil sterilizer...you can find it at Home Depot and even Wal Mart..the one I use kills all vegetation for one year and it works for me...it is much better than even Roundup.

 

[dodge man]

I work for a civil engineering company, and we have seen this happen on occasion. I would not call it common, but not rare either. It happened on one place on my driveway. In my case I believe it was a plant, coming up by the roots from a landscaped area nearby. In my case I just kept dumping weed killer, not mixed but straight concentrate, in the hole where it kept coming up. That stopped it in my case. My driveway had been gravel for several years before it was paved, and I sprayed roundup on it twice before it was paved. We saw this happen on someones driveway that had just been paved. It was pretty bad and no weed killer had been sprayed on the gravel before hand.

The trick is to roundup the area before you pave it, but this it too late in your case. I'd say your only option is to keep dumping weed killer on it.

 

[horsebroke]

Thanks all who have replied so far. Yes, I've been dumping soil sterilizer on each "bump" I see coming up, full strength. This stuff says it stops EVERYTHING for a year. It's called "Ortho Ground Clear Complete Vegetation Killer Concentrate". Some of the weeds coming thru the asphalt are killed - some are ignoring this stuff.

 

[brin]

Thanks all who have replied so far. Yes, I've been dumping soil sterilizer on each "bump" I see coming up, full strength. This stuff says it stops EVERYTHING for a year. It's called "Ortho Ground Clear Complete Vegetation Killer Concentrate". Some of the weeds coming thru the asphalt are killed - some are ignoring this stuff.

You mentioned the weeds breaking through the surface so you need to go to home depot and buy some Asphalt sealer and I would mix some sand with it and keep those holes from the weeds filled...you don't want water and air to get through to feed the weed seeds below and in the meantime don't be shy about using a lot of the Ground Clear...use it liberally to knock down the weeds and then fill the holes and you will be fine. Once you get over this initial weed attack it should finally go away.

 

[Egon]

Scrape it up and dump it in a pile. Go to an Asphalt contractor or Plant and get some cold mix asphalt oil.

Then prepare the base properly, mix the oil and previous asphalt, re-spread and pack.:thumbsup: