I've used this product and I does not work. I was contracted to place this product at the Huntington Museum of Art in Huntington, WV. I was reluctant to use this product due in large part to the lack of references to sucessful use in my area. The owner persisted. After I placed the product and it subsequently failed the owner called Poly pavement about the failure and poly pavement have a laundry list of excuses that placed the blame on me for not installing the product correctly, which I did according to their instructions on the website and consulted with their tech support just to be sure. They told the owner I should've sent them a soil sample (not on the website), among other excuses.
After these unfortunate events I investigated this product further and found only two direct references to it that wasn't from the manufacturer themselves. Both of which weren't favorable, here are links to the refernces:
Memorial to Irish Fortitude Comes Undone in New York - The New York Times 5th and 6th paragraphs and
Corrales Comment - Local Village News, Issues, Events & Ads - Trails Advocates Want Downtown Pathways Project last paragraph. Further their reference to USACE Technical Report GL-93-25 does not refer to the product's ability to provide a paved surface but refers to dust control.
This misrepresentation alone is good evidence that the product does not do what they claim it does.
One of the main requirements in a successful PolyPavement application is soil suitability. PolyPavement is designed to be used on soils that are naturally cohesive and compactible and absorb water well. Obviously, soils with high gravel content and/or heavy clay content represent soils on both sides of the spectrum that would be considered unsuitable. Unfortunately, because PolyPavement relies heavily on local contractors to be qualified enough to understand the basics of soil work, compaction and absorbtion we can't insure proper installation in situations where a contractor fails to do his/her homework or is not forthright with his/her lack of understanding (as was the case with "geruhmyuh").
"Geruhmyuh" is failing to acknowledge the truth about his responsibility and is attempting to use "references" to discredit PolyPavement, but the answer is really very simple: Polypavment will not work on unsuitable soil, and "geruhmyuh" attempted to use it an unsuitable soil. Our website goes into great detail about what a suitable soil is and is not. In all likelyhood, "geruhmyuh" simply failed to do his due diligence. It's common for someone who doesn't want to take responsibility to attempt to point to other situations similar to their own as "proof", but truth is, "geruhmyuh" was responsible for insuring that his soil would actually work (we gladly test any soil for free) but instead, failed to do so, rushed out to do the job and faced the consequences of his own irresponsibility.
Regarding PolyPavement, the job in New York was in 2003, and the contractor referenced in the article was actually similar to "geruhmyuh" in that he used soil that was practically pure clay (PolyPavement itself is not "clay-like"). As mentioned, pure clay presents a multitude of problems and we try to avoid it at all times. The other project he mentions simply said their "test failed." We recommend to our customers that they first do a self-demo test to determine that PolyPavement meets their expectations and that the customer can, in fact, complete the application as required. If their test fails and the customer does not use PolyPavement, it does not mean PolyPavement does not work, it means they encountered difficulties (likely with soil conditions) they could not or did not want to overcome.
PolyPavement remains the same. It is a revolutionary, "high-tech" soil-binder that always does the same thing; binds soil particles together, as long as the particles are thoroughly coated and there are sufficient fine particles to fill the voids it will do it's job, and usually give you an end result that is about twice as strong as asphalt.
PolyPavement has been on the market now for 13 years plus 7 prior years of field applications developing the application processes that we provide and must be followed. It seems logical that if PolyPavement did not work there would be many, many more problem projects and complaints than the two mentioned by "geruhmyuh".
Our suggestion is still the same for anyone wanting to use PolyPavement: test it to make sure you like it, make sure your contractor actually knows what he's doing, and please, don't knock it until you've tried it.
The PolyPavement Tech
