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Protecting a tarmac drive while working on the car
Slimy38 - 30/4/23 at 07:30 AM

We've having a new tarmac drive laid next week, obviously nothing but footprints will go on it for the first week or so but I'd like to protect it from my attempts at car maintenance. It's more the physical damage, although oil spills are going to have to be kept to a minimum. I'm mainly considering dents and marks from jacks and axle stands.

I was thinking about a pretty basic solution, a sheet of exterior ply. Is the simplest solution the best here, or are there alternatives?


wonderfulweasel - 30/4/23 at 08:24 AM

I’ve used a piece of ply offcut under the jack’s wheels on mine. I think it was only 9mm thick (I just use what I have lying around at the time). It didn’t mark.

I didn’t put anything under the axle stands. They have small steel flats on the bottoms of each leg and it wasn’t on them for very long. I mostly lift it on the concrete in the garage.

The feet of the ladder for the scaffold we had a year or so ago did leave a couple of dents, but that was up for a couple of months.


perksy - 30/4/23 at 09:05 AM

I've always gone for exterior plywood off-cuts wherever possible

I guess Oil or petrol on it is more of a concern in the long-term


tegwin - 30/4/23 at 12:32 PM

I have a 2x2m square of thick floor vinyl that I roll out under the car, makes it easier to slide under and catches any drips... wipe it clean and roll it up in the garage when done


Slimy38 - 30/4/23 at 06:22 PM

quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
I have a 2x2m square of thick floor vinyl that I roll out under the car, makes it easier to slide under and catches any drips... wipe it clean and roll it up in the garage when done


Ah, I like that idea. I might have to go vinyl shopping!


ReMan - 1/5/23 at 03:29 PM

If you don't mid me asking whats the sq/m price for Tarmac drive now?
Still not got to doing something with mine and after recent diesel spill, gold I didn't


Slimy38 - 2/5/23 at 07:27 AM

quote:
Originally posted by ReMan
If you don't mid me asking whats the sq/m price for Tarmac drive now?
Still not got to doing something with mine and after recent diesel spill, gold I didn't


It's difficult to give a decent sq/m price as we're having a lot of work done at the same time, but one space we have for the kids to play on is about 6 metres by 3 metres, and that chunk will cost us £800 on it's own. That's about £45 per square metre? But it might have been discounted as the rest of the work is quite substantial (about four cars worth of drive, new small fence, garden dug up and relaid, edging bricks all round).


ReMan - 2/5/23 at 11:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Slimy38
quote:
Originally posted by ReMan
If you don't mid me asking whats the sq/m price for Tarmac drive now?
Still not got to doing something with mine and after recent diesel spill, gold I didn't


It's difficult to give a decent sq/m price as we're having a lot of work done at the same time, but one space we have for the kids to play on is about 6 metres by 3 metres, and that chunk will cost us £800 on it's own. That's about £45 per square metre? But it might have been discounted as the rest of the work is quite substantial (about four cars worth of drive, new small fence, garden dug up and relaid, edging bricks all round).


Cheers for the insight anyway. Mine is similar, about 4 cars 10x10 too


mgb281 - 4/5/23 at 08:27 PM

3/4” ply is all you need and as you are aware oil and particularly diesel spills ruin tarmac. At work we are careful about driving on new tarmac ( new home owners complain about tyre marks) but I have been driving a 13 tonne machine on tarmac laid last Thursday with no problems, in the heat of the summer it takes longer to harden off though.


Slimy38 - 4/5/23 at 08:37 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mgb281
3/4” ply is all you need and as you are aware oil and particularly diesel spills ruin tarmac. At work we are careful about driving on new tarmac ( new home owners complain about tyre marks) but I have been driving a 13 tonne machine on tarmac laid last Thursday with no problems, in the heat of the summer it takes longer to harden off though.


Aye, I'm going to go for the vinyl idea to block spills, I like the idea of just rolling it up after I'm done. The work started yesterday and the tarmac will be done Tuesday, so it'll be the weekend before I put the cars on it.