Concrete and Paving Slab Resurfacing

[misterhelpful]

Hi all,

Not sure if this would be better in Building or Garden sections but thought I'd try here first.

I'm looking for something to use to give a new lease of life to a small front forecourt. It currently has a mix of paving slabs and concrete between the house walls and a low front boundary wall. The concrete is solid but has several cracks and the slabs are well bedded but quite worn so I'm thinking of using something to overlay it with. Something maybe like a tarmac product that could be applied about 10-15mm thick (so as not to cause any dampcourse issues) that would make everything look uniform. It's only a small area (approx. 22' x 3') and I know that ideally it should all be dug up and paved properly, but that isn't practical at the moment. Gravel/chippings isn't possible as it is for an elderly lady to walk over daily so I'm just hoping for a quick but serviceable 'tart up'.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a product or idea that I could put to her, as I don't really know of anything suitable?

Cheers
mrH

 

[foxhole]

Cold lay tarmac.

 

[misterhelpful]

Cheers, foxhole.

That is the kind of thing I've been looking at but what I've seen is a bit pricey for what it is. Some of the pavements near me were recently resurfaced with what seemed to be a thinner liquid type tarmac which was just spread with a large sweeping brush. It looks pretty good and was ready to walk on in a few hours so I was hoping to find something like that for the DIYer. I imagine it was a hot mix product so it's unlikely I would find that kind of thing anywhere.

I was considering a thin concrete screed but wouldn't expect it to last unless I added some kind of strengthening (fibre ) additive. Any other ideas from anyone are welcome.

 

[jj4091]

Astro turf?

 

[Burnerman]

How about a resin bonded surface coating? It's getting quite popular up here, looks smart and I'd like to hear how good it is myself!
John

 

[foxhole]

How about a resin bonded surface coating? It's getting quite popular up here, looks smart and I'd like to hear how good it is myself!
John

My daughter has that on her drive, about £3k for an area large enough for parking a car.

 

[misterhelpful]

Cheers guys,

It seems that all the quick fix options are really expensive compared to lifting the existing stuff and re-slabbing. I guess I'll have to tell her she'll have to manage with what she's got for now.

The only other idea I considered is mixing a cement and sharp sand 'screed', and adding some fibrin into it in the hope it would make it strong enough to lay thinly over the top. I've never tried this but was wondering if anyone else may have done something similar??

 

[jj4091]

Cheers guys,

It seems that all the quick fix options are really expensive compared to lifting the existing stuff and re-slabbing. I guess I'll have to tell her she'll have to manage with what she's got for now.

The only other idea I considered is mixing a cement and sharp sand 'screed', and adding some fibrin into it in the hope it would make it strong enough to lay thinly over the top. I've never tried this but was wondering if anyone else may have done something similar??

Imprinted concrete companies use that method to lay over existing sound concrete, they call it "resi-printing", if I remember correctly they lay it about 15mm thick so you would be ok especially for a relatively short life span.
If it is not going to get much traffic & again only needs a short life span then I would have thought self leveling cement would suffice.

 

[misterhelpful]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I picked up a bag of cold lay tarmac just to see how it was but, unfortunately, it didn't look very good laid thinly so scrapped that idea.

The resin bonded route is way over the top (pricewise) for what is required so it looks like digging up and laying some new slabs/concrete will have to be the way forward. (For someone else!! )

Cheers
mrH