We Have A Problem

SO, we had the same guys who sealed our asphalt driveway last year, come and do it again this year. They did a good job at a good price and our driveway is getting a little ragged so it needed sealing again. 

Unfortunately, they had a little problem..... Their trailer which they had parked on the North end of the driveway, rolled down the hill and hit Darling Daughter's Jeep.  

We were in the house when she saw the trailer rolling away, I thought it was going to hit the tree!

Nope! Hit her car hard. We had both parked in the grass so the cars would be safe from any over-spray of sealant.  I parked in the grass on the North side, and DD parked on the South side-the downhill side sadly. Thank goodness Hubs wasn't home-the new Tacoma was safe!

Oh my, it's a lot of damage.....

Here they are trying to get the trailer back up the driveway-it's a pretty heavy trailer-their pick up was barely up to the task.

We had to move the Jeep so they could back up and get a running start at it.

But there they are-back where they started. The yard is a little worse for wear.

They did carry on and finish the driveway-looks good!

They did a good job sealing the big cracks and then spraying the whole thing.

It was a pretty day...until the problem.

We had the Jeep towed to the repair shop. Our insurance company is getting us all set up with a rental car and the estimate will be done soon. 

But at least the driveway is done! 

Drainage

 So, home ownership is filled with all kinds of issues. One of ours is the drainage from the driveway.

Back in June-when I took this picture, we decided to see about having the driveway fixed so it would not create a lake in front of the pedestrian door every time it rains.

 Now in November the company we contracted with, back in June, have arrived to put in a drain system.

 They cut away the asphalt driveway closest to the house and dug down.

 They seem to be working pretty quickly. It's cold outside, so I imagine that's why.

 At the West end of the driveway, they pull out the lilac bush and cut away some asphalt there too.

 Then they compact the base and lay in the drain pipes. Those square looking ones with the black on the top are grates the will be in the driveway.

 This is the way it looks from inside the garage. The piping goes along in front of the garage roll up door, into the corner and then turns and goes the length of the house to the front yard.

 They put in a clean out opening at the end on the North, at the bottom of the hill. I'm not sure how we'll keep that cleared, but we'll see how it comes out.

 They excavated quite a bit of dirt in the front section, where the lilac bush was.

 They also brought in some gravel.

 And here it's about ready for the cement.

 THey had a ton of equipment parked all over the place, in the street, in the driveway, in the yard.

 Then the cement truck came while I was gone.

 You can see where they framed the end of the drain where the lilac bush used to be.

 Then they tucked in the cement under some burlap and left.

 I have no idea how long this will be, but I have people coming for Thanksgiving and they need to be able to come up the steps, so I call them and they say they will put the steps back for us on Wednesday-we can't drive on it for a while longer, but can walk on it.

 See the grates? They peeled the black tape off of them and chipped away bits of cement.

 So we're ready for Thanksgiving at our house.

 The cement is doing whatever it is that cement does,

And our family can get in through the front door! I can't drive into the garage though for 2 weeks or so!

Sealed!

 All last year I was going on and on about getting the driveway sealed this summer. You may remember that my wonderful family sealed it a few years ago. They said they would never do that again.

 So after about 20 phone calls to people who do this kind of work,and most of them telling us they were booking work into the fall right now,  we had a guy come knocking and Hubs hired him on the spot! They were in town doing another driveway and so were seeing if they could hustle up a little more work. I'm always skeptical about folks who knock on the door, but they did the work and Hubs paid them afterwards.

They sealed the big cracks the way we wanted and sealed the whole thing for $500. They even came back the next day and put the front steps back in  place. We'll be calling Black Star Asphalt out of Ottumwa, IA when we need the driveway sealed again. And now my loved ones will not need to come and seal my driveway! They'll be thrilled!

Fixing the Cracks

So our driveway has some pretty good sized cracks in a few places. You may recall that my wonderful family sealed the whole thing a couple of summers ago, and it's a good thing! I imagine we'd be falling apart if it hadn't been done! I googled around and saw suggestions to use polymeric sand to fill in cracks. We had a couple of warm days forecast so I got right on the job!!

I used my handy power washer to clean out the dirt and weeds growing in the 3 big cracks I wanted to fix.

 And while I was at it I washed the green stuff off the North side of the house too!

 That power washer does a nice job and fast!

Then I used my handy cart to wheel out the supplies.

Including the proper tool for the job and empty corn can!LOL!

 I got the sand at Menards-it has cement-like properties, so it get hard when it gets wet. It's commonly used to fill the spaces between paver bricks, so they don't shift.
SO I followed the directions and filled the cracks.

 And used the broom to work the sand in good a tight.

 You can see how deep those cracks are! I think the ice this winter would totally wreck the asphalt!

 So I worked along and got them all filled in.

 Then I watered the sand lightly, then waited 10 mins and then sprayed it again.

 Then wait ten minutes and spray it a 3rd time.

 Ok, that's all there is to that!

 SO I let it sit up good over night and then I got some driveway sealer to go over the whole thing.

I started out to try this powdered epoxy sealant.

 It says you can make it any consistency you need.  So I thought I'd start small and try a little bit.

 It mixes with water....

 I stirred it like the directions say....

 But I wasn't very impressed with the resulting goo. I mixed like crazy, but the powder doesn't stay suspended, so by the time I started to pour it, it had all settled to the bottom. 

 Well, dang, that's not going to do it. SO I gave that up and got a 5 gallon  bucket of regular driveway sealer.

 There! I smeared that over the filled cracks and left it to dry over night. Looks like this is the last warm day I'm going to get for this project, so I hope it works out OK!

 I guess it's as ready as it's going to get for winter!