A tarmac driveway is three things stacked: a compacted stone sub base that carries the load, a base course of asphalt, and a wearing course on top. Almost everything that goes wrong with one is a problem in the first of those, which is also the part nobody can see once the job is finished. That asymmetry is why this trade attracts both careful contractors and the doorstep version, and why the quote matters more here than the finish does.
What the layers of tarmac and asphalt driveways do
The sub base spreads the weight of a car over ground that could not carry it directly, and it has to be the right material, laid to a depth and compacted in layers. The base course gives the surfacing its strength and the wearing course gives it its texture and its resistance to the weather. A single thin layer of black material over whatever was there before is not a tarmac drive, and it is the specification most doorstep offers describe.
Edges, falls and where the water goes
Tarmac has no strength at an unrestrained edge, so kerbs or block edgings haunched in concrete are part of the build rather than a decoration. The surface is impermeable, so the fall has to take water somewhere lawful: a border, a channel to a soakaway, or a permeable margin on your own land. New impermeable surfacing over five square metres at the front of a house that drains to the highway is exactly the case that needs planning permission.
Tarmac contractors near me: how to recognise the doorstep version
An unsolicited caller with material left over from another job, a price that halves if you decide today, no written quote, no verifiable address, and a request for cash up front. The work that follows is usually a thin skim over the old surface with no excavation and no edgings, and it ravels within a couple of winters. A real contractor gives you a written specification and is content to wait while you get two more.
Questions people ask about tarmac driveway
How long should a tarmac driveway last?
Many years when the base is right, and a handful of winters when it is not. Because the base is invisible afterwards, the useful protection is a written specification of dig depth, sub base material and layer thicknesses before the work starts.
Can tarmac be laid straight onto soil?
No. Without a compacted sub base the surface flexes, cracks and sinks under wheels. A quote with no excavation line in it is quoting exactly that job.
Does a tarmac drive need sealing?
Properly laid asphalt does not need a sealer to function, and sealing products are sold hard to owners of drives that are already failing. If a surface is ravelling, sealing it hides the symptom for a season rather than fixing the base.