Crushed concrete in muddy gateways _ HELP!

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keeperscottage

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Liveries have been moaning about muddy gateways so we ordered twenty tons of crushed concrete from reputable source to put in gateways. We told contractors that we wanted to put the "stuff" in gateways to fields with horses and they said crushed concrete would do the job, so I parted with my cash (lots of it!) for what was basically a pile of rubble. Hubby and future son-in-law started scooping loads up in the tractor and depositing it in the mud.....which was when we discovered it was full of wire, lots of broken tiles and glass - LOTS of glass! - plus a golf ball, tennis ball, bath sponge, plastic bottles and a screwdriver! NOT happy! So hubby complained to supplying company and all they can come up with is £30 off the price of ten tons of road planings (chippings) to lay on the top of the rubble (which they call "crushed concrete"). I'm not happy! I'm having to spend yet more money! Yesterday, livery removed piece of wood with nails in it from "crushed concrete" which could easily have penetrated a horse's sole! How would you feel and how would you deal with the situation, PLEASE??!!! Hubby says that contractors are builders, not horsey, so they can't be held responsible, but I'm still not happy!!!
 
Sorry but crushed concrete will be all that and a bit more to be fair unless you buy from a merchant who will guarantee that all is in the mix is the concrete especially if the contractor is just getting it from building sites and skips rather than manufactured.

Gateways need to be done with MOT type 1, pricey but guaranteed just small stones and ballast. My gateways are done with this and it's bedded in lovely.

I have just had 5 ton of road sweepings rather than planings and got to admit that i am impressed with it, not for gateways but i've had it for my drive into yard and parking bays. I honestly don't think you will be impressed with planings for gateways to be fair as that can come with some pretty hefty chunks in it as well which you can't really break up.
 
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Of course they should be held responsible. You have paid for a service - they knew your requirements. I'd insist on a refund and for them to take this rubble away... IMHO :-)
 
Well obviously i'd be wanting to get my money back, but difficult if nothing in writing saying it is suitable for horses..
 
I would be annoyed too. Sounds like they have ripped you off, but if they're anything like the type of people around here who do hardcore and chippings, you will have a battle on your hand to change anything or get a refund. Perhaps tell them that you will let everyone with horses in the area know they are not safe to use unless they do something?

Crushed concrete around here comes in two forms - cleaned (most of the junk removed) and not - which I would imagine you have been given. We had a lot of the uncleaned stuff for free, then put MOT on top for the base for our yard. We have also had a lot of rough unclean stuff topped with road planings for a winter turnout area.

I would try and get some farmer or someone with a heavy tractor to run over it and flatten it down, if not hire a whacker and smash it flatter yourself. Then get a load of planings or MOT to go on top.

For what its worth, I think that the rough stuff is better in mud - MOT can sink in and get lost over time - much quicker than the rough stuff. (unless your mud isn't that bad - in our clay MOT only lasts a year or so..)
 
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Your reputable source will have simply booked a tipper load from a crushing plant. They will have no idea of the actual quality. Complain as this is not what you asked for. Mostly, crushed concrete is pretty clean,but there is a massive shortage of crushed concrete at the moment. Due to the ongoing recession,the big contracts supplying the material to the crushers have ended or been cancelled. They are now crushing any old stuff.
 
We have had the same problem with our drive. It collapsed when the lorries were delivering stone for my new arena. We agreed with the contractor to dig it out and fill with crushed concrete. What turned up was exactly as you described, pure rubbish with nails, glass etc.
It's not suitable for purpose and the contractor himself was surprised at the poor quality and said there has been a shortage of clean hardcore recently. We haven't paid yet so have asked for it to be covered with a suitable material so I can't advise what you should do but apparently it's a common problem at the moment as builders are selling their waste direct from site and it's hard to get hold of clean waste materials.
 
I bought some for my track,it was £7 ton.had it rolled and picked off the cr8p and put the pink stone on top,rolled again.am pleased with it and saved money because the pink stone is nearer £20 a ton.
its not meant as a finisher.

had about 4" of the rubbish stuff and topped with 3" pink.
 
As soon as I read the title I knew what the problem would be. I'm afraid that's what crushed concrete is. It's just rubble, hence half the price of anything else. I would compact it as much as possible, remove any crap and then put road planings (recycled type 1) on top.
 
Where I keep mine they've just had a lot of crushed tarmac put down in field gateway and while it's not been put down as evenly as it could be :rolleyes: and a bit too deep at the moment as needed a lot more rolling than it got, I have to say it was clean as in just crushed up tarmac and nothing else though some rather big bits in it which if they mess about on top of it at bringing in time might cause a few bruised soles but we will see. It's really tough though to get the wet mud/tarmac mix though out of feathers and frogs but it will improve as it beds in I hope.
 
KC I had a load delivered recently. I wanted planings but there were none available locally, tries a number of sources. In the end I had to get a load of screened crushed concrete as a stopgap. It's better than endless mud. The stuff I got has the occasional big lump and the odd bit of wood and wire but isn't too bad. We have used it on the driveway as well and I'm happy to drive vehicles on it.

Did you get yours from the local quarry. I have heard their stuff can be rather rough.
 
Planings off road guys are good and cheap.
OHs dad (farrier) will not allow scalpinga on site due to the damage it does on hooves.
Think it's that way round? The big onesgood, not little ones.

What you've bought should have a final layer on top, so they've done no wrong imo.

The road guys do it quite cheap.
 
The good thing about crushed tarmac is, if it's put down and rolled on a warm sunny day, it does go hard (well fairly hard) because of the tar content.
 
If you asked for "crushed concrete" that is what you should have had delivered! Never accept ANY delivery until you've climbed on top of the lorry - don't put up with any excuses - send bad loads away!

I have forty years construction industry experience including big civils - ALL crushing plants have one pile for purely crushed concrete and others for all kinds of crud - there are also varying grades for size of lumps too - but none of them will be revealed to novices and one type of stuff can rapidly become another just outside the gate!

Gateways need cleaning first - all the mud scraping off - then 3-4" grade laying, rolled with a medium vibrating roller ( it will laugh at a Wacker plate) and then finer grade "fines" or sweepings will be good.

An eight wheel full load (approx 20 tonnes) of any type is £250 plus VAT delivered and tipped trade price.

Plannings and scalpings sometimes mean the same thing - ground up tarmac. MOT type 1 will be your local stone crushed to 20 -40mm.
 
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No, Thistle, not from Anstey Quarry but a "reputable" (not so sure now!) contractor in Thaxted. If I was a livery at my yard, I would be unhappy with what they delivered; we told them we wanted it for field entrances and we were told it was suitable. It wasn't! I'm not made of money and I feel agrieved that I now have to pay out yet more money to sort out the problem because I don't want liveries coming to me and telling me their horses have injuries because of the glass/broken tiles in the gateways. I have a full yard plus a waiting list so I need to be "squeaky clean" - don't want to make any insurance claims!
 
keeperscottage said:
Shysmum and Brightbay - thank you! Will pass this info to OH immediately!
Click to expand...

You're welcome. I am also pleased, since although I knew what it was, I could never work out why it was called MOT type 1. D'oh. Now I know :D I blame it on being Irish - if they'd called it DOT from the offset, I'd have worked it out!
 
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