Methods of Laying Tarmacadam

The vast majority of small and domestic tarmacadam or bitmac surfaces will be hand laid and machine rolled. The bitmac is brought to site in an insulated truck or hot-box to keep it workable. It is generally dropped onto the relevant area, raked level and rolled by a double drum Bomag™ type, ride-on roller / compactor.

In awkward and tight areas inaccessible to a ride-on roller / compactor it is acceptable to use a smaller vibrating plate compactor, though this should not be used for the full driveway as the finished surface may inevitably have unattractive lines in it.

Neither will the surface have been compacted and compressed as well as it could have been with a heavy roller. A skilled operative working a ride-on roller / compactor will normally make five or six passes over the final surface or wearing layer to create a flat surface without any lines in the surface.

Methods of Laying Tarmacadam

Larger areas and particularly commercial projects such as car parks, roads and sometimes very large domestic driveways should have the various layers of tarmacadam machine laid.

Laying bitmac is a specialised job requiring a high level of skill but laying it with a tarmacadam laying machine takes this to another level. A tarmacadam paving machine will be used to lay both the base, or binder course and the surface course of bitmac. For areas of heavy use such as roads, stone mastic asphalt will be used as the final surface course, rather than bitmac.

Tarmacadam is delivered to site in an insulated truck to keep it hot and is emptied into the paving machine which then heats it up again, before spreading and screeding or levelling it. Once each course is laid and levelled, the surface is rolled and compressed by very heavy rollers.

The rolling has to be carried out whilst the tarmacadam is still warm in order to compress it properly and quite a lot of water is applied to prevent it from sticking to the rollers – hence the steam which appears from the surface of the bitmac whilst it is being compacted and compressed.

Methods of Laying Tarmacadam