Cold lay tarmac still soft after 4 months

[CompleteDonkey]

So I filled a hole in my drive with cold lay macadam / tarmac that I got from wickes (I prepped properly with aggregate underneath). I used about 7 bags of the stuff as it was a fairy wide hole, I put down around 2 inches of tarmac in depth. 4 months later and the stuff is still soft. I read that it's because the solvent hasn't evaporated off, so I was thinking about heating the area up with a blowtorch to help evaporate the solvent.

Think this will work?

 

[^woody^]

Get some sausages ready just in case so it wont be a complete waste of time.

 

[JohnD]

Perhaps the sun will come out soon.

 

[Careful_Bodger]

My contractor laid several bags of cold lay tarmac many weeks ago, with similarly disappointing results whether it had been wet or dry, sunny or cool. My current pet theory is that this material isn't actually fit for purpose other than cosmetically, although I hoped to be proved wrong.

To avoid spreading tarry bits I have been brushing dry sand into the surface. This seems to have stopped the stickiness, so the surface is more use-able, although not necessarily to all traffic. I assume there will be experts who will say sand (or anything) is the worse thing to do....

My eventual back-up plan is to call in a hot tarmac contractor, and send a snotogram to the original ones.

 

[^woody^]

I made good the public footpath at the front of a drive with this a few years back. Late summer, and it took nearly 3 months to harden, nothing seemed to speed it up so I just ended up covering it with some fine sand and plyboard for a while.

You really need the 'instant' or 'fast set' product.