Buckles90

Hey all, so bit of an update... The company came back round last week and they got rid of all the visible weeds and put down very strong weedkiller. Afterwards, we discussed options going forward and I decided on a refund. We came to an agreement of about 1/3 of what I paid. He agreed to pay on that evening. They didn't refund me that evening and said they were really struggling to pay because of outgoing finances on a current job and would pay me at the end of the week. End of the week cameby - no payment so I called them. He said he would come round with cash the next day (today). He never showed up. I've left a voicemail and tried messaging him this morning. Still no reply. I'm not going to lie, I'm really pissed off and the whole situation is really getting to me now (tried to stay calm before)! So I feel my only option right now is small claims court. Has anyone got experience of doing this to get 100% of their money back from a company? If so, would be great to get some advice.

My feeling deep down is that they didn't do a proper job to be honest. I would never expect weeds to grow in the middle of the tarmac within 1 year, let alone a few months. I'm not entirely sure on the spec as I trusted them to do the job properly after seeing all their good reviews online. I know the top layer of tarmac is about 4 inches deep, maybe a bit more. But I don't know the thickness of the rest. As above, I'm not too sure about the thicknesses apart from the top layer. I have already thought about digging down to one root to see how deep it goes but I'm hesitant because I thought it might completely damage the tarmac that I dig up... I think I'm going to get them to de-weed again first and may go for option 2 if it doesn't fix the issue. Using house insurance never crossed my mind but that's an interesting option. I may look into this dependant on what happens with the company over the next month or so. I did start to weed-killer it myself when I saw the weeds but got fed up and called the company to come back around initially. That's how the ball got started about my options from them. I'm tempted to get the whole drive re-done but worried that the same thing will happen again! The refund/weed killer myself is a very tempting option right now. I'm actually tried the WD40 trick already but it didn't do much good. But that might be because I didn't weed killer the root, only the top of the holes where the weeds were showing. -- Thank you all for your replies, very helpful! Taking everything on board right now. Bit of an update... The company have agreed to try option 1 for now and then we can discuss further options later on. They said they can't do it until we've got dry weather (understandable) and it's been raining non stop lately by me (bloody typical!!).

In May last year (2020), I had some quotes from driveway companies. I researched the companies online and chose one of them I was happy with based on the price and reviews I found online. Approximately 3 months after the work was completed I noticed weeds growing up through the new tarmac in a few spots. I contacted the company and they came back and dug them out/de-weeded and patched the holes back up. Over winter no more weeds grew back so I thought the problem had gone away (how naive I was). Fast forward to Feb/March of this year and the weeds started growing again with a vengeance, popping up almost everywhere across the new tarmac. The weed - I believe it's called Horsetail or Mare's Tail (Equisetum Arvense). From what I've read, it's an absolute pain to get rid of. The weed seems to have have spread across from my neighbour's garden which is full of this weed. I have uploaded pictures here to show how bad the situation is: https://imgur.com/a/vNA218Q The company came back round and gave me 3 options - We complete the de-weed process again with very strong weed killer They re-do the drive but they said there's no guarentee the weeds won't come back They give me a partial refund and it becomes my problem to treat/solve -- Do you think the driveway hasn't been done correctly (thick enough, etc) or is the weed just that bad? Would be great to hear from someone who has gone through a similar situation/someone in the industry and their opinion? Thank you in advance!