Also, watch out for any asphalt road grindings in your area...they can be packed back down and make the next best thing to brand new asphalt. If there are chunks you can just rake them out, not too bad on a small job like this, sucks on a long driveway with lots of chunks though. If you see any roads in your area being repaved, I'd stop and just ask if they are looking to get rid of any of it...sometimes they sell it, sometimes they will give it away...can't hurt to ask. FYI, the better shape the road they are grinding is in, the more fines (less chunks) there will be in the grindings...
Can't answer for Ohio, but it would appear you haven't been to Southwestern NY lately. I think our "roads dept" measures "need" by how many inches deep the potholes are. (Less than 6", no patching required, 9" cold pack back to 6" ) Sarcasm aside, point well taken.
But if the crushed asphalt is not exposed to the weather and especially sunshine, it will not pack down good at all. We found that out when we put some in our barn. Gravel packed better than the crushed asphalt. Outside, it is great though.
The sun on it helps, but hot weather works over time too...especially if you give it a light spray of oil, that stickies the tar back up, then you can drive on it to pack it down good. By the time you are done the stickiness should be gone. If not a light coat of sand fixes that.
My son and I were picking up the pallets in our woodshed yesterday and cleaning all the debris out of them. We do that every year to maximize air flow and get rid of all the leaves and bark pieces. Well he picked up the first one and it was covering a ground bee nest, he got nailed three or four times right through his pants. They somehow managed not to sting me even though I had them landing on me. Worst part is I was out of bee/wasp/hornet spray so we had to make a special trip. I never heard of the boiling water or gasoline trick although it probably would have worked OK. The new sprays are foam - it was like coating the nest in shaving cream. Carpenter bees love my garage, shed and wood sheds because they are all rough pine boards. I tend to leave them alone unless they become a nuisance. The worst offenders are the paper wasps and the white-face hornets. Nasty, nasty critters.
You are right. I also hear that fuel oil or kerosene can work quite nicely. I know for sure that where we put the crushed asphalt on the driveways it works great.
They almost give asphalt grindings away around here. A lot of townships are using it for shouldering the roads.
We have the meat bee variety bad at our place. I was also lucky enough to step on what looks to be an Asian Hornets nest about a month back. They got me 5 or 6 times just to let me know who's boss. That was until I napalmed their world with foam death from above. Think the opening scene from Apocalypse Now. My wife did some research and found that if you set traps in early Spring you have chance to get the queens. She said that the article said that for every queen you capture it reduces the drone population by something like 3000. Next Spring it's on!
Hey all. Well, no flying demons to speak of. Just an update on the project. Got the beams all set today. Had to go to HD again and get some 12' pressure treated 4x4's as the 10 footers were too short in two spots. Now a question, in these pics you can see that the rafters are not even. Now, my first instinct is to break out the jack and start lifting the low rafters (and the roof) until I can get all the rafters supported. As it sits currently, there is a lot of support, and would allow for flex under snow load. So, what say you hoarders?? Bust out the jack and raise the roof Or allow for flexibility?
I would shim to minimze stress on old fasteners and to minimize potential shifting and ensuing leaks.
I will try that. I was weeding three days ago and found a ground nest. Got stung twice, and the bites still itch!
Sorry to hear that Midwinter Hopefully the hot soapy water does the trick. Best advice is to wait for a cool/cold evening or morning, they're much less active.
Thanks Bill, that sounds like a good plan. There's already some leaks, so I wasn't too concerned about that. I'd rather have the load distributed more evenly than it would be with most of the weight being supported by a few rafters. Shimming can accomplish that.
One township near us has put the ground up asphalt right on the whole road. Only 2 that I know of though. Some others they put the asphalt on some bad spots and it has worked great.
That reminds me, I looked into asphalt "tailings" as they call it here. $25 per ton. I figure 4 ton would be about right. One place sells by the cubic yard, which according to the Google, it weighs ~2 ton per cubic yard (compacted). So at $100 for the asphalt, not too bad.
