Consumer Rights - Faulty parts has caused damage to our driveway

MarvinDay

visidigi said:

Is diesel really going to be damaged in 10 days? Stains I get, but damage? Any sort of damage it would have would be superficial in that period and suitable for patching - otherwise this would indicate a issue with the 10 month old driveway IMO.

Most definitely.
Tarmac can be damaged hours, not days as the diesel soaks into it and once this has happened, there is no way to prevent it from starting to dissolve the bonding agent and once the diesel has soaked in, the only thing you can do is to remove the Tarmac from the area concerned and put down some fresh, uncontaminated stuff.

How do I know it can happen so quickly?
A few years ago, I also had a new Tarmac driveway and my son decided to have a few mates around for a BBQ and he set this up on the drive so he could have a couple of tables in the front garden.
As an aid to lighting said BBQ, he had a bottle of paraffin  which he managed to spill most of on the drive and didn't think it would do anything so he ignored it.
Two days later, the area where the spill occurred had already started to bubble and it was noticeably softer than the surrounding area. I had a few companies in to look at it and every one said the same which was that cutting out and replacing the contaminated area was the only option. (something that can be confirmed by looking at many different sites on the internet).

ThumbRemote

visidigi said:

Is diesel really going to be damaged in 10 days? Stains I get, but damage? Any sort of damage it would have would be superficial in that period and suitable for patching - otherwise this would indicate a issue with the 10 month old driveway IMO.

Highways agency says 2 hours is enough to cause damage. 
https://movingon.blog.gov.uk/2020/03/09/diesel-spills/

Ergates

visidigi said:

Is diesel really going to be damaged in 10 days? Stains I get, but damage? Any sort of damage it would have would be superficial in that period and suitable for patching - otherwise this would indicate a issue with the 10 month old driveway IMO.

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, when I was a child, the road ourside our house was resurfaced.   My sister and I decided to run up and down on the still warm surface in barefeet.  We ended up with black tarmac stuck to our feet.

To remove this, our mother used a rag soaked in petrol.   The petrol dissolved the tarmac in seconds.   

So yes 10 days is *more* than enough time to damage tarmac.

Money_Grabber13579

visidigi said:

Is diesel really going to be damaged in 10 days? Stains I get, but damage? Any sort of damage it would have would be superficial in that period and suitable for patching - otherwise this would indicate a issue with the 10 month old driveway IMO.

Yes, if it’s not dealt with quickly, it seeps into the tarmac and once it’s in, it’s virtually impossible to get back out again. The damage might not appear significant in 10 days but once it has started, cutting it out is the only option. It’s the key reason why roads need to be resurfaced following accidents where there is a fuel spillage.

There’s a roundabout near me and some idiots intentionally spread diesel over the road to make it slippy so they could drift on it - the whole roundabout had to be resurfaced, despite only having been done a few years previously. 

Alfrescodave

The spill has damaged only a small portion of the drive so really the resolution would be to cut out that part and replace it. The integrity of the whole drive has not been compromised only the visual effect once the repair has taken place. I don't see there being much chance of the OP getting the whole drive replaced.

visidigi

Fair enough to those that corrected my clear lack of tarmac knowledge!

Can't imagine the garage is going to accept not moving the car for 10 days though - its the equivalent of expecting to be treated differently for only using an item twice in a year...

MarvinDay

visidigi said:

Can't imagine the garage is going to accept not moving the car for 10 days though - its the equivalent of expecting to be treated differently for only using an item twice in a year...

The OP hasn't stated that the car wasn't moved for 10 days. What they said was that the damage was only noticed 10 days after the service.
The car that was leaking was used during the week but not at weekends and due to the early hours of darkness (presumably when they left for work and arrived home again) the damage or leak weren't noticed earlier.

visidigi

MarvinDay said:

visidigi said:

Can't imagine the garage is going to accept not moving the car for 10 days though - its the equivalent of expecting to be treated differently for only using an item twice in a year...

The OP hasn't stated that the car wasn't moved for 10 days. What they said was that the damage was only noticed 10 days after the service.
The car that was leaking was used during the week but not at weekends and due to the early hours of darkness (presumably when they left for work and arrived home again) the damage or leak weren't noticed earlier.

That makes it somewhat worse. Because the car is in multiple places, so surely damage has occurred in more than one location. It just seems a bit odd that it took 10 days to notice 'because of dark nights' but that's two weeks worth of leaving and coming back during the day.

It just doesn't seem right that you don't notice for at least 8 days when it moved - if the damage is really that bad.

Its not going to be more than a patch repair anyway.

bris

In time the sun will bleach the driveway the same colour do patching would be fine. You can't seriously expect a complete driveway.

You woul;d also have been expected to notice the problem long before you did.

Ergates

visidigi said:

MarvinDay said:

visidigi said:

Can't imagine the garage is going to accept not moving the car for 10 days though - its the equivalent of expecting to be treated differently for only using an item twice in a year...

The OP hasn't stated that the car wasn't moved for 10 days. What they said was that the damage was only noticed 10 days after the service.
The car that was leaking was used during the week but not at weekends and due to the early hours of darkness (presumably when they left for work and arrived home again) the damage or leak weren't noticed earlier.

That makes it somewhat worse. Because the car is in multiple places, so surely damage has occurred in more than one location. It just seems a bit odd that it took 10 days to notice 'because of dark nights' but that's two weeks worth of leaving and coming back during the day.

It just doesn't seem right that you don't notice for at least 8 days when it moved - if the damage is really that bad.

Its not going to be more than a patch repair anyway.

Firstly, as has been stated - the damage is not necessarily immediately obvious to the eye - it's not like a red wine spill on a cream carpet.

Secondly - the nature of the damage is that it is *under* the car.   I don't know about you, but when I'm driving away from my house, I don't pause and inspect the drive after pulling off it - neither do I inspect the drive before driving onto it when I return.

A couple of months ago my car went in for a service and the washer on the oil drain plug either broke or was missed off - meaning my car was dripping oil.   It wasn't until about a week later when it rained that I noticed the rainbow trails running down the drive that I realised because the patch of oil was underneath the car.