A costly mistake: avoid this company
I employed Anthony Ackroyd (trades as Kirklees Driveways but also is associated with Kirklees Ground Care - this is the logo his vehicles carry) to tarmac a section of road at the rear of my house and install a channel drain to take water into a nearby river. He quoted £2700 including 3 tonnes of tarmac and 2 tonnes of type 1 sub-base hardcore and an ACO drain. I specifically told him that the road was regularly used by delivery vehicles and so the drain specification should match this use. During the installation, I noticed that he had not installed a new sub-base, but he assured me this was because the original sub-base was sound. The job was finished quickly and appeared well-executed, so we paid him. However, it quickly emerged that he had failed to bring the road to a level that would allow the drain to fall away from the house, and it in fact flowed backwards, dumping water in my neighbour's garden. When I complained, he returned and re-seated it, but did not seal it to the road or haunch it properly. This meant that a) water now flowed under the drain and into my neighbour's property, b) the tarmac was 2 inches above the level of the drain on the river side of the road and so vulnerable to edge erosion as vehicles passed over it, c) the drain was not supported properly and so was itself vulnerable to damage by vehicles. I then discovered that the drain was only rated for light pedestrian use (A15 rating) and was far flimsier than the branded ACO equivalent, and it subsequently emerged that it was cracked, and leaking what little water was entering it from the road. Anthony promised to return many times to deal with these issues but more than two months later we are still waiting. As we live in a flood risk area and houses on our street have a history of cellar flooding, I have been forced to make temporary repairs myself, to seal the drain to the road and protect it from damage, and to protect my neighbour's properties. Given the three winter storms we had in February, it is probably very fortunate that I did so. The root cause of this problem is the failure to install a new sub-base (which we had actually paid for). If this had been done, it would have been possible to bring the road to an appropriate level and install the drain correctly. Coupled with this issue is the installation of a drain that might well work in a driveway (though manufacturers state that A15 is NOT suitable for motor vehicle use - C250 is recommended see the Clark Drains Great A15 Debate website), in what is an access road used by delivery vehicles and vans. When I employed a professional to do this job, I did not think I would end up spending evenings and weekends out in the rain, digging, mixing concrete and tamping down cold lay tarmac to shore up his shoddy work - if this kind of activity appeals to you, then go with this company! We are now going down the small claims court route to reclaim our costs.
If you want to really amuse yourself, open their website in Google Chrome, right click on the images of "their work" or their "customer" Jade. The sources seem to be image libraries or even the Marshall's paving website. The Jade picture seems to have come from a dating site called "SweetMeet".
