Tarmac problem

Moll'll fix it

When the snow last December finally thawed a large area of my tarmac driveway had turned a red oxide colour. It wasn't there before the snow. I have power washed it and scrubbed it to no avail. Does anybody know what might have caused this and how I can remove it? Thanks

FREDNISMO

Is there any chance you tried to clear the snow using sulphate of iron this can cause a rusty stain which is very difficult to remove, I know this may sound odd but I know lots of people that were using fertiliser and similar products when they couldn't get deicing salt

Moll'll fix it

Thanks for your reply. No, I didn't attempt to clear the snow at all. Somebody suggested that maybe grit that was used to clear the roads had fallen from underneath my car on the snow and caused it, but my car is always parked on the other side of the driveway and people who were visiting me didn't park on the particular patch. Would it possible that a moss killer that I had put on the tarmac in November might have caused it. Only thing is I used the moss killer on all of the tarmac, not just this section so I am baffled as to what it might be.

jprboy

A lot of moss killers contain ferrous sulphate - this is another same for sulphate of iron which Frednismo referred to. Looks like that's the cause. General advice with anything containing this compound is to keep it away from driveways.

Moll'll fix it

Thanks for your reply. I have learned the hard way!

irelandspurs

Paint the tarmac. www.tarmaseal.ie or there is another paint we use called liquafix s. Can give you a price to do it if needed or talk you through doing it yourself.

Moll'll fix it

That's great. Will have a look at that website and will probably do the job myself. The patch is not very big but it is right outside my front door and looks awful. Thanks for your suggestion.