New Front Driveway - So many options....

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

Soldato
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Right its time again to start looking at spending another ungodly amount of savings on the house, this time its the front of the house as we want to get rid of our front "garden" and make it into a driveway.

It currently consists of loads of pebbles and stones with a couple of dying plants.

I've been looking at the options available and wondering if anyone can shed any light on what the best ones out there are out of the following...

  • Block paving
  • Printed concrete
  • Resin bound gravel
  • Traditional flags (poss Kandla Grey sandstone to continue on with what is round the side and back)

Is it purely an aesthetic thing? Does one cost more than the other? Is one more durable? After any advice and insight anyone can offer on any of the above techniques for a front drive.

Will be looking at getting the kerb dropped as well which I'm already bent over with my pants down, lube waiting.

I did recently have the rear and side of my garden flagged with Kandla Indian Grey sandstone but chose the cheap option of prepping the sub-base myself and paying a mate to lay them but i'm questioning his laying methods as some slabs feel loose and hollow under despite it being a full mortar bed, so I want to pay for a proper company to just do it all this time round the front.
(I may do the monkey work of clearing the area etc first to save a bit of cash but anything more will be up to them!)

Anyone any thoughts on the best surface to go for?
 
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When we applied to the council for a dropped kerb one thing that did jump out in the paperwork was that they now require the drive to be made of 'porous' material or have run off points.
 
Maundie said:
When we applied to the council for a dropped kerb one thing that did jump out in the paperwork was that they now require the drive to be made of 'porous' material or have run off points.
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Yes I believe the surface water drainage needs to be captured within your own land (either through porous material or drains on your land)
 
Maundie said:
When we applied to the council for a dropped kerb one thing that did jump out in the paperwork was that they now require the drive to be made of 'porous' material or have run off points.
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The Craig said:
Yes I believe the surface water drainage needs to be captured within your own land (either through porous material or drains on your land)
Click to expand...

I know that the resinbound drives are pourous. I take it imprinted concrete isn't. What about flagging/blockpacing? I assume water can soak in through the flags/blocks and through the joints or is that considered non-porous? See plenty of drive ways being flagged/blocked.

ov_sjo said:
I'd avoid the printed concrete stuff as when it cracks the repairs are noticeable.
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Have read this on a few places and unless the technology has changed in it to make it better its at the bottom of my list for now.
 
SeatIbiza said:
Resin gravel allll day long.

It's porous, hard wearing and looks great.

Downside, probably the most expensive choice...
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Won't those little stones come loose and get wedged in your tyre tread?

The sound of a stone stuck in your tread is annoying as hell, click, click, click, click, click.... happened to me the other day had to pull over to get it out.
 
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asim18 said:
Won't those little stones come loose and get wedged in your tyre tread?

The sound of a stone stuck in your tread is annoying as hell, click, click, click, click, click.... happened to me the other day had to pull over to get it out.
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Considering the whole thing is bonded to the ground and together with resin, i would hope not.
 
I'm just doing mine at the moment. I'm using x grid permeable paving which I'm going to plant grass in so it still looks like a garden.

I've got 9 tonne of hardcore coming today. Never done anything like this before... What could go wrong lol
 
As far as flagging/block paving goes the water soaks through the cracks so that's fine, the examples we were given that are considered a no-no were tarmac and large areas of concrete (with concrete they recommended leaving grass/soil holes every few feet dotted around for drainage)
 
asim18 said:
Won't those little stones come loose and get wedged in your tyre tread?

The sound of a stone stuck in your tread is annoying as hell, click, click, click, click, click.... happened to me the other day had to pull over to get it out.
Click to expand...

No?

It's bonded resin - sets like concrete yet it's still permeable.

Google it.
 
Maundie said:
As far as flagging/block paving goes the water soaks through the cracks so that's fine, the examples we were given that are considered a no-no were tarmac and large areas of concrete (with concrete they recommended leaving grass/soil holes every few feet dotted around for drainage)
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You can get porous concrete which will be fine.

Block paving for me, looks much nicer.
 
Kimi said:
I'm just doing mine at the moment. I'm using x grid permeable paving which I'm going to plant grass in so it still looks like a garden.

I've got 9 tonne of hardcore coming today. Never done anything like this before... What could go wrong lol
Click to expand...

I did my front lawn with similar stuff, worked brilliantly and once the base was in place was simple, hardest part of the whole thing was digging out which I foolishly did by hand!!

20130917_081551_zpsc000ea0e.jpg


my thread about it: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18512738
 
Block paving here too.

Flagstones will have to be stupid thick to stop them cracking (something like 80-100mm) for a driveway, unless perhaps you mortar them on a 100+mm concrete base?

Stamped concrete will crack, and then when you try and fill the cracks it'll show badly.

You can get permeable pavers for the block paving and so be able to deal with drainage requirements easily as well.

To throw something else in I found out a couple of weeks ago, there's also 20mm porcelain tiles... http://evo.mirage.it/en/ , https://www.atlasconcorde.com/en/technical-area/lastra-20mm-outdoor-design-by-atlas-concorde/ (and other companies). Depending on your house style they may suit or not, but they are pretty funky things, with a breaking load of over a ton each...
 
why not loose gravel ?
you can put those plastic grids down first to hold it in place as well.

pros
cheap
quick

cons
probably going to end up with gravel everywhere, I suppose this can be combatted by using slightly larger 20 - 40mm gravel ?
 
Wasnt aware you needed mega thick flags for a drive, thought it was all down to the subbase prep i.e as long as the base is sufficiently deep and compacted enough the top flags should be OK?

Im liking the look of the resin bonded stuff, few sites seem to be quoted lower price per sqm compared to block paving and flagging etc. May get a few companies in to quote. I don't mind doing the monkey work of clearing the area and digging it out just leaving them to come and do the subbase etc.
Tend to find large portion of quotes to be the labour of digging out and preparing sites for a sub base so if I can chip a wedge off from doing most of it myself that might be the way to go.

Its not a huge area maybe about 45sqm at a very rough guess. There is a tarmac layer underneath the gravel that is currently there which if its anything like what i ended up digging up round the back has some hefty foundations already. There are areas of soil tho which will need tending to so i'm wondering if they might be able to use some of what is already there as part of the sub base. Think i'll need to clear the area first really.
 
Unless the sub base is concrete/mortar it didn't really matter what you do, unless you go really thick. Manufacturers of concrete slabs here recommend only their 80mm thick slabs are suitable for dry laying for driveways. The below site is pretty good for paving advice, and they recommend 40+mm slabs even when installed on a concrete slab.

http://www.pavingexpert.com/flags_driveways01.htm

Standard modern 25mm slabs are not going to be suitable in the slightest unfortunately. If you can find some older reclaimed flags from somewhere at a better thickness then maybe they will do, but they'll probably be super expensive and I wouldn't want to be the one laying them, laying 2 1/2" slabs of a reasonable size by hand is a pain in the behind, let alone thicker slabs! :p
 
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Business Man said:
What depth do you need to dig out for these grids? I have a similar garden to Valves half concrete and grass
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I put in a base layer of 50mm compacted type 2 aggregate, then the grid went on top of that so a total of about 100mm depth was needed throughout. I also had to lower a drain cover that's in the middle of the lawn.
 
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