Question 1

How do I choose a driveway surface?

Accepted Answer

Choose the surface last, not first. Four questions decide it: how does it fail, can it be repaired invisibly, does it drain, and what will it need doing to it in ten years. Every surface on the market is a good driveway on a properly built base and a bad one on a poor base, so the money is better spent below ground than on the finish. The most useful thing to know before comparing materials is that the material is not what decides how long your drive lasts. The excavation depth, the compaction, the edge restraint and the drainage do. A well-built tarmac drive comfortably outlives a badly built stone one, and it is not close. So the honest order is: settle the groundworks and the drainage, then choose what goes on top. Repairability is the question almost nobody asks and the one people most often regret. Block paving lifts and goes back invisibly, which matters enormously if a cable, a duct or a drain ever needs getting to. Gravel is similarly forgiving. Tarmac patches visibly and fades towards a match. Resin patches visibly and stays visible. Pattern imprinted concrete cannot be patched to match at all — a trench across it is a permanent scar. Drainage is a legal question in a front garden rather than a preference. Since October 2008, more than five square metres of impermeable surfacing in a front garden has needed planning permission unless the water is directed to a permeable area within your own boundary. Resin bound, permeable block paving and gravel are permeable and sidestep it. Tarmac, concrete, imprinted concrete and mortar-bedded stone are not, and need drainage designed in. Then maintenance, which is where the real long-term difference sits. Exposed aggregate concrete and granite setts ask essentially nothing of you. Resin bound wants an occasional wash. Block paving wants re-sanding every few years and weeding. Imprinted concrete needs its sealer stripped and recoated every three to five years, which is a genuine running cost and the one most often left out of the sales conversation. Finally, the house. A clay paver or natural stone reads as part of an older brick or stone property in a way a grey concrete block does not, and on a conservation area frontage — of which this town has many — what the surface is made of can be a planning matter rather than a taste one. On a modern house, a good block or resin drive usually looks right and costs less.

Question 2

What is the best driveway surface?

Accepted Answer

Choose the surface last, not first. Four questions decide it: how does it fail, can it be repaired invisibly, does it drain, and what will it need doing to it in ten years. Every surface on the market is a good driveway on a properly built base and a bad one on a poor base, so the money is better spent below ground than on the finish. The most useful thing to know before comparing materials is that the material is not what decides how long your drive lasts. The excavation depth, the compaction, the edge restraint and the drainage do. A well-built tarmac drive comfortably outlives a badly built stone one, and it is not close. So the honest order is: settle the groundworks and the drainage, then choose what goes on top. Repairability is the question almost nobody asks and the one people most often regret. Block paving lifts and goes back invisibly, which matters enormously if a cable, a duct or a drain ever needs getting to. Gravel is similarly forgiving. Tarmac patches visibly and fades towards a match. Resin patches visibly and stays visible. Pattern imprinted concrete cannot be patched to match at all — a trench across it is a permanent scar. Drainage is a legal question in a front garden rather than a preference. Since October 2008, more than five square metres of impermeable surfacing in a front garden has needed planning permission unless the water is directed to a permeable area within your own boundary. Resin bound, permeable block paving and gravel are permeable and sidestep it. Tarmac, concrete, imprinted concrete and mortar-bedded stone are not, and need drainage designed in. Then maintenance, which is where the real long-term difference sits. Exposed aggregate concrete and granite setts ask essentially nothing of you. Resin bound wants an occasional wash. Block paving wants re-sanding every few years and weeding. Imprinted concrete needs its sealer stripped and recoated every three to five years, which is a genuine running cost and the one most often left out of the sales conversation. Finally, the house. A clay paver or natural stone reads as part of an older brick or stone property in a way a grey concrete block does not, and on a conservation area frontage — of which this town has many — what the surface is made of can be a planning matter rather than a taste one. On a modern house, a good block or resin drive usually looks right and costs less.

Question 3

Which driveway material should I pick?

Accepted Answer

Choose the surface last, not first. Four questions decide it: how does it fail, can it be repaired invisibly, does it drain, and what will it need doing to it in ten years. Every surface on the market is a good driveway on a properly built base and a bad one on a poor base, so the money is better spent below ground than on the finish. The most useful thing to know before comparing materials is that the material is not what decides how long your drive lasts. The excavation depth, the compaction, the edge restraint and the drainage do. A well-built tarmac drive comfortably outlives a badly built stone one, and it is not close. So the honest order is: settle the groundworks and the drainage, then choose what goes on top. Repairability is the question almost nobody asks and the one people most often regret. Block paving lifts and goes back invisibly, which matters enormously if a cable, a duct or a drain ever needs getting to. Gravel is similarly forgiving. Tarmac patches visibly and fades towards a match. Resin patches visibly and stays visible. Pattern imprinted concrete cannot be patched to match at all — a trench across it is a permanent scar. Drainage is a legal question in a front garden rather than a preference. Since October 2008, more than five square metres of impermeable surfacing in a front garden has needed planning permission unless the water is directed to a permeable area within your own boundary. Resin bound, permeable block paving and gravel are permeable and sidestep it. Tarmac, concrete, imprinted concrete and mortar-bedded stone are not, and need drainage designed in. Then maintenance, which is where the real long-term difference sits. Exposed aggregate concrete and granite setts ask essentially nothing of you. Resin bound wants an occasional wash. Block paving wants re-sanding every few years and weeding. Imprinted concrete needs its sealer stripped and recoated every three to five years, which is a genuine running cost and the one most often left out of the sales conversation. Finally, the house. A clay paver or natural stone reads as part of an older brick or stone property in a way a grey concrete block does not, and on a conservation area frontage — of which this town has many — what the surface is made of can be a planning matter rather than a taste one. On a modern house, a good block or resin drive usually looks right and costs less.

How do I choose a driveway surface?

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