Block paving & brick driveways in Macclesfield

Block paving works on a principle that is worth understanding, because it explains everything that goes wrong with it. The blocks are not glued or mortared down. They are laid tight on a thin bed of sharp sand, vibrated in, and locked together by the friction of kiln-dried sand packed into every joint — and the whole assembly only holds if it is pressing against a properly restrained edge. Take the restraint away and the blocks slowly walk, the joints open, the sand washes out and the drive goes wavy.

That is why the edge course is the single most important detail on a block drive and the first thing to look at on one that has failed. It should sit on a concrete bed with a haunch of concrete up the back of it, right along every free edge. A block drive whose border is bedded on sand looks identical on the day it is finished and is visibly moving inside three years.

The BS 7533 series is the standard behind all of this — it covers pavements built with clay, natural stone and concrete pavers, and it deals with the layer design, the laying course, the jointing material and the edge restraint. It is not obscure trade detail: it is the difference between a drive that stays flat and one that ruts under the front wheels.

The other thing block paving does better than any other surface is come apart and go back. A sunken corner over a settled trench, a stained area by the bins, a strip that has to come up so a cable can go in — all of it lifts, gets sorted underneath and gets re-laid with the same blocks. Nothing else on this list can be repaired invisibly, and on a drive that will need a duct or a chamber getting to one day, that is worth real money.