Dropped kerbs, edgings & driveway groundworks in Macclesfield

This is the half of the trade nobody photographs. Excavation, muck away, membrane, sub-base, compaction, levels, falls, edge restraint and — where the ground changes height — something to hold it back. Every one of those is invisible in the finished job and every one of them decides whether the finished job lasts.

The dropped kerb is the piece homeowners most often discover too late. The footway and the kerb are the highway authority's, not yours: driving across a footway without a proper vehicle crossover is an offence, and forming one needs Cheshire East's consent under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980. The council sets the specification and the work usually has to be done by a contractor it has approved, and where the drive comes out onto a classified road, planning permission is needed on top. Weeks, not days — so it goes in at the start.

Edgings are structural. On a block drive the edge course is what stops the whole surface walking sideways; on tarmac it is what stops the perimeter crumbling into the border. Either way it wants a concrete bed and a concrete haunch, and either way a quote that treats it as trim rather than structure is one to query.

Two things get checked before a spade goes in the ground. What is buried under the front garden — gas, water, electricity and telecoms all commonly run through it, and an inspection chamber in a drive has to stay accessible with a cover rated for what will park on it. And whether the dig comes within three metres of a neighbour's structure and goes below its foundations, because that brings the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 into play and needs a month's written notice.