Resin bound & resin bonded driveways in Macclesfield
There are two resin systems and they are not the same product, even though the trade uses the names loosely and homeowners are routinely sold one while thinking they are getting the other. Resin bound is aggregate mixed with resin in a forced-action mixer and trowelled out as a solid, smooth, permeable mat. Resin bonded is a coat of resin spread on the base with dry aggregate scattered onto it, which gives a rougher, loose-looking finish that is not permeable.
Resin bound is what most people picture and what most people want. It is smooth enough to wheel a pushchair or a bin over, it has no joints for weeds to find, and because water passes straight through it, it usually keeps a front garden inside permitted development without any drainage works at all. That last point is worth real money in a town with Macclesfield's surface-water record.
It is an overlay system, though, and that is the thing to be clear about. Resin bound is normally laid 15–18mm thick onto a sound, stable, well-drained base of tarmac or concrete — it contributes almost nothing structurally. Laid over a cracked or moving base it will crack in the same places, usually within the first year, and no amount of good resin work fixes a base problem. Where there is no suitable base, one has to be built first, which makes it a two-stage job.
The failures worth knowing about are all avoidable and all down to workmanship or weather. Laying in the wet or in the cold gives you a surface that never fully cures and goes patchy or soft. Getting the resin-to-aggregate ratio wrong gives you loose stone that comes away underfoot. And laying a permeable surface over an impermeable base with nowhere for the water to go simply moves the puddle from the top to the bottom.
Resin driveways — every job, in detail.
5 jobs in this category. Each has its own page explaining what's involved, what your contractor checks and — just as importantly — when a job can safely wait.
Resin bound driveway
Aggregate and resin mixed in a forced-action mixer and trowelled out as a smooth, seamless, permeable mat, normally 15–18mm thick over a sound tarmac or concrete base. It usually keeps a front garden inside permitted development, has no joints for weeds, and depends entirely on the base beneath it.
Read more →Resin bonded surfacing
A coat of resin spread over the base with dry aggregate scattered onto it, giving a textured, loose-gravel look with excellent grip. It is not permeable and it is not the same product as resin bound — the difference matters for drainage, planning and how the surface behaves.
Read more →Resin driveway repair
Cracked, loose, cloudy or delaminating resin put right — with the honest position stated up front that a resin repair is visible, because a new mat never matches a weathered one. Establishing whether the fault is the resin or the base beneath it is what decides the job.
Read more →Resin over an existing driveway
Laying resin bound over a sound existing tarmac or concrete drive — the quickest and most economical route to a resin finish, with no excavation and no muck away. Whether your base is actually up to it is the entire question, and it gets answered before a price is written.
Read more →Rubber crumb surfacing
Recycled rubber granules bound in resin and trowelled out as a flexible, permeable, slightly soft surface. It suits ramps, wet areas, wheelchair approaches and drives where a rigid surface keeps cracking, and it is laid as an overlay on the same terms as resin bound.
Read more →Not sure which one you need?
Describe it in your own words on the quote form. Your contractor will work out what the job actually is when they ring you back — usually the same day.
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