Which driveway surface and how much?

[stumpage]

eltax91 said:

stumpage said:

I have printed concrete. Still looks like new 2 years on and no weeds to worry about.

Any pictures of it then and now?

I don't have one when it was first put down (although I may have one on my old PC at work but I will have to check that tomorrow). But here are a couple I've just taken.

[MikeOxlong]

Bebee said:

Should that be 45 times? you've added a zero by mistake?

Oh no. Anybody who is on ones property with burglarious intent needs stabbing as many times as possible.

[Tant]

If you intend doing any sort of car maintenance on it, I'd avoid tarmac.

Half of my drive is red coloured tarmac which looks lovely, but if you spill oil or, even worse, petrol, on it, it will just dissolve. Oil stains show up badly on it Also, it will show imprints if you use axle stands without a foot on them....they slowly sink in...

Personally, I'd go for coloured/imprinted concrete to a good spec.

[Bebee]

MikeOxlong said:

Bebee said:

Should that be 45 times? you've added a zero by mistake?

Oh no. Anybody who is on ones property with burglarious intent needs stabbing as many times as possible.

You'd be exhausted, might not even make 450 stabbings, no?

We need a swag man to test this out me thinks.

[sandman77]

nails1979 said:

I did mine with blocks. Just over 70 square meters was some where around £2200.

That seems really cheap. Did you do it yourself or was that a contractors price? If you did it yourself where did did you buy your blocks from? I am looking to do my driveway and the cheapest Marshall's blocks I can find are from wickes.

[C. Grimsley]

I had imprinted concrete on mine 10 years ago now and it still looks perfect, my new house is having this done this Wednesday, it's not cheap but it lasts, doesn't move, can with stand oils etc and doesn't fade like block work.


Ten years old-





Carl

Edited by C. Grimsley on Sunday 22 June 21:45

Edited by C. Grimsley on Sunday 22 June 21:56

[b0rk]

How about permeable block paving, had that installed for £80sqm including removal of previous drive, dig and level to install new sub-base, edgings etc.
All inc an installers guarantee backed by the block manufacturer for 5yrs installation defects and 10yrs materials.

[northandy]

swisstoni said:

Geez - how deep is your gravel?

We stayed at a little b&b for goodwood last year, the gravel was about 20cm deep, almost got the car stuck as it wasn't compacted either. Looked nice, but was crap to walk/drive on.

[mikef]

Nickyboy said:

Resin bonded gravel is lovely, my Dad had it a few years ago. Looked great, cleaned up great. The bonding agent also made it waterproof. .

Had this done recently, about the same 50-odd m2 area. £6K including base layer. Really nice.

[DonkeyApple]

radiodanno said:

Must be just me that loves the gravel.

The incredible roar of stones under rubber evokes images of middle England and a gentle time. My second favorite sound after a ransomes lawnmower gently buzzing away in the distance.

Yes I have a gravel drive, yes it needs a rake and a sweep but it suits the house and is great value against other options.

Oh, and it's a good setting for car sale pics.

There is something intangibly opulent about the right gravel.

I was at a friends yesterday who had just had some fresh gravel on a nice sized drive and creeping along in tickover with the gravel crunching under the car has a wonderful feeling. No real logic to it and I did find myself pondering whether it would only be an Englishman who would admire a bit of gravel.

[aspirated]

grayze said:

'Lethal when wet' utter rubbish. My neighbour had his patterned concrete drive installed 10 years ago, it's the same as any other material when wet or icy. I had mine installed 2 years ago and have never even considered it as slippy.

Neighbour had a pattern imprinted drive put in, two weeks later slipped in the rain and ended up with a concussion after banging his head, it was replaced with block paving ASAP

[jfbrin]

I went with patterned concrete and it works well. Went from 2 car spaces to 5 plus. Yes I had to lose the small front lawn but extra off street parking was the higher priority for me.
When the gloss type coating was applied when new, it was very slippy in the wet if you had rubber soles e.g. crocs.
However, it has worn a little and is now fine.
Did not fancy weeding and re-sanding block paving every year.
You can select various colours and patterns to make it easier on the eye.
Just make sue you double check your drainage because once that concrete is poured...........

[shoestring7]

skyrover said:

radiodanno said:

Must be just me that loves the gravel.

The incredible roar of stones under rubber evokes images of middle England and a gentle time. My second favorite sound after a ransomes lawnmower gently buzzing away in the distance.

Yes I have a gravel drive, yes it needs a rake and a sweep but it suits the house and is great value against other options.

Oh, and it's a good setting for car sale pics.

I like the look of gravel drives... but they are a real pain in the arse (literally) if you ever work on your own car.

Can't slide your jack or trolley about, and your behind and back end up full of pebbles.

And if you drop a bolt/nut, you probably aren't going to find it again.

This. I loath the stuff with a passion, especially when I got home after a long business trip to find the first Mrs SS7 had had several tonnes dumped all over my driveway "to make it look nicer".

SS7

[gizlaroc]

I like Stonebond, looks good, lasts well, easy to maintain and priced well.

[Higgs boson]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Listen ... is that the sound of a speeding psittacine?

[Monkeylegend]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I know but it's going cheap cheap cheap.

Paddy.

[swisstoni]

DonkeyApple said:

radiodanno said:

Must be just me that loves the gravel.

The incredible roar of stones under rubber evokes images of middle England and a gentle time. My second favorite sound after a ransomes lawnmower gently buzzing away in the distance.

Yes I have a gravel drive, yes it needs a rake and a sweep but it suits the house and is great value against other options.

Oh, and it's a good setting for car sale pics.

There is something intangibly opulent about the right gravel.

I was at a friends yesterday who had just had some fresh gravel on a nice sized drive and creeping along in tickover with the gravel crunching under the car has a wonderful feeling. No real logic to it and I did find myself pondering whether it would only be an Englishman who would admire a bit of gravel.

I love a bit of gravel too. Over a certain size, a driveway of any other method is prohibitively expensive. Agree it can look weird in the urban environment but out in the sticks the opposite is true IMHO. Weeds can be sprayed and die away to nothing. Plus it is self cleaning.

Yes it is a nuisance if you have to work on a car standing on it though - ideally you would have a bit of hard surface somewhere for that.

[eliot]

My neighbor has something like this down - possibly slightly larger limestone, but the main thing is that it doesn't get stuck in the tyres or migrate into the road:

Edited by eliot on Monday 23 June 10:57

[Oakey]

This seems like the perfect thread to tell you about the neighborus drive.

Neighbour over the road wanted a new drive, it runs up the side of their house between them and their neighbour and leads straight to the back garden. They got a firm in (we'll call them 'Cheapo Driveways') to do the job who've been there going on a month now, perhaps longer (maybe 5-6 weeks). They haven't even started laying anything yet. All they've done is dig out about 3ft of dirt from the start of the driveway all the way up the drive and into the back garden. They must have shifted 5 tonnes of soil!

I'll try and get a sneaky photo later but they've got to be taking the piss, they don't need to remove so much mud, surely?

[TA14]

Oakey said:

This seems like the perfect thread to tell you about the neighborus drive.

Neighbour over the road wanted a new drive, it runs up the side of their house between them and their neighbour and leads straight to the back garden. They got a firm in (we'll call them 'Cheapo Driveways') to do the job who've been there going on a month now, perhaps longer (maybe 5-6 weeks). They haven't even started laying anything yet. All they've done is dig out about 3ft of dirt from the start of the driveway all the way up the drive and into the back garden. They must have shifted 5 tonnes of soil!

I'll try and get a sneaky photo later but they've got to be taking the piss, they don't need to remove so much mud, surely?

If they have dug out 1m deep for say 3m wide and 20m long that 60m3 or about 120 tonnes.