Lowest maintenance driveway
Discussion
Hello. Fed up with gravel, looks crap and patch and the weeds are incessant.
It's 90 square metres approx.
What are the alternatives that require low / no maintenance?
I don't mind having it jetwashed yearly or similar but don't want something that needs re-sanding, repointing that sort of work
Resin looks good, are there any downsides?
What about that printed concrete that creates texture like pavers?
It's 90 square metres approx.
What are the alternatives that require low / no maintenance?
I don't mind having it jetwashed yearly or similar but don't want something that needs re-sanding, repointing that sort of work
Resin looks good, are there any downsides?
What about that printed concrete that creates texture like pavers?
Tarmac. Apart from fading ours has been faultless. You need to request the best smallest grained tarmac for it to look good.
Anything with cracks will get weeds.
Anything coated ie printed concrete in the case of my parents drive seems to need regular recoating with the slipperiest shiny paint known to science. Apparently if you don’t, it’ll eventually flake.
Anything with cracks will get weeds.
Anything coated ie printed concrete in the case of my parents drive seems to need regular recoating with the slipperiest shiny paint known to science. Apparently if you don’t, it’ll eventually flake.
stemll said:
The lowest maintenance by a country mile is tarmac. Not fashionable but eminently functional and mine is 29 years old and is only just starting to turn a bit green having never been cleaned in that time.
There's no other answer. Even the 1 inch of tarmac the developers put down on my parents drive is looking ok. It's had 1 coat of black driveway seal in that time but that was purely for cosmetics.
We have imprinted driveway from a it 17 years ago and it's brilliant for us. It was black and some parts are fading to dark grey and 1 crack but otherwise no issues. Since we moved here 13 years ago,, zero maintenance. I dint even jet wash it and looks OK. Only downside is that if ever you need to dig it up then it's PITA...
Tarmac 100%. My 80 year old mother needed a new drive and wanted block paving, I talked her out of it as yours truly would have got the job of cleaning and weeding it, she settled for tarmac with a block paving border, 5 years later its never been touched and still looks brand new. It does need protection if using a jack though. I need a new drive, but its 8m wide and think it will be too much tarmac, although I know I will regret block paving in a few years time.
I have a large (Eight car) Marshalls block paved drive that was put down professionally, (MOT1) etc.
In a small area it has gone wonky donkey, sunken and wavey, which I will get rectified soon, but small weeds have always been a problem, so I have to keep on top of them, which I do with very strong Glyphosate.
In other words, it looks very nice but is not maintenance free by any means
Just after I had power washed it last year. (It has been down 16 years)
In a small area it has gone wonky donkey, sunken and wavey, which I will get rectified soon, but small weeds have always been a problem, so I have to keep on top of them, which I do with very strong Glyphosate.
In other words, it looks very nice but is not maintenance free by any means
Just after I had power washed it last year. (It has been down 16 years)
Edited by Wacky Racer on Monday 4th August 21:00
ARHarh said:
Concrete. Just poor some BAC50 over if once a year. Can jack up cars on it without and damage, won't sink or move, cheap to install. Only downsides are it looks pants, and the neighbours wont be impressed by your lovely new drive.
Polished concrete can look good. What the yanks tend to do it seems. Little Lofty said:
Tarmac 100%. It does need protection if using a jack though. I need a new drive, but its 8m wide and think it will be too much tarmac, although I know I will regret block paving in a few years time.
Split it into two with block paving work some block paving jacking points into the design.Driveways
feel your pain , When we bought our house it had been built on next doors land The builders just put earth / shingle down its crazy long 240m2 . horrible surface so decided to remove it together with the fence
because every Autumn I would get a phone call from the wife ...fence has blown down. working most time overseas it was a PITA .so needed low maintenance solution for fence and drive
looked like this
decided to install a metal colourfence neighbours were great they paid Half and I installed myself
rigged up a farm jack on an A frame with a sling to pull out the old Concrete posts
neighbours side but my fence
good for 125 mph winds and 25 years life self healing zinc plated . cost £2,500
then time for removing the old drive . We decided on resin , but wanted a very solid foundation , had a local building company that quoted 19k that was back in 2016 . It ran overbudget total cost was £24,000 which worked out £100m2 . I had quotes for 40k back in 2016
unfortunately they underestimated the amount of soil to be removed originally the quote was for a digger / grab lorry to remove waste but we discovered because of the dog leg near the entrance the grab lorry wouldn't fit up the drive . so then it was digger / dumper soil stockpile near road and grab lorry removing waste from road. ....Then it rained . which made the loads heavier in total 80tons of soil was removed.
during dig out I installed a PVC underground pipe along RH side border then installed an armoured cable from house to Gates for automation in the future. Also allows CCTV to be hard wired
then 30 tons of compacted type 2 and inlay of block border
Soakaway connected to Aco drains at garage
steelwork
concrete 60 tons 150mm thick drilled every m2 to allow water drainage
UV resistant Resin 20mm Daltex Springtime mix
I use Hypochlorite in 20 litre drums and Spray the entire drive at least twice a year , We have had ours down 9 years it has faded a bit but is still durable
this shows it needing a good pressure wash ..due to hose pipe ban will have to wait till autumn
Some resin driveways crack / fade ,you can have the top coat redone plan to do ours again in a couple of years estimate £ 3,500 just for the resin top coat ours has been great as has the fence . no maintenance at all for that still looks brand new . and its fantastic for drainage soaks up the water like a sponge.
Key to any driveway is the sub surface ours was dug out to a depth of 320mm it had 150mm of compacted type 1 then 150mm of Concrete ours was re-enforced with steel mesh grid . The resin is only 20mm .
Down side to resin is green algae build up . As long as you clean twice a year it will be fine . Check out driveways in your location . make sure you look at ones that have been down for 5 years . Some people dont clean ive seen weeds growing through ... this is caused by windborne particles on the surface but needs to be removed . Like anything as long as you keep on top its fine.
feel your pain , When we bought our house it had been built on next doors land The builders just put earth / shingle down its crazy long 240m2 . horrible surface so decided to remove it together with the fence
because every Autumn I would get a phone call from the wife ...fence has blown down. working most time overseas it was a PITA .so needed low maintenance solution for fence and drive
looked like this
decided to install a metal colourfence neighbours were great they paid Half and I installed myself
rigged up a farm jack on an A frame with a sling to pull out the old Concrete posts
neighbours side but my fence
good for 125 mph winds and 25 years life self healing zinc plated . cost £2,500
then time for removing the old drive . We decided on resin , but wanted a very solid foundation , had a local building company that quoted 19k that was back in 2016 . It ran overbudget total cost was £24,000 which worked out £100m2 . I had quotes for 40k back in 2016
unfortunately they underestimated the amount of soil to be removed originally the quote was for a digger / grab lorry to remove waste but we discovered because of the dog leg near the entrance the grab lorry wouldn't fit up the drive . so then it was digger / dumper soil stockpile near road and grab lorry removing waste from road. ....Then it rained . which made the loads heavier in total 80tons of soil was removed.
during dig out I installed a PVC underground pipe along RH side border then installed an armoured cable from house to Gates for automation in the future. Also allows CCTV to be hard wired
then 30 tons of compacted type 2 and inlay of block border
Soakaway connected to Aco drains at garage
steelwork
concrete 60 tons 150mm thick drilled every m2 to allow water drainage
UV resistant Resin 20mm Daltex Springtime mix
I use Hypochlorite in 20 litre drums and Spray the entire drive at least twice a year , We have had ours down 9 years it has faded a bit but is still durable
this shows it needing a good pressure wash ..due to hose pipe ban will have to wait till autumn
Some resin driveways crack / fade ,you can have the top coat redone plan to do ours again in a couple of years estimate £ 3,500 just for the resin top coat ours has been great as has the fence . no maintenance at all for that still looks brand new . and its fantastic for drainage soaks up the water like a sponge.
Key to any driveway is the sub surface ours was dug out to a depth of 320mm it had 150mm of compacted type 1 then 150mm of Concrete ours was re-enforced with steel mesh grid . The resin is only 20mm .
Down side to resin is green algae build up . As long as you clean twice a year it will be fine . Check out driveways in your location . make sure you look at ones that have been down for 5 years . Some people dont clean ive seen weeds growing through ... this is caused by windborne particles on the surface but needs to be removed . Like anything as long as you keep on top its fine.
Edited by Purosangue on Sunday 3rd August 12:41
Edible Roadkill said:
Tar if you don t want any annual maintenance
They still need maintenance, our 100m shared tarmac driveway was installed to adopted road standards. It has started to crack and I am about to order a crack filler (ooh er missus)Our parking area is tegula sets, aside from an annual application of weed killer they have needed no maintenance in 15 years
I'm currently pricing a new driveway, it's around 200 sqm of gravel, so wanted something maintenance free as possible & had the bright idea of using buff coloured tarmac. Just been told by a contractor that it's only available from one plant in Yorkshire (Skipton - i'm in Harrogate) and it's 5 x the cost of black per ton, so will cost even more than block paving. Back to the drawing board.
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