Driveways - your preferred option?
Discussion
Just as when choosing which Aston to buy, so many options, model, spec, age, service history, all these things but most often the critical factor will be the available budget. So will it be with any new driveway.
Let's just dream a little; If you were in the enviable position to be able to choose a driveway surface of your dreams, what would it be?
Let's just dream a little; If you were in the enviable position to be able to choose a driveway surface of your dreams, what would it be?
Nick, yes indeed, the top end options could well reach up there. I'm hoping we will all benefit on this thread from the experience of others that have gone thru' the options, made a choice and are willing to share their opinions on the durability of those choices.
PS: I would just like to emphasise the importance of the 'durability' aspect. The Resin bound option is aesthetically right up there but is it as capable of supporting the occasional heavy traffic, say for instance a skip lorry taking the loaded skip away? Does it crack at all, how easy to repair and how obvious is a repair. Lots of questions to which I hope very welcome answers will emerge.
PS: I would just like to emphasise the importance of the 'durability' aspect. The Resin bound option is aesthetically right up there but is it as capable of supporting the occasional heavy traffic, say for instance a skip lorry taking the loaded skip away? Does it crack at all, how easy to repair and how obvious is a repair. Lots of questions to which I hope very welcome answers will emerge.
Edited by MO55 on Friday 8th February 12:13
MO55 said:
Let's just dream a little; If you were in the enviable position to be able to choose a driveway surface of your dreams, what would it be?
Well, if it is good enough for .......
As a lower cost option, I like Cotswold stone gravel driveways. Pleasing pale colour, each individual stone tends to be smooth edged, and it easy to clean or refresh when the driveway becomes old.
Edited by Jon39 on Friday 8th February 12:06
Resin bound looks awful after a few years.
I would go with an exposed aggregate concrete driveway.
Not so common in the UK anymore, but popular in Australia.
http://www.exposedaggregateconcreter.com.au/Aggreg...
They either pour concrete, then chuck your choice of stone on. Or the stones are in the mix, then they spray a retarder on and later wash the concrete to expose the aggregate.
I would go with an exposed aggregate concrete driveway.
Not so common in the UK anymore, but popular in Australia.
http://www.exposedaggregateconcreter.com.au/Aggreg...
They either pour concrete, then chuck your choice of stone on. Or the stones are in the mix, then they spray a retarder on and later wash the concrete to expose the aggregate.
AMVSVNick said:
qwick69 said:
A mixture of both. 
My OCD couldn't handle the gravel on the grass and I don't suppose it does the mower a lot of good 
That problem is of course due to incorrect levels.
Lawn must be higher than the surface of the gravel.
Easily solved by using the cricket pitch technique of gradually top dressing the lawn, adjacent to the driveway edging.
Fairly quick job, if you are lucky enough to have sandy, or loam type soil in your garden. If you have clay, bad luck.
We re-did our tarmac driveway in our last house and replaced with a mixture of gravel and setts. I preferred the look of the gravel but wanted hard standing where we washed the cars etc. The gravel/grass interface issue was resolved by having a slightly raised kerb between the two. We had setts by the road as well to avoid gravel going on to it.
The main issue was keeping the weeds off the sets as they'd grow easily in the gaps between them (the photo is not long after having it done so it looks more pristine!).
We're now in a house with a (much smaller) sandstone gravel driveway and I'm looking to replace at least part of that with something harder - I hate washing cars on gravel. We were looking at resin bonded as well but the cost does seem rather high. I'm slightly worried about the longevity comments earlier in the thread now as well! May end up with setts again for cost reasons and allocating some time for de-weeding every few months ...
The main issue was keeping the weeds off the sets as they'd grow easily in the gaps between them (the photo is not long after having it done so it looks more pristine!).
We're now in a house with a (much smaller) sandstone gravel driveway and I'm looking to replace at least part of that with something harder - I hate washing cars on gravel. We were looking at resin bonded as well but the cost does seem rather high. I'm slightly worried about the longevity comments earlier in the thread now as well! May end up with setts again for cost reasons and allocating some time for de-weeding every few months ...
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