Resin Bound Gravel Drive
Discussion
Any experiences? Next door are doing it at the moment and it looks really good.
Had the boss round to measure up for a quote but I don't really know a lot about it, though I do know it's not cheap, but then neither is replacing the tarmac we currently have.
Is it all in the prep? They seem to be just laying it over the existing tarmac drive (which to be fair doesn't seem to be in bad nick) but ours is shot so will need lifting I suspect.
Has anyone had it done? Are you pleased with it? Any issues? What sort of price per square meter should I expect to pay?
Any and all information welcome.
Had the boss round to measure up for a quote but I don't really know a lot about it, though I do know it's not cheap, but then neither is replacing the tarmac we currently have.
Is it all in the prep? They seem to be just laying it over the existing tarmac drive (which to be fair doesn't seem to be in bad nick) but ours is shot so will need lifting I suspect.
Has anyone had it done? Are you pleased with it? Any issues? What sort of price per square meter should I expect to pay?
Any and all information welcome.
Disclaimer: I have only used it as surfacing in pedesteron areas or above tree pits, not as a pure paving material.
There are 2 types.
First type - lay the gravel, then spray the gunk on top. This is good for drainage but it not particularly strong, heavy vehicles or repeated turning may damage it. Easy to remove if you want (take the "crust" off and you're left with pure granular).
Second type - gravel is premixed with resin and then laid. Much stronger, much more difficult to take up and dispose of.
I think both work OK, but personally walking on gravel that doesn't "crunch" underfoot seems really odd.
Laying it over existing tarmac seems a little cowboy though. That's the drainage like? How do they deal with the threshold? Is it simply feathered to nothing (bad) or keyed in (good but may limit drainage)?
There are 2 types.
First type - lay the gravel, then spray the gunk on top. This is good for drainage but it not particularly strong, heavy vehicles or repeated turning may damage it. Easy to remove if you want (take the "crust" off and you're left with pure granular).
Second type - gravel is premixed with resin and then laid. Much stronger, much more difficult to take up and dispose of.
I think both work OK, but personally walking on gravel that doesn't "crunch" underfoot seems really odd.
Laying it over existing tarmac seems a little cowboy though. That's the drainage like? How do they deal with the threshold? Is it simply feathered to nothing (bad) or keyed in (good but may limit drainage)?
Booking in. We have a gravel drive (hateful) and over the way is a company called Addagrip - guess what they do?
I've enquired before and a local 'applicator' gave me a ballpark of £30/m2, which gets a lot when you have a generous driveway. However, the company has this stuff on their trafficked forecourt and it looks good after 20 something years.
I imagine prices have not decreased since my enquiry, so it's another project I'll put off...
I've enquired before and a local 'applicator' gave me a ballpark of £30/m2, which gets a lot when you have a generous driveway. However, the company has this stuff on their trafficked forecourt and it looks good after 20 something years.
I imagine prices have not decreased since my enquiry, so it's another project I'll put off...
It's the second type - premixed and about an inch thick, then smoothed over. I'm watching them from my home office window at the moment.
We have a sloping driveway/parking area at the front, it's partly old tarmac (1970s I believe) and gravel we put in when we removed all the vegetation the previous owner had growing across the drive (he was a bit of a privacy freak).
It's probably only about 60m2 but the gravel, although it's laid in recesses 'walks' and I'm sick of weeds etc. It's pretty much drive-in, drive-out so there won't be a lot of turning.
They're feathering the end of the drive which seemed a little odd to me - the head guy said they could lay a proper threshold though, and did advise that we should. There's quite a camber on next door's drive and a stream separating us so drainage shouldn't be a problem for them, but I wouldn't want it laying on top of the old tarmac we have - you can hear 'voids' underneath when you drop anything on parts of the surface (hence why I want to re-lay it).
We have a sloping driveway/parking area at the front, it's partly old tarmac (1970s I believe) and gravel we put in when we removed all the vegetation the previous owner had growing across the drive (he was a bit of a privacy freak).
It's probably only about 60m2 but the gravel, although it's laid in recesses 'walks' and I'm sick of weeds etc. It's pretty much drive-in, drive-out so there won't be a lot of turning.
They're feathering the end of the drive which seemed a little odd to me - the head guy said they could lay a proper threshold though, and did advise that we should. There's quite a camber on next door's drive and a stream separating us so drainage shouldn't be a problem for them, but I wouldn't want it laying on top of the old tarmac we have - you can hear 'voids' underneath when you drop anything on parts of the surface (hence why I want to re-lay it).
Edited by Mark Benson on Friday 21st April 15:21
Mark Benson said:
It's the second type - premixed and about an inch thick, then smoothed over. I'm watching them from my home office window at the moment.
We have a sloping driveway/parking area at the front, it's partly old tarmac (1970s I believe) and gravel we put in when we removed all the vegetation the previous owner had growing across the drive (he was a bit of a privacy freak).
It's probably only about 60m2 but the gravel, although it's laid in recesses 'walks' and I'm sick of weeds etc. It's pretty much drive-in, drive-out so there won't be a lot of turning.
They're feathering the end of the drive which seemed a little odd to me - the head guy said they could lay a proper threshold though, and did advise that we should. There's quite a camber on next door's drive and a stream separating us so drainage shouldn't be a problem for them, but I wouldn't want it laying on top of the old tarmac we have - you can hear 'voids' underneath when you drop anything on parts of the surface (hence why I want to re-lay it).
Hi Mark,We have a sloping driveway/parking area at the front, it's partly old tarmac (1970s I believe) and gravel we put in when we removed all the vegetation the previous owner had growing across the drive (he was a bit of a privacy freak).
It's probably only about 60m2 but the gravel, although it's laid in recesses 'walks' and I'm sick of weeds etc. It's pretty much drive-in, drive-out so there won't be a lot of turning.
They're feathering the end of the drive which seemed a little odd to me - the head guy said they could lay a proper threshold though, and did advise that we should. There's quite a camber on next door's drive and a stream separating us so drainage shouldn't be a problem for them, but I wouldn't want it laying on top of the old tarmac we have - you can hear 'voids' underneath when you drop anything on parts of the surface (hence why I want to re-lay it).
Edited by Mark Benson on Friday 21st April 15:21
Alright? :-)
We are looking to do our drive in a few months time too. 30 year old tarmac has had it.
Ive decided to go block paving because to me, although I know Ill have to keep on top of the moss etc I can live with this because at least I know it can be "fixed" ie take some blocks up and replace if something bad happened. My fear with the surfaces is are of it cracking or degrading or getting damaged at which point itll need doing all again. I may well be wrong, but block paving seems more industrial and likely to survive the test of time.
8-P said:
Hi Mark,
Alright? :-)
We are looking to do our drive in a few months time too. 30 year old tarmac has had it.
Ive decided to go block paving because to me, although I know Ill have to keep on top of the moss etc I can live with this because at least I know it can be "fixed" ie take some blocks up and replace if something bad happened. My fear with the surfaces is are of it cracking or degrading or getting damaged at which point itll need doing all again. I may well be wrong, but block paving seems more industrial and likely to survive the test of time.
Hi Andy,Alright? :-)
We are looking to do our drive in a few months time too. 30 year old tarmac has had it.
Ive decided to go block paving because to me, although I know Ill have to keep on top of the moss etc I can live with this because at least I know it can be "fixed" ie take some blocks up and replace if something bad happened. My fear with the surfaces is are of it cracking or degrading or getting damaged at which point itll need doing all again. I may well be wrong, but block paving seems more industrial and likely to survive the test of time.
But block paving looks so...... Suburban. :-)
In truth, I just don't like block paving.
We wanted something 'fit and forget' and therefore don't mind paying a bit more if it truly will be that. But if it needs doing every 5 years or isn't hard wearing enough then we'll just re-lay tarmac.
Mark Benson said:
Hi Andy,
But block paving looks so...... Suburban. :-)
In truth, I just don't like block paving.
We wanted something 'fit and forget' and therefore don't mind paying a bit more if it truly will be that. But if it needs doing every 5 years or isn't hard wearing enough then we'll just re-lay tarmac.
Fair enough, I bookmarked a brand that looks far more countryside actually and now I cant find it! Im the same, if a resin jobby is fit and forget then Im game, actually Im getting a quote next week for block paving, I may get someone round to quote resin out of interest on cost. My neighbour has patterned concrete, it looks ok but Im not going that way.But block paving looks so...... Suburban. :-)
In truth, I just don't like block paving.
We wanted something 'fit and forget' and therefore don't mind paying a bit more if it truly will be that. But if it needs doing every 5 years or isn't hard wearing enough then we'll just re-lay tarmac.
I had a good chat to someone at the Grand Designs show about this as we were thinking of it too. However we were put off it when he told us about it still having the ability to be oil stained and more worryingly if you ever have to dig a bit up or replace a bit due to damage then it's impossible to colour match it to the rest of the drive, there will always be a patch that'll stand out.
We're going to go with gravel instead.
We're going to go with gravel instead.
We had ours done a few months ago. 100sq m, some of it was very sturdy reinforced concrete, some needed digging out and prepping (from memory, membrane then about 8' Type 1 then 4" permeable tarmac). Total cost, £6500.
The £30/sq m price above - are you sure that was resin bound and not resin bonded (which is gravel glued to the substrate, not bound up in the stuff).
We've had loads of really positive comments about ours and we're really pleased with it. It's very smooth, you can walk on it in bare feet quite happily, and apparently it's quite easy to clear up stains if any occur. My current favourite party trick is throwing a bowl of water at it and watching it simply disappear
Ref the question above about reinstatement, no, I don't believe you can invisibly reinstate if it has to come up. I asked our guy to make us some little circular pucks to cover things like rodding eyes, which he said he'd never been asked for before but did and it works really well.
The £30/sq m price above - are you sure that was resin bound and not resin bonded (which is gravel glued to the substrate, not bound up in the stuff).
We've had loads of really positive comments about ours and we're really pleased with it. It's very smooth, you can walk on it in bare feet quite happily, and apparently it's quite easy to clear up stains if any occur. My current favourite party trick is throwing a bowl of water at it and watching it simply disappear
Ref the question above about reinstatement, no, I don't believe you can invisibly reinstate if it has to come up. I asked our guy to make us some little circular pucks to cover things like rodding eyes, which he said he'd never been asked for before but did and it works really well.
CAPP0 said:
Ref the question above about reinstatement, no, I don't believe you can invisibly reinstate if it has to come up. I asked our guy to make us some little circular pucks to cover things like rodding eyes, which he said he'd never been asked for before but did and it works really well.
Sounds strange he has never been asked this or would not just do it anyway, why would anyone put a solid fixed surface over a rodding eye.There's block paving and block paving.
Most blocks are concrete - bland colours, cheap to make, ubiquitous.
Clay blocks are just as nice as clay bricks - wirecuts at least. Blockleys used to do a range of deep red/brindle shades that were very tough, could be chamfered or square edge, and would outlast the surroundings if bedded correctly. They even did a faux concrete grey colour for modernistic shopping centres.
Best of all you could buy seconds - chipped on one side only so one useable face still available. Less than half price.
That was in 1988...
Most blocks are concrete - bland colours, cheap to make, ubiquitous.
Clay blocks are just as nice as clay bricks - wirecuts at least. Blockleys used to do a range of deep red/brindle shades that were very tough, could be chamfered or square edge, and would outlast the surroundings if bedded correctly. They even did a faux concrete grey colour for modernistic shopping centres.
Best of all you could buy seconds - chipped on one side only so one useable face still available. Less than half price.
That was in 1988...
8-P said:
Mark Benson said:
Hi Andy,
But block paving looks so...... Suburban. :-)
In truth, I just don't like block paving.
We wanted something 'fit and forget' and therefore don't mind paying a bit more if it truly will be that. But if it needs doing every 5 years or isn't hard wearing enough then we'll just re-lay tarmac.
Fair enough, I bookmarked a brand that looks far more countryside actually and now I cant find it! Im the same, if a resin jobby is fit and forget then Im game, actually Im getting a quote next week for block paving, I may get someone round to quote resin out of interest on cost. My neighbour has patterned concrete, it looks ok but Im not going that way.But block paving looks so...... Suburban. :-)
In truth, I just don't like block paving.
We wanted something 'fit and forget' and therefore don't mind paying a bit more if it truly will be that. But if it needs doing every 5 years or isn't hard wearing enough then we'll just re-lay tarmac.
KK.
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