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I currently have a gravel driveway that I'm looking to change and wanted to ask in case anyone on here has experience of what I'm looking at. We live a little out in the sticks, midway down a big hill. With the gravel driveway and the wet weather, even though the base is concrete, the driveway ends up muddy. It probably doesn't help that our driveway is partially sloped, so basically muddy water will come in, wash away some of the gravel and mix in some dirt with the remaining gravel. I have reasonable drainage via an aco drain which I'm also going to bolster.
I'm looking at one of those driveways where you have gravel set into resin. Does anyone have any experience of these? My concern with them is how durable they are. To get into the driveway, I have to basically do a 3 point turn, which involves turning the wheels when stationary. That currently churns the gravel quite a bit. Therefore I'm concerned if doing this will churn up the gravel and rip it out of the resin over time. Maybe that concern goes away a bit if a 15 odd year guarantee is provided.
Block paving and coloured asphalt are other options, but we would prefer the gravel set in resin if it's decent. Does anyone please know if the gravel set in resin is any good? I'm based in the South East if anyone has any recommendations.
Cheers
It's been a while since I was involved but there are two types of resin drives - one where resin is spread over the base then the aggregate is added on top, and the other where resin and aggregate are mixed together then spread onto the drive. The first is cheaper but probably less suited to turning vehicles. In either case there is a huge choice of aggregates and they tend to be grouped from eg light pedestrian traffic to turning heavy vehicles. A decent product supplier and contractor should suggest what you will need. Sure Set were one of the market leaders but tend to be more costly though as usual the durability of the finished drive will largely depend on all of the prep work rather than the final couple of mm of resin.
It must be 15 years since I was last involved and when I drive past that clients (ex) house the drive still looks good. Their neighbour liked the look of their drive so went with the cheapest quote they could find - their contractors barely put any sort of base down and it was falling apart within 6 months. They ended up digging out the whole thing and starting from scratch to lay tarmac.
What state is the underlying concrete in?
Somewhere prone to having mud washed / driven in then concrete would be my first choice. Stands up to jet washing better than tarmac.
Block paving likely to collect mud in the joints, then the weeds and moss become a perpetual problem.
Thanks for the replies,
The underlying concrete looks ok from what I can tell, but it's not an option to just go with concrete.
I've just taken a look at the Sure Set site - they do seem to offer a 21 year guarantee, which sounds decent.
Part of the reason for the question is that I'd also caught wind that it can look ropey over time. I suppose the question is, does it all end up looking bad eventually, or is that just the projects where they didn't do proper ground works? Is there anyone here who's got one and has had it for a number of years?
Ot had resin, but have had gravel, monoblock, and tarmac over the years. Tarmac with a cross driveway low point drain is by far the best. Over 20 years old now and still looks good. Monoblock needed far more maintenance and looked rubbish after 2 years. Gravel ... Well... immediately a mess?!
Excellent timing on this as I have a very similar question, slightly different setting. Our driveway is about 12m x 12m, flattish, and small chipped gravel (10mm?) over earth. The small gravel is a real pain - it gets picked up in the car tyres and shunted around by turning, weeds grow through and clearing leaves means picking up a bunch of gravel too. So I'm wanting something better.
Options would seem to be resin/ gravel, but it sounds like I'd need to do some proper prep of the surface beforehand, to ensure it's properly level and flattened. What's the recommended approach? And does it need a membrane underneath for weed prevention etc?
Otherwise I'd been thinking of raking out the gravel, laying a thick membrane, putting back the existing gravel, and then getting a truckload of larger gravel (20mm I guess) on top, as a 'simpler' option.
Any thoughts/ experiences/ recommendations?
Tarmac - long term it's the best solution in my view.
We have a 30m driveway with a large (400sqm) parking area at the top. When we moved in it was all gravel with the usual weeds, mud and a couple of irreparable pot holes. At the top of the drive you turn right 90 degrees and this always pushed the gravel to one side leaving the base.
I looked at resin bonded (and bound) finishes but wasn't convinced with its longevity. In the end I went with normal tarmac and 18 years later it still looks like new.
Because it's a big area the company I used where able to use their big road laying machinery* to lay the tarmac which is incredibly accurate and allowed them to contour it so that rainwater flowed where we wanted it to go .
You can add coloured chips if you want to add some variation.
* They're a very large company that had just set up a domestic side hustle - their normal job is resurfacing roads!
My neighbour had a very fancy resin driveway put in a couple of years ago. Not to my taste but it certainly looks very sharp and precise. It’s ability to sook up water is very impressive but as you say you get muddy water running onto your drive I’d assume that type of surface would immediately become loaded with organic matter leading to weeds growing and ruining it.
if it’s as bad as it sounds, I’d say you need to solve the surface water issue before you do anything to the driveway
My folks had a printed concrete drive done years ago, it's still there now. I reckon it's been down about 30 years! I remember that it got treated every so often. No idea on costs I'm afraid, I was a teenager when it was done lol
Rainwater drainage is more of a consideration now; I think the local regs are about not putting water into the storm drain system, so it has to be permeable, rather than just funneling water to a drain in one corner
Some useful info on resin bound here https://www.pavingexpert.com/resin-surfacing-and-paving
Info on drainage and the law here: https://www.pavingexpert.com/faq_pavingfrontgardens
If you choose pattern imprinted concrete, I'd recomend getting this first https://www.concretebookshop.com/cs154-imprinted-concrete--model-installation-clauses-and-guidance-notes-pdf-4202-p.asp
My folks had a printed concrete drive done years ago, it’s still there now. I reckon it’s been down about 30 years! I remember that it got treated every so often. No idea on costs I’m afraid, I was a teenager when it was done lol
My grandparents had printed concrete done 30+ years ago as well.
It's concrete so it's durable.
There's no gaps between the bricks / blocks to weed
It still looks good after 3 decades
If I had to do ours that would be a difficult option to rule out.
I'm guessing the spray is / was patio cleaner (hypochlorite?) and / or / then patio sealer to kill off any algae and prevent it coming back every so often.
Otherwise I’d been thinking of raking out the gravel, laying a thick membrane, putting back the existing gravel, and then getting a truckload of larger gravel (20mm I guess) on top, as a ‘simpler’ option.
A Ton bag of gravel went a long way to making our scabby driveway look presentable again.
The only problem is that the previous "mud bound gravel" was easy to ride on, The now deep gravel trashes my nice roadie disco slippers every time I have to walk down it to the road!
For 35+ years my parents have had a tarmac drive. It was redone once in that time, adding a mono block brick edge. Apart from clearing off the leaves in autumn I think it's pretty much maintenance free.
How about using gravel grids so you can still keep gravel? At least the gravel won’t get washed away then.
Printed concrete is a new one for me, I’ve not heard of it before so will take a look. Presumably it’s as durable as tarmac
Those gravel grids aren’t an option unfortunately. As soon as mud gets in there you basically can’t get it out without chucking the gravel away. We have it in a smaller section of the drive.