I’m currently having a small extension done & already I have been forced to stretch the budget & add to the drive due to it being damaged by the concrete lorry ripping up the lawn, to be fair I was always going to have to do it at some point as parking has become a pain & my kids will no doubt learn to drive in the next few years, so now is a good as time as any!
I’m after advice for a cheap & reasonably eco friendly solutions to my problem, my first thought was hardcore, barrier & then gravel, but the wife’s not keen on gravel so I’m pondering slate, grey seems the current vogue colour but I haven’t seem many drives done that way, also has anyone tried the rubber stuff made from old car tyres? I’m not sure how it would look but it would solve the noisy gravel problem.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Cheers.

I actually like a proper tarmac drive. If you get it done properly, with some nice white stones imbedded, it’s quite nice. Just avoid cheapo types, obviously.

Seen too many really bad monobloc jobs, and not cheap.

On the cycletrack from chester to Mickle trafford where an old railway bridge, crosses the railway, to save weight they used recycled rubber crumble for the path about 30 foot long nad about 20 feet wide, feels realy soft to riede on and not much over spil

When I was gertting my drive done every company Ispoke to warned against using slate because of the damage it does to tyres. Ended up with a large (20mm) gravewl in the end. It’s a great burglar deterent because of the noise it makes and the drainage is now far better than it was before.

One thing – planning laws were changed a couple of years ago and you now need planning permission to put down any ‘hard’ surface such as concrete, block paving, etc, if you’re covering any area that was previously open, such as a lawn or unsurfaced drive. If you have a gravel surface put down this is exempt from planning regs.

Could always try grasscrete – suitable for parking, less visually intrusive than the usual, and qualifies as SUDS (sustainable urban drainage system). Just right for your overspill parking!

I did concrete and gravel on top. it’s been ace. no maintenance at all and nice to hear people coming up to house

I don’t think slate will stand up well to being driven on.
It will crush up into small, surprisingly sharp shards quite quickly.

As stated hardcore lightly tamped, barrier,then gravel of your choice.
A rough edged gravel will eventually pack down hard. A pebble type will stay loose and may need raking back every now and again, as it shifts a bit.
Gravel also avoids the planning for water run off(i think thats what they called it). But this is relative to how much garden you have to soak up rain, compared to roof/hard standing area. I believe.

I graveled my back garden instead of slabs after council advice/restrictions.

Nobeerinthefridge – Bad news for you…white stones in tarmac is a cowboy job! It detracts the eye from rough work and because the stones aren’t coated in tar they will come out. This gives the surrounding tar somewhere to move and the surface will become rough over time especially in high wear areas. Any reputable company or someone that knows what they’re doing would never put uncoated stones in, even if you wanted them.

I’ve just had a resin bound stone driveway laid like this

Mine is almost 55 sq m and was a little over £2k which was only 200 more than a Tarmac job and looks infinitely better IMO.

Edit: that’s actually not a very good example. Have look here

http://www.decorativestonedriveways.co.uk/

This fella did mine (manchester area) and it’s had so many compliments and enquiries as to what it is/how much etc.

Many thanks for the above, it looks like the slate idea is a bad one so gravel seems to be the way forward.
Elmo, do you have any examples of the rough edged gravel of which you speak?

Cheers.

A basic example is 6-10 mm limestone, known to us as pipe bedding. Loads of different colours but you’ll be looking at £80 plus for a bulk bag, about 800 kg. One thing I would mention tho is steer clear of the rubber stuff you mentioned! It’s very dirty, went to a campsite once and they had it in the kids play area, when they came back they all looked like they’d bin down t pit!! Don’t think the mrs would be happy if you paddled that in on a wet day!

If you’re going to use chippings I’d use 20mm as they don’t move around as much. If you’ve got cats in the area they won’t use the bigger stuff as a litter tray either. If there’s any local quarries in your area find out what stone it’s that they quarry. Buying chippings from them wouldn’t be much more than £10 a ton plus £50-£60 delivery. If it’s a big area you’re covering it could work out cheaper that buying from a builders merchants.

Adding to the chipping size, 20mm is also better as it gets caught less in tyre treads as well so you don’t end up gravelling the road outside your house quite so much.

Bad news for you

Not bad news for me, just said I liked it!

Well, thanks again, but just to add to the tarmac story I once heard a someone tell about a certain ethnic minority adding crushed polo’s to a drive to achieve ‘the look’, maybe myth though.

Made me grin anyway

Cheers people.

bregante – that looks really nice. was it entirely new or covering something else? I’ve got a pretty large and ugly concrete drive that really needs sorting and i’m not crazy keen on paying block paving prices.

Aye +1 Petrieboy – what was the formation used for the resin bound?. must have overlaid an existing for £2k??

IMO cheapest would be definitly 20mm clean crushed agrregate. Don’t know what area you’re in – but defintely stick with limestone for a driveway – lot harder and doesn’t break down.