Drivewaytrackworld- singletrack knows everything and I know nothing, what to do?

I would look into the dropped kerb as the existing one looks like a pedestrian one not a car one and I don’t think you can put a car one at a junction (a quick google suggest 10m from junction) and might be the reason the house doesn’t have a drive already.

Check where the utilities run. I notice gas/electric meter boxes on the front but no porches. Do they run across the front of the houses? Are there external waste stacks on the back suggesting similar? You are on the end where these may merge, but hopefully in the road.

Line search before u dig may help answer some of that but is not always exact.

Concrete will want to be relatively thick for jacking or more if a lift is in the future. At least access is good for a concrete lorry.

Gravel out front makes sense, grids will help contain it.

I'm no builder, just a few agri buildings and forest roads.

The obvious solution is the bare minimum to do the job.

I'd agree on concrete slabs. You can get smaller, thinner slabs that will do the job for a car, the important thing is the base which will ideally be solid rather than mortar dabs.

This will trigger planning permission (PP) for more than 5sq metres so I'd be tempted to go down the route of parallel lines with permeable ground between. PP puts you on the radar for other objections and problems

Wet-cast decorative slabs tend to be a bit weaker than a hydraulic-pressed slab. Get down to the builder's merchant and see what they have

Is that a msnhole cover in the way?
If so you'll need to replace it for one rated for vehicular traffic otherwise it could collapse.
I would have thought you'd need planning permission for what you're envisioning (most definitely for the future garage.)

Beware directing rainwater runoff onto the road.Unless you send it onto a permeable surface you are in the realms of planning permission, as you would if you install a non-permeable driveway. Gravel as suggested above should avoid planning (I think), but then you have to be wary of oil spills into your permeable surface…

Is that a road after the fence at the front of the house?

Have a look at https://www.pavingexpert.com/    As has been said above, you will need to consider rainwater runoff and planning permission.

Membrane and geo grids for your gravel

Concrete doable with a mixer but would recommend getting a mate in to help. looks like youd need to build the near side up a fair bit to get it level with the path. Get the concrete to fall onto the gravel for drainage.

The only advice I can give about the gravel bit of the drive is don't put membrane under it. The gravel will move about with the action of cars driving on it, and eventually it comes to the surface. A good whackered base of limestone MOT is fine, just pull little weeds as you see them. And a decent length threshold stops too much of it migrating out onto the road. 

Your solicitor checked that there are no covenants about what you can do at the front/side of the house? 

Welcome to the joyous world of moneypit ownership!

OK thanks folks, this is awesome, really helps me sort out my own thoughs too which is almost as important. First some specific answers to people's questions.

@sharkbait, yes that's the road to the front. The tarmac to the side is access only to some council garages out behind but I expect it's legally a "road". The manhole cover is outside of the area I'm messing with.

@timber thanks in particular for LSBUD, that's an awesome link, I'd never come across it. Usually with these houses all the utilities stuff goes straight forwards (I'm in a very similar rental just round the corner) but of course you never know.

@timba I was wondering about thinner slabs, they should be on a good base. But tbh price might just push me to 50mm anyway, they're so cost effective. I guess part of me would like a prettier slab, but flat and featureless is so practical,and it's in keeping with the street too, it's a council slab sort of area 🙂 Conveniently there's a Beatson's about 100 metres away.

@jca, parallel line won't do the job unfortunately, like right now i'm putting a new gearbox in my car and you've got to be able to roll stuff around in the middle, same with engines, plus lying on gravel is misery and cleanup is a drag. It'd be much easier though! I'd quite like to do parallel line out the front in the "parking only" area but tbh pure gravel is simpler.

@natrix, yep pavingexpert has become my bible 🙂

MEMBRANES

OK so membranes under gravel! This I am very interested in, because my current place has a shit membrane job that's just a pain in the arse and does nothing good. And I've had the "gravel moves, wheel catches on membrane and wrecks everything, and then the membrane gets in the way when you try and fix it" thing before too. In fairness this is becasue it was done badly, but, I'll avoid it if I can. But should I? Opinions vary. Since I'll probably be doing a type 1 base for the slabs it's no hardship to do the same for the gravel, just a little higher.

I absolutely hate the look of gravel grids tbh. I'm tempted to just avoid them- it should end up fairly flat, and I actually quite like raking gravel around, it's very zen and makes a lovely noise. (my current drive/front garden is all loose lanark red 20mm, and way too slopey for it, so it all constantly migrates to the bottom and then I throw it all back to the front)

PLANNING AND SUCH

Re planning permission etc, there's no covenants, heritage constraints or similiar, it's a very boring street. The house doesn't have a drive as the same people have lived in since it was built, and never owned a car, apparently. It's ridiculously original in parts, right down to the internal coal store screwing up the living room. Which is why it needs some work, but also kinda why I can afford it- it's not neglected, it's just absolutely "someone lived here for 60 years and didn't change anything unless it broke" Luckily that didn't exctend to heating and windows.

Most houses in the street have had drives added, the one directly alongside uses the pedestrian dropped kerb as a driveway entrance in the same way I plan to. I think using the pedestrian dropped kerb falls into not mattering much whether it's proper, as long as it works fine and doesn't bother anyone. I don't know if the lane would prevent a dropped kerb, ie if it counts as a road junction, but I reckon I can just avoid the question.

I'm <pretty> sure it falls within permitted development, as long as I don't just drain directly to the road. Which in hindsight I basically said was the plan in my last post, but that was wrong, at least with slabs. In practice the shape is a wee bit irregular and there's fenceposts down the edge that I don't want to mess with for now (might have to knock some concrete off the footings) so if I go with slabs having a little gravel margin is the easy answer anyway, and should also cover the drainage/runoff question and keep it within permitted development ? I could have the whole thing fall "forwards" and drain to the front of the house and the gravel drive, but that's definitely harder.

I think this all basically adds up to "definitely slab it, don't pour it". Which in turn pushes me towards diy'ing it. If only because I get to drive a little digger.

NEW PLAN

So that leaves me with something like... Dig out the entire stretch front to back, a little deeper under the slabs, put down a load of type 1 and wacker plate it (suddenly it's a glentress trailbuilding job! This we can do!). Then slabs on mortar, with a little bit of gravel margin at the side. And at the front, have the type 1 base a little higher and probably just go straight over that with gravel. MAYBE with a membrane and MAYBE with gravel grids but I lean towards neither. There's already concrete edgings around the front and side to contain the gravel, I guess I'd add the same on the "inside" to stop it migrating into the grass forever.

I've got a shed base to do too so I can warm up on that! That, I am definitely going to halfass.

Sounds like a plan! 

You boiler flue might need a spot of looking at if car port or garage type thing going up?

How far does that 'lane 'go? looks like an easy route in and away for scrotes nicking stuff? so upping security needs. We had some quotes last year averaging at  £ 100 m2 for block paving, how much cross fall towards the lane would be too much for engine/ car hoist. I would have gone for a low ret wall on fence line to bring drive level with existing level at house and  a drainage solution to gravel patch at front. have fun 

Yeah, the location of that boiler outlet isn't ideal. TBH it's in a crap place internally too, takes out way more useful space than it has to, very low thought install, these houses have an absolutely perfect upstairs location where anyone with any sense would put a boiler. But for now it's all fine, not really sure what the future options will be but I'll cross that bridge later. With infinite money I'd relocate it and totally rebuild the kitchen, take out some interior walls, the layout of the house is really pretty stupid.

The lane is a slight worry from that point of view, it goes right down the side and round the back, it's not well overlooked and it has a path through to make it worse, people have a perfect excuse to cut through it so it's not like "anyone in here at 2am is a thief". There's a monstrous, horrible leylandi "hedge" that you can see starting in the picture, it goes right round the back and closes it off pretty well except for the entrance that you can just about see in the pic, I think I'll eventually put up a big ol fence to replace all that and basically close off the back.

But otoh it's a pretty good area in terms of crime, I think it's just rough enough that thieves know they might get murdered if they break into the wrong house or annoy the wrong person, and there's not really enough money for people to travel in from elsewhere and target us. Day to day it's less thiefey than my old place which was in a much nicer posher area, there's like £500 worth of tools just lying out front just now and they'll all still be there when I go back out.

Still, the bikes will be fortified 😉

What's the Lurpak Area for?  Are you making butter?

Dat's da short trouser ork area ya git

Then slabs on mortar,

For a driveway you should really have a concrete base underneath your flags (slabs)

www.pavingexpert.com/flags_driveways01

whatever you do, don't put them on dobs of mortar

https://www.pavingexpert.com/layflag1

as long as I don't just drain directly to the road.

It has to drain to a permeable area, so you can't let it drain towards a drain located near your house (e.g. where your drainpipe goes), see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/permeable-surfacing-of-front-gardens-guidance/guidance-on-the-permeable-surfacing-of-front-gardens

It feels slightly stupid, but there doesn't seem to be much regulation or rules about the permeable area you drain to? Like, my current plan will give me a really narrow one with no engineered soakaway, just a depth of gravel onto subsoil. But that seems to qualify? And tbh, it'll probbaly be absolutely functional...

Haven't done any actual research yet but I'll definitely want to pick up some sort of handling aid for the actual slabs, just to make it less brutal to work on em. It's the awkwardness as much as the weight, actually laying em flat without disturbing the surface you just built can be a bollocks.

Every time I look at driveway options for my house I come away feeling like every option is compromised. They are either rubbish, expensive, lack durability or are prone to weeds / sinking / cracking / fading / staining. So I end up just buying another 1.2 tonne of stones to top up my current rubbish stone arrangement and punt the problem off into the future.  

Yah tbh I'd do that too, but, I own a subaru and if you own a subaru you've also got to have a place you can put an engine crane and take the engine out 🙂

I would dig out anything soft and replace with rubble/MOT c, then gravel grids and a dump truck load of angular gravel. It will be fairly flat and won't move around everywhere. 

For car maintenance, either slab a section or get the outrigger pads that are used by cherry pickers and small cranes so you can chuck it wherever the jack goes. 

I got my drive block paved but it's very steep, would have gone with the above solution if it was level!