What’s this gravel finish called…

My local park has just had a dressing of new gravel put over the tarmac paths. Looks like they chucked (carefully spread!) a load glue down and they spread a fine gravel over the top.

I’ve got a largish area of concrete that I really don’t want to slab due to the expense. And this sounds like it may be a cheaper alternative. Just don’t know what to google for.

Resin Bonded Gravel

I don’t know but I once saw it in the bottom of an aquarium.

Resin Bonded Gravel

Thanks!

I’m guessing it’s fairly easy to do for a competent DIYer?

Resin Bonded Gravel

What Yak said ….. don’t get it mixed up with resin bound (which is where the gravel is mixed with the resin).

Resin bonded is where they apply the resin to the [concrete] surface and then spread the gravel over the top and it sticks to the resin.  It’s not a long lasting as resin bound [traffic dependent].

It’s still not particularly cheap and apparently can gather fallen leaves, etc which then break down and go black.  Dunno.

I’m guessing it’s fairly easy to do for a competent DIYer?

I wouldn’t!  I would expect the resin mixing and application would require some specialist hardware, but that’s just a guess.  If it starts coming off it would look crap (which is why we didn’t do it)

I wouldn’t! I would expect the resin mixing and application would require some specialist hardware, but that’s just a guess. If it starts coming off it would look crap (which is why we didn’t do it)

I’ve been watching them doing it and it literally looks like they were pouring the resin out of big drums onto the ground spreading it around and then the gravel over the top with a shovel!

And the black leaves thing – if that’s true the local council have just wasted tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds as the park is all trees! 🙂

I’m just saying what I’ve been told!  Give it a go and let us know how it goes.

DIY? Dunno, only seen it applied by contractors. But there are kits for home diyers so it will depend what tools you already have v how much stuff you need to buy versus a contractor price.

pouring the resin out of big drums

Was there not some beefy drill/ helical whisk 2 part resin mixing just before?

Was there not some beefy drill/ helical whisk 2 part resin mixing just before?

May have been! – I was half looking and them and half keeping an eye on the dog to make sure he hadn’t shat on the path! 🙂

I’m looking at 15m2 at most. And it’s a mix of various bits of concrete. It really needs paving, but this may make it look tidier for a couple of years.

You might also want to consider how to remove it in due course.

Do you need to bond the gravel? If the area is flat, can you not just spread a couple of  inches of gravel?

Pebble dash.

What’s this gravel finish called…

Category 3 I would say.

Is it permeable ? That would be the only reason I’d have for gravel.

If I didn’t need permeability I’d be doing something else entirely.

It’s not permeable, but I think the OP is proposing to lay it over concrete anyway.

was half looking and them and half keeping an eye on the dog to make sure he hadn’t shat on the path!

Resin bonded dog shit?

Resin also tends to be quite nasty stuff, well the stuff I use in modelling is.  Were the guys doing it togged up in PPE?

I too have a massive thick horrible looking concrete driveway that needs sorting.

Loose gravel is apparently a no no as it moves on the concrete , so I was looking at either gravel grids or getting it tarmacd.  FiL is have a 4 car sized drive retarmaced, with new borders and linear drains for £4k which I thought wasn’t that bad.

Loose gravel is apparently a no no as it moves on the concrete

The shape of the stones makes a difference IIRC. We’ve got local  round pink 25mm gravel on our drive. It’s flat with a whacked mixed size limestone, (might be termed MOT?) base and flagged threshold, (though I should have made this wider) We still get a bit of migration onto the footpath. I understand if it were a more angular chipping type stone it would pack down better and not move about so much.