Herringbone driveways, paths and parking areas in concrete block or clay paver, with contrast borders, circle features and edge courses haunched in concrete. Nearly every block drive that sinks, spreads or grows weeds through the joints failed underneath, not on top, so the sub base and the edge restraint are where the work goes.
A drive taking cars needs excavating properly and the arisings carting away, not levelling into the garden. Depth depends on the ground and what is parking on it, and around Salisbury that ranges from firm chalk to soft clay. We dig to what is there, not to a number picked in advance.
Compacted MOT type 1 laid and whacked in layers rather than one deep lift, with geotextile membrane over soft ground. This is the part of your driveway you will never see and the only part that decides whether it is still flat in ten years.
Every block drive spreads sideways under traffic unless the perimeter is restrained. Edge courses and kerbs get bedded and haunched in concrete on both sides so the field of paving has something solid to push against. Skip this and the joints open within two summers.
Blocks cut in properly at the edges rather than filled with slivers, laid to a fall that takes water to a channel drain or a permeable margin, then kiln dried sand brushed in and vibrated home. Weed inhibiting or polymeric jointing sand where you want less maintenance.
A typical two car drive is around four to seven working days from digging out to jointing, depending on size, access and how much muck has to be carted away. Wet weather affects digging and concreting more than laying, and the written estimate gives you a realistic run of days.
For most homes, no, provided the surface is permeable or the water is directed to a lawn or border rather than straight into the road drain. Block paving with a permeable margin or a channel drain to a soakaway satisfies that. Front gardens in the Salisbury conservation area and the AONB villages can have extra conditions, and we will flag it if we think yours does.
Far less than people expect if it is built right. Membrane under the sub base, tight joints and polymeric or weed inhibiting sand deals with the vast majority. What you cannot stop entirely is seed blowing in and germinating in the joint sand itself, which is a brush and an occasional treatment rather than a fault.
Often yes, if the block is still in production or close enough that a deliberate contrast border ties it together. Where a match is not realistic we will say so and suggest a design that makes the change look intentional instead of accidental.
Yes. Breaking out and carting away old concrete, tarmac or a failed drive is normal work and it is priced in the written estimate rather than sprung on you on day one.
Based at New Street in Salisbury and working up to 100 miles out across Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset and Berkshire, so a look at your job is rarely more than a couple of days away.
Send a photo or two through WhatsApp, or ring us, and we will come out and give you a free written estimate.