The dropped kerb is a separate job
Crossing the footpath is an application to Barnsley Council and it sits with them, not with us. If your plans depend on widening the access, start that early rather than once the drive is booked in.
Driveways
Drives that take the weight
Block paving and resin bound surfacing across Barnsley, with the excavation, edge restraint and drainage that decide whether a drive holds its shape once a car is parked on it every day.
Block or resin
Two good answers, and they suit different houses
People usually arrive having already half decided, and about a third of the time they change their mind once the trade-offs are laid out. Neither is the premium option and neither is the cheap one — the cost sits in the ground, and that part is the same either way.
- Block can be lifted and reset, suits borders and patterns, wants an occasional weed and re-sand.
- Resin is seamless and quick to sweep, drains through, and cannot be patched invisibly if it is ever cut.
- Both need a compacted base and a restrained edge, and both fail the same way without one.
Block Paving
Block paved driveways
Laid unit by unit, which is the whole point of it. A block drive can be lifted and reset where a service trench goes through or an oil spill ruins a patch, and it gives you borders, soldier courses and colour changes to define where the parking stops and the path starts. Charcoal with a light border still does the most work on a red brick house.
- Herringbone laid at 45 or 90 degrees for traffic areas
- Soldier course border and contrasting edge detail
- Edge restraint haunched in concrete on every open side
- Kiln-dried sand vibrated in over two passes
- Levels tied into the threshold, the garage and the footpath
Resin
Resin bound driveways
A poured surface, mixed on site and trowelled out, so it comes out seamless with no joints for weeds to find. It is quick to sweep, it does not need re-sanding, and laid at the right depth over the right base it drains straight through instead of running to the kerb. The base is not optional with resin, and anyone quoting to pour it straight onto old tarmac without checking is quoting for a problem.
- Laid over a permeable or a sound existing base, checked first
- Seamless finish with no joints and nothing to re-sand
- Gravel colour chosen against the brick rather than from a chart
- Block or sett borders where you want the edge defined
- Drainage channel across thresholds and garage doors
Drainage
Edges, thresholds and drainage
Front gardens are where water goes wrong most often, because the fall usually runs at the house rather than away from it. Channel drains across doors and garages, kerb lines that hold the surface in, and permeable build-ups where the ground will not take any more. Unglamorous, and the reason a drive still looks right in year five.
- Channel drainage across doorways and garage entrances
- Kerb and block edge restraint laid before the surface goes down
- Permeable build-ups where run-off has nowhere else to go
- Existing gullies and covers raised or reset to the finished level
- Old tarmac and concrete broken out and taken away
Front and back together
Doing the drive and the garden in one hit is cheaper than doing them in two.
Same excavator, same grab wagon, same set-up costs. If both are on the list, get them priced together and see the difference before you decide to split them across two years.
Worth knowing
Two things that catch people out
Surfacing over a bad base is money burnt
New surface on a tired foundation moves exactly as much as the old one did, only now it has your money on top of it. We say so at the quote stage if that is what the ground is telling us.
Where we work
Barnsley town and the villages round it
BarnsleyPenistoneWombwellHoylandDartonDodworthCudworthRoystonDarfieldElsecarWorsbroughSilkstoneMapplewellMonk BrettonStairfootGrimethorpeGoldthorpeThurnscoeAthersleyKendrayBirdwellJumpGreat HoughtonHigham
Just outside the list? Ring 01226 652041 and we will tell you straight away whether it is one for us.
Free quote
Price up your driveway
Send the form or ring. Someone comes out, walks the plot with you, checks the levels and the access, then you get a written price with the groundwork and the finish costed separately. Nothing to pay for the visit and nobody chasing you afterwards.
- Emailinfo@greenforgelandscapers.co.uk
- Based inBarnsley, South Yorkshire
- CoveringBarnsley and the surrounding villages
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