Driveways in Ashley Heath

Tarmac at the end of its life. Much of the housing here went up through the seventies and early eighties and a good many drives are still on their original macadam.

It fails predictably: the binder oxidises so the surface goes grey and loose, the edges ravel where nothing restrains them, and the entrance potholes first because that is where every wheel turns. On a sound, well drained base an overlay is honest value. Where the base has broken up or the drive is rutting under the wheel tracks, an overlay just follows the fault down, and we would rather quote the rebuild.

Gravel is the other common surface and the one most often laid badly. Stone migrates towards the road, the crown wears into channels, and weed comes through wherever the membrane has been torn. The fixes are graded: a proper geotextile membrane with a rolled hoggin or sub-base underneath, a haunched edge restraint or kerb to hold the stone, cellular grids on the sloping sections, or resin bound gravel over a bound base where you want the look with none of the sweeping up.

Concrete of this era was poured in bays and the bays crack and lift once a root gets under a corner. Block paving on the newer plots sinks in the wheel tracks and loses its jointing sand, and a lift and relay onto sharp sand with fresh kiln dried sand in the joints is two or three days rather than a rebuild. Where the ground beneath is soft and holds water through the winter, we excavate to formation, lay a membrane and compact a fresh sub-base in layers to the depth the plot actually needs.

Turning space, and the entrance. On plots this size the useful thing is often not more parking but somewhere to turn, so you come out forwards instead of reversing into the road. That changes the area, the muck away and the price, so it is a decision for the survey. The entrance earns its own attention: a channel drain or gully across the threshold stops the drive delivering its water to the highway, which is the thing that freezes first. Round the back, large slabs are unforgiving of a poor base, so they go on a full mortar bed with a fall away from the house. For a back terrace and the steps down to the lawn, see patios in Ashley Heath.

No honest quote for a drive comes from a rate per square metre, because most of the money goes into the ground rather than the surface.

The size of it. Long frontages mean more dig, more sub base and more spoil to take away. On a big drive the muck away line can be larger than the line for the block paving itself.

The ground. Ashley Heath sits on sandy ground that drains, but the lower parts can hold a high water table in winter, so we test before designing a soakaway. Loose sand under the old tarmac still has to be dug out and replaced with a compacted crushed stone sub base, or the new drive ruts where the cars turn. The dig depth follows from that.

The surface you choose. Block paving, resin bound, tarmac and gravel are each laid differently and need different things beneath them. Gravel wanders onto the road unless it sits in a grid with a proper edge.

Getting in. A drive a lorry can back onto is quick. A bungalow set behind a hedge with a narrow gateway means smaller machines and more trips, and a rear garden reached through a side gate is barrow work from start to finish.

Ask any quote for the dig depth, the depth and material of the sub base, how the drainage works and who removes the spoil.

Frontages from Ashley Heath across to St Leonards and Three Legged Cross are within easy reach of our base in Boscombe, 7.1 miles from here, and we work out through BH24 from Bournemouth. For a dropped kerb and for planning, Dorset Council is the authority.

Your contract would be with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. The owner, Thomas Hannen, measures up and prices each drive in person. On Checkatrade, one verified customer scored us 10 out of 10. Nothing is charged for the site visit or for the written, line by line quote. Before you book a visit in Ashley Heath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Ashley Heath need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.