Driveways in Branksome
Front gardens into parking, cracked concrete replaced and sunken block paving relaid, with the water kept off the road.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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A new driveway in Branksome is usually a front garden turned into parking, or a tired concrete or tarmac drive replaced. We dig out to a proper depth, lay and compact a sub-base, fit edge restraints, and finish in block paving, resin or tarmac, with the surface water dealt with on your own ground.
Driveway problems in Branksome start with busy roads, old concrete and tired block paving. A house with a small front garden and nowhere to park on a busy road, wanting the garden turned into a drive. A concrete drive laid decades ago that has cracked across and sunk where the car sits. Or block paving that has sunk into ruts, sprouted weeds in every joint and holds a puddle outside the front door after rain.
We come out, look at the ground, the fall, where the water goes now and how a lorry or grab would reach the front. You get an itemised written quote with the dig, the base, the edgings, the surface and the drainage on separate lines. For the back garden, patios in Branksome has its own page.
The work
Front gardens, old concrete and sunken blocks
Front gardens into parking. Many of the older houses were built long before anyone had a car, with a low wall, a gate and a small garden.
Turning that into a drive means taking the wall out, digging out the topsoil and roots to formation level, laying a geotextile membrane on soft ground, then a compacted sub-base in layers to the right depth for a car. The surface goes on last. Whether you need a dropped kerb, and whether you need planning, depends on the road, which is the one local thing further down.
Block paving. Concrete blocks laid on a sand bed over the sub-base, locked by a haunched kerb or edge restraint and filled with kiln dried sand. Permeable block paving has wider joints filled with grit so rain soaks through the whole surface, and on a small front garden it is often the simplest way to meet the rules on run off. It takes a week or so on a typical front drive, more where the old concrete has to be broken out.
Resin bound surfaces. Resin and aggregate trowelled onto a porous base. It looks tidy on a small Branksome frontage, drains through, and has no joints for weeds. It must go onto a sound base: laid over old cracked concrete, the cracks come straight back through.
Tarmac and concrete. Tarmac is quick, good value on a long run and easy to patch. A concrete drive is hard wearing but cracks if the base is thin, which is why so many old ones have. Either way the water has to fall to a channel drain and a gully, a soakaway, or a border that takes it.
Repairs and re-laying. Sunken or rutted areas in block paving can be lifted, the base built back up and compacted, and the blocks relaid and re-sanded. We only recommend starting again when the whole base has failed, and we will tell you which it is after digging a test hole rather than before.
Getting the spoil out. A front drive produces a lot of muck away. On a wide frontage it goes in a skip or a grab lorry; on a narrow one by barrow to a lorry on the road. The quote shows which, because it changes the cost more than the surface you choose.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
One person to ring from the first visit to the last. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: excavation, muck away, the sub base, edgings, the surface itself and the drainage on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Paving more than five square metres of a front garden needs planning permission unless the surface is permeable or drains onto the garden, as the Planning Portal guidance on paving your front garden explains. A new crossover over the pavement is a separate consent from the highway authority, which for Branksome is BCP Council; see the Planning Portal guidance on dropped kerbs. Around Brunstead Road, which is a conservation area (see the council's list), taking out a front wall may need consent too.
Cost
What decides the price of a driveway
No rate per square metre, because what is under it decides more of the cost than what goes on top.
Getting to it. A Branksome terrace frontage straight onto the pavement, an Edwardian house with a long front garden and a wall to come out, and a semi with a side drive and room for a grab lorry differ a great deal before the first block is laid. Everything arrives and everything leaves by the same route. A drive you can back a lorry onto is cheaper to build than one where every barrow goes through a side gate.
The sub base. The part you never see is the part that decides whether the surface is still flat in ten years. Ground conditions, how deep it has to be dug and how much muck goes away are the real variables.
Water, and where it is allowed to go. Surface water has to be dealt with on the property rather than run into the road, which means a permeable surface or somewhere for it to soak away. That is a design decision with a cost, not an afterthought.
Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the dig is and what sub base is going in, where the surface water is going, whether the edgings are haunched, and who takes the spoil away.
If it is urgent
A trip hazard, or a drive that floods
Ring rather than use the form. A lifted slab, a sunken bay by a doorway or a gully that has stopped taking water are the ones that will not wait, because somebody falls or water ends up against the house.
The first visit is about making it safe and getting the water going somewhere, and we quote the permanent work once the ground can be opened up. If a sunken area by the front door is holding water against the wall, keep the gully clear and tell us when you ring, because that part gets looked at first. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.
The one local thing
Parking off Poole Road and the other main roads
Poole Road, the A35, runs straight through Branksome, and plenty of houses and flats front onto it or onto the other busy routes. That brings planning and the highway authority into a driveway. First, a new vehicle access onto a classified road like the A35 needs planning permission in its own right, over and above the dropped kerb.
Second, the highway authority will look harder at visibility and where a car pulls out across the pavement and bus stops, and some frontages will not be approved at all.
So on a main road through Branksome we do things in a particular order. Before you spend anything on a design, check with BCP Council whether a crossover there is possible, and put in the planning application where it is needed. We can give you a plan and a description of the work to go with it. Only once the access is agreed do we book the dig. On a quiet side street the same job is usually just the dropped kerb application, which is far simpler. Either way, do not take the wall down first: without the crossover you are not allowed to drive over the kerb, however good the new drive looks.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We lay driveways across Branksome, BH12, from Poole Road and the station up to Alder Road and the streets towards the Bourne Valley, and next door in Parkstone and Westbourne. Planning and highways are both BCP Council.
You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free. Before you book a visit in Branksome, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Branksome?
Most repairs in Branksome 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.
| Question | In Branksome |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Branksome. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Brunstead Road Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Branksome. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Branksome. |
Questions
Questions about driveways in Branksome
Can I just pave my front garden and park on it?
Only with a dropped kerb, which needs the council's approval. The paving itself also needs planning if it is over five square metres and not permeable or draining to the garden.
Block paving or resin for a small front garden?
Both work: permeable block paving is easy to repair a bit at a time. Resin looks seamless and has no joints for weeds, but it needs a sound base and cannot go over old cracked concrete.
How long does a new driveway take?
A typical front drive is about a week, longer if old concrete has to be broken out or the ground is soft. The written quote includes the programme.
Where does the rainwater go?
Into the drive itself if it is permeable, or to a channel drain, a soakaway or a border. It is not allowed to run off into the road.
Nearby, and next door
Driveways near Branksome
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Get your driveway priced properly
Thomas comes out, checks the ground, the fall and the access, and prices it in writing. The visit and the quote are free.