Driveways in Cadnam and Bartley
Gravel drives, block paving, resin bound surfaces and patios across Cadnam, Bartley and the Forest edge. We build the base properly and put the price in writing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Nearly every drive that fails around Cadnam and Bartley fails from underneath. The shingle or the tarmac gets the blame, but the sub-base below it was too thin for the ground, so the honest answer is usually a rebuild of the part you never see, not a fresh surface over the same tired formation.
Around Cadnam and Bartley the faults are thinning gravel, cracked old tarmac and slippery patios. The gravel has thinned to bare mud and rutting where the cars swing in. An old tarmac drive is cracking at the edges, sprouting weeds down the middle and shedding stone onto the verge. Or a patio has gone slippery, sits in standing water for two days after rain and nobody wants to walk on it.
We come out, look at the levels and the falls, and dig a small trial hole so we can tell you what depth of base is actually under there. If it is sound and only the surface has gone, we will say so and price the cheaper job. If it was never built properly, you get told that too, with photographs, before anybody quotes you for a surface that will move again in three winters.
The work
Drives, verges and long approaches around the Forest edge
Gravel and hoggin drives. Most of the long approaches off the lanes in Cadnam and Bartley are loose surfaces, and they only stay put on a dug formation at the proper depth, a compacted sub-base of crushed stone, and a geotextile membrane between the two so the stone does not gradually sink into soft ground.
Then edge restraint down both sides, haunched in concrete, or the gravel migrates into the border and out onto the verge. We finish the road end with a bound margin or a bar of block paving so loose stone stops at your boundary and does not end up where the ponies graze.
Where the tarmac or concrete underneath is still flat and unbroken, resin bound stone goes straight over it and saves the dig. It is not a cure for a moving base: if the slab beneath has cracked, resin will crack in the same line within a year, so we test it before we offer it. Drainage in Cadnam and Bartley is impeded, so a soakaway gets a percolation test first and may have to be a positive outfall instead.
Behind the bungalows. Bungalows are common here, and a lot of the rear gardens still have the original concrete flags, gone green and rocking on blobs of mortar. Natural stone or porcelain on a full mortar bed stays flat, with the level clear of the damp proof course and the fall running away from the threshold; on a slope that means a step or two and a low retaining course. For that side of things, see patios in Cadnam and Bartley. Spoil goes out by machine and grab lorry where there is room for one, by barrow and skip where there is not, and disposal is on the quote either way.
How it runs
Laying a drive on clay ground, from survey to handover
Thomas comes out and walks the drive with you, from your front door to where it meets the lane. He looks at the way the ground falls, where rainwater goes now, what is under the surface where an edge can be lifted, and how a digger and the muck away lorry will get in.
Most homes in Cadnam and Bartley sit well back on wide plots, often behind gravel, so access is easier than in town, though a soft verge or a tree at the entrance has to be worked round. The quote is written with separate figures for digging out, muck away, sub-base, edging, the surface, drainage and any new crossing.
The drive is dug, laid and finished under one written quote. The lane is kept clear, the entrance is swept every day and spoil goes off site with us. Should the dig find a soft spot, an old drain or tree roots, we photograph it and agree a price with you before digging on.
Paving a front garden is normally permitted development where the surface is permeable or the water runs off to a lawn or border; the five square metre threshold is what catches people out. A new or widened crossing over the verge needs a dropped kerb approved by Hampshire County Council as highway authority. Planning is the New Forest National Park Authority's, and because Bartley is in a conservation area a new frontage there is worth checking on the Authority's map first.
Cost
Why the ground costs more than the surface
In Cadnam and Bartley the clay under a drive decides more of the price than the surface on top, which is why there is no square metre rate.
The clay. The ground in Cadnam and Bartley is cohesive clay that shrinks when it dries, swells when it is wet, and drains badly. A soakaway often will not pass a percolation test, so the water off a new drive needs somewhere else to go: a permeable build-up over a deeper sub-base, a channel drain to a proper outfall, or a fall onto a lawn. That sets the depth of the dig, and the dig is where the cost is.
The frontage and the way in. A modern detached house with a wide frontage takes a digger straight in. A bungalow with a long side access means more metres of edging. A cottage where the only way in is a narrow gate means hand digging and barrowing.
The surface. Resin-bound, block paving, tarmac and gravel over a grid all need different bases, and some are permeable by design.
Trees. Roots near the entrance may have to be bridged, not cut, which changes the build-up.
Put it to any other quote: how deep will they dig and with what sub-base, where will the surface water end up, and who carts the spoil away?
If it is urgent
A lifted block, a sinking patch or water running at the house
A drive is seldom an emergency, but a few faults should not be left. A lifted block or a sunk patch by the front door will trip somebody. Water running off the drive towards the house, or ponding against the wall, soaks the footing, and on shrinking clay that is how cracks start.
Gravel spilling onto the lane is a hazard for passing traffic. Ring rather than using the form. On the first visit we make the trip safe, clear the gully or channel if that is the cause, and find out why it happened before pricing a repair. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If it cannot wait, phone, and if we miss you we call back as soon as we can.
The one local thing
Working inside the National Park, and up against open Forest
The Park bears on a drive here at the boundary and in how it looks. The first is what happens at your boundary. Where a frontage runs out onto unfenced verge with no kerb, you cannot simply build the parking area out to where the cars already stand.
That ground is not yours, and a loose surface that spreads onto it is a nuisance as well as a slow loss of your own material. The fix is unglamorous and cheap: a proper edge restraint set true, and a bound entry strip so the shingle stops. We would rather build that in on day one than come back and rescue it.
The second is appearance. Anything that can be seen from the lane gets more scrutiny in Cadnam and Bartley than it would on an estate, and that pushes people towards gravel, hoggin and muted stone rather than bright block paving. That is a design choice, not a legal one, and it is worth separating the two.
If your house is listed, or you want a new access rather than a resurfaced one, check it properly first with the interactive property map before you commit to a material. Ten listed entries sit in and around these two villages, and where one of them is involved you may need consent for work that would be routine two miles down the road.
Who you are dealing with
The firm laying your drive
We work out of Boscombe in Bournemouth, 17.5 miles away, and cover the villages along this side of the Forest through SO40. Planning is the New Forest National Park Authority, and a crossing over the verge is a matter for Hampshire County Council.
You would be dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, which is registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen owns the business and comes out to walk the drive and price it himself. A verified Checkatrade customer marked us 10 out of 10. There is no charge for the visit, or for the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Cadnam and Bartley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Cadnam and Bartley?
Most repairs in Cadnam and Bartley 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 Cadnam and Bartley |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Cadnam and Bartley. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Forest North East Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Cadnam and Bartley. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about driveways in Cadnam and Bartley
Cadnam sits just outside the conservation area. Does that free things up?
On appearance it largely does. Bartley falls within the Forest North East conservation area and Cadnam village lies just outside it; there are also ten listed entries across Cadnam and Bartley, and the New Forest National Park Authority is the planning body throughout, so anything prominent gets looked at on design grounds.
For an ordinary house set back from the road outside the conservation area, the surface is your decision. What actually governs the job here is the ground and where the water is sent.
Puddles stand on the drive for days. Is that the ground?
Almost certainly: Cadnam and Bartley sit on impeded drainage, so rain landing on a sealed surface has nowhere quick to go and any low spot holds it. The cure is a fall that genuinely moves water, which means setting levels rather than following the old surface, and a discharge point that performs in February. Where infiltration will not do it, run off gets piped to an outfall instead of a soakaway.
Most houses here are detached. Does that make access easier?
Usually: detached houses are common around Cadnam and Bartley, so there is more often a side route wide enough for a small tracked machine and a barrow run to the back garden. That matters because everything dug out has to come forward and everything laid has to go back. Where the gap is tight we use a narrower machine and board the route, and the handling shows on the quote.
Should a new terrace sit lower than the back door?
Below the door, and falling away from it. This ground has a significant shrink and swell rating, so repeatedly dumping rainwater beside a footing is a structural matter as well as a damp one. Keeping the paving down, running the fall out into the garden, and giving the wall a drainage channel where the level cannot drop keeps water moving away from the building instead of soaking in at its base.
The house dates from about 1970. Is the original base sound?
Rarely, by now: a good share of homes in Cadnam and Bartley went up after the war, many in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and a drive of that vintage was typically laid on very little stone. The surface can look merely tired while the real problem is a thin base that has bedded into soft ground. That is why a hole gets dug in the existing drive before choosing between a relay and a rebuild.
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