Driveways in Christchurch
Block paving, resin bound, tarmac and gravel drives across Christchurch and BH23. We put the base right first, then price the surface in writing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Bournemouth Roofing & Building lays new driveways and repairs old ones across Christchurch: block paving, resin bound gravel, tarmac and gravel on a grid, with the parking bay built ready for a dropped kerb. Sunken block paving can usually be lifted and relaid on a new base. Thomas Hannen visits free and gives you an itemised written quote.
A new drive usually starts with one of three problems. Block paving laid in the eighties has gone wavy and green and the joints have washed out. A front garden needs turning into somewhere to park, because the street will not take another car. Or an old concrete or tarmac drive has cracked and broken up.
We come out, take levels, check where the water goes now and dig a check hole where the ground is in doubt. If the existing surface can be saved we say so, because relaying good blocks costs less than buying new ones and we would rather you spent the difference on the base.
The work
Block paving relaid, parking bays and new drives
Driveway work in Christchurch comes in four kinds: relaying block paving that has sunk, turning a front garden into a parking bay, putting a new surface on a worn drive, and laying a patio behind the house. Each one is decided under the surface, by the dig, the sub-base and where the water goes.
Sunken and rutted block paving. On a drive from the eighties the blocks are usually fine and the ground under them has settled. Rutting in the wheel tracks, ponding by the door, weeds and a wobbling edge trace back to a shallow base and edgings that were never haunched. We lift the affected bays, correct and re-compact the sub-base, reset the blocks to a proper fall and re-sand the whole drive with kiln dried jointing sand.
Front gardens turned into parking. On the terraced streets near the centre, off-street parking changes daily life more than any other job. It means excavating to formation, a geotextile membrane, Type 1 sub-base compacted in layers, edge restraint down both sides, and a permeable surface or a drain so the run-off stays on your land. In Purewell, BCP's plan for the conservation area names front gardens lost to parking as harm to the street, so there we keep the front wall, match the edging to the street and check with BCP first.
A new surface on a worn drive. Breaking out an old concrete slab is often the biggest single line on a quote, and most of that is disposal. Where a lorry can get in, spoil goes by grab lorry. Otherwise it is a skip and a lot of barrowing. A sound slab can sometimes stay and take a resin bound overlay, so we look at that first.
Patios behind the house. Courtyards behind the older terraces are reached through the house or a side gate. Porcelain or natural stone goes on a full mortar bed, falling away from the house and below the damp proof course, with a step where the garden sits lower than the threshold. See patios in Christchurch.
Surfaces
Which driveway surface suits your house
The right surface for a Christchurch drive depends on how it drains, how it looks from the street and how easy it is to repair. Block paving, resin bound, tarmac and gravel on a grid all last when the base under them is right.
Block paving. Concrete block paviours or clay pavers on a sand laying course. It is the easiest drive to repair, because a sunken bay is lifted and relaid with the same blocks. Tight joints shed most of the rain, so the drive falls to a border or a channel drain.
Resin bound or resin bonded. Resin bound mixes the stone into the resin and trowels it smooth, and it is porous. Resin bonded scatters stone onto a resin coat and is not porous. The names sound alike, so check which one a quote means.
Tarmac. Hard wearing, quick to lay, and usually cheaper than block paving or imprinted concrete. It sheds water, so it needs falls and a drain on your land.
Gravel on a grid. The lightest build-up and free draining. BCP asks for a bound strip at least a metre deep across the entrance to keep stones off the pavement. Imprinted concrete is tough, but a crack runs through the pattern and cannot be hidden, so for most drives we would point you to blocks or resin.
How it runs
A new drive or parking bay, from the first visit to the last joint
A new drive starts with Thomas at the frontage with you, looking at how it falls, where the water goes now, what is under the surface and how a digger and a lorry will reach it. The written quote gives excavation, muck away, sub-base, edgings, drainage and the surface their own lines.
A town terrace may have everything barrowed through a gate. A block of flats with a shared court has to stay usable while the work goes on, and the freeholder signs it off. You have one person to ring throughout. The pavement is swept each day, nothing is left open overnight, and spoil leaves with us. If the dig finds an old drain or soft ground, work stops until you have seen a photo and agreed a price.
If you need a dropped kerb. The dropped kerb is a BCP Council job, and its rules are worth reading before you pay for a drive. A car parked nose to the road needs a space at least 5.5 by 2.6 metres. No kerb is dropped within a metre of a street light, sign or tree, or within 10 metres of a junction or crossing. Planning is usually needed on a classified road, for a flat or listed building, or where the drive does not drain. Check that your deeds allow parking. We lay everything on your side of the boundary, ready for the crossing.
Under the Planning Portal rules for front gardens, new hard surfacing over five square metres needs planning permission unless it is permeable or drains to a lawn or border on your land. Flats and maisonettes have no permitted development right for it at all.
Cost
What sits under a drive decides what it costs
The price of a driveway in Christchurch is set mostly below ground, by the depth of the dig, the spoil to remove and where the water can go. Surface and size matter too, but two drives of the same size can price very differently.
Water. BCP wants surface water kept on your land, so concrete, standard tarmac or tight block paving needs a drain on your property. BCP's appraisal puts the old town on a gravel spur where the Avon and Stour meet, while parts of Purewell, Stanpit and the streets by the Quay sit in flood zones. Check your address on the government flood risk service. We test a soakaway in a trial hole before relying on one, and where it fails, a channel drain runs to a proper outfall.
The dig. An old concrete drive is broken out and taken away, and a soft spot at formation is dug deeper and made up with sub-base. Dig depth and loads of spoil carry much of the cost.
Access and finish. A straight drive off the road, a terrace where everything goes through an alley, and a shared court that must stay in use run differently for the same area. A pattern and a contrasting border take more labour than a plain lay.
Ask of any rival quote: how deep is the dig, what sub-base and how thick, is there a membrane, where does the water go, and who removes the spoil?
If it is urgent
A trip hazard, or water pooling at the door
Drives are seldom emergencies, but some faults will not wait. A lifted block, a bay that has dropped by the front step or a gully silted solid will trip someone or send water back at the house.
On the low ground by the rivers and the harbour, a drive that holds water against the doorstep is worth sorting before winter. When we come out we make any trip safe, clear the channel or gully if that is the problem, and find the cause before we price the repair. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Something urgent? Ring, and if we miss you we call back.
The one local thing
Shared parking courts, and who is allowed to order the work
Getting on for two in five homes in Christchurch are flats, so a lot of the parking here is not a private drive at all. It is a communal court or a row of bays belonging to the block, and the tarmac on it is usually as old as the building.
No single resident owns the surface, so nobody rings anyone, and the potholes and the ponding get worse for another decade. If you are a leaseholder, this is worth knowing. Where the freeholder or managing agent plans major works and each leaseholder's share passes the statutory threshold, they must consult you first under Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
That process lets leaseholders nominate a contractor to quote, so you are not stuck with whoever the agent always uses. We will price a court or a shared drive for a residents' association or an agent, itemised as a homeowner gets it, and phase it so half the bays stay usable while the other half is dug out.
Who you are dealing with
Who is laying your drive
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd covers Christchurch, Mudeford, Highcliffe, Burton and the rest of BH23 from our base in Boscombe. The company is number 15471719 at Companies House, registered in England and Wales. Our customers' Google reviews are on our reviews page, word for word.
The owner, Thomas Hannen, looks at the frontage and prices it himself, so the person who measures up is the person you talk to. A verified customer has given us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written, itemised quote are free.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Christchurch?
Most repairs in Christchurch 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 Christchurch |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Christchurch. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Christchurch Central Conservation Area, Purewell Conservation Area and Avon Buildings Conservation Area, among others. They cover parts of Christchurch, so check whether your street is inside one. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Christchurch. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Christchurch. |
Questions
Questions about driveways in Christchurch
Do I need a membrane under block paving?
A geotextile membrane is worth having under any new drive. It sits between the dug-out ground and the sub-base, stops the Type 1 being pressed into soft ground under a car, and keeps the layers apart so the drive stays level. It does not stop weeds in the joints, because those grow from seed landing on top. We include one in every new build-up.
Should you jet wash block paving?
Yes, with care. Held at a low angle a jet washer lifts algae and dirt well, but pointed into the joints it strips out the jointing sand, and loose blocks follow. Brush kiln dried sand back in afterwards. To hand the job over, see our exterior cleaning in Christchurch.
What is the cheapest sensible option for a drive?
If your blocks are sound, relaying them on a corrected base usually beats any new surface on price, because you pay for labour and sub-base, not new paviours. For a new drive, gravel on a grid is the lightest build-up, and tarmac usually comes next. A cheap drive that fails nearly always had a shallow dig, so that is the line to check.
What time of year is best to tarmac a drive or lay resin?
The drier, milder months. Hot tarmac cools fast on a cold day and is harder to compact, and resin needs a dry base and temperatures inside the maker's limits, so a wet week moves the date. Block paving and gravel go down most of the year, apart from hard frost or waterlogged ground.
How long does a new driveway take?
It depends on the area, how deep the dig goes, how much spoil comes out and the surface. Relaying a few sunken bays is a short job. A full new drive with a slab to break out and a drain to lay runs over several working days, and resin needs time to cure before a car goes on it. The written quote sets out the order of work so you can plan where to park.
Nearby, and next door
Driveways near Christchurch
Nearby places we also cover for driveways, with straight-line distances from Christchurch, and the other trades we offer in Christchurch itself.
Driveways nearby
Our other trades in Christchurch
Driveways and patios guides
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Free site visit anywhere in BH23, free itemised quote, and an honest answer on whether your existing surface can be saved. Rated 10 out of 10 by a verified customer on Checkatrade.