Driveways in Cranborne

Parking on ground that was never built for it. A great many properties in Cranborne park on grass or on a thin skim of shingle over soil, which works until a wet fortnight turns it into ruts.

A cellular grid over a compacted sub-base and a geotextile membrane fixes that without turning the front of a village house into a car park: it stays green, it is permeable, and it carries a vehicle in February. Where a firmer surface is wanted, self-binding gravel over the same base gives a bound, mellow finish that suits a lane better than anything glossy.

Brick paths, yards and thresholds. Old brick paving is worth saving. We lift it, clean it, put a proper base and a full mortar bed under it and relay it on edge or flat as it was, then point it with a mix that suits the wall it runs up to rather than a hard modern one. Reclaimed brick is matched in for the missing pieces, and the result is a path that looks like it has always been there, which is the whole point in a village of this age.

Stone terraces go on a full bed with a fall away from the house, the level kept clear of the damp proof course where the building has one and kept deliberately low where it does not; for that work, see patios in Cranborne. Long approaches and farm accesses rut where the cross-fall has flattened and the water runs down the wheel tracks instead of off the side; regrading, a fresh compacted sub-base and a gully at the low point normally sorts it. Broken concrete, tired tarmac and spoil leave with us, by grab lorry where one can turn and by skip and barrow where it cannot, and disposal is its own line, because on a rural job with poor access it is a real part of the price.

What sits under a drive decides more of its cost than what you walk on, so the square metres only start the conversation.

Getting machines in. A house straight onto the street, a cottage behind a narrow gateway in a flint wall, and a property at the end of a long track are very different before any paving is chosen. A small digger makes short work of a dig. Where it cannot fit, a mini digger and dumper, or shovels, take longer.

What comes out. Old concrete, a gravel drive over clay, or roots from a hedge all add loads to the muck away. How deep we go depends on what the ground is like once the top is off.

The base and edgings. A drive that takes a car needs enough compacted sub base, and edgings haunched in concrete so nothing creeps. Skimp on either and the edges sink.

Water. Rain has to stay on your land, not run out into the lane. That means a permeable finish, a channel at the gate, or a soakaway, depending on the ground.

The surface. Bound gravel, block and resin price differently, and on an older house the look counts.

Ask a rival firm to set out the sub base depth and type, whether edgings are haunched, and who removes the spoil.

Cranborne is 13.9 miles from Boscombe, and we lay drives there and in Alderholt, Sixpenny Handley and the Chase villages in BH21, working out from our Bournemouth base. Dorset Council handles planning and dropped kerbs here.

Your contract would be with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, which is registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. The owner is Thomas Hannen. He measures the drive, digs the test hole and writes the price. On Checkatrade, one verified customer gave us a score of 10 out of 10. Both the visit and the line by line written quote are free. Before you book a visit in Cranborne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Cranborne 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.