Driveways in Furzehill

Concrete drives from the sixties and seventies. Getting on for half the housing around Furzehill went up between 1945 and 1982, with the peak in the late sixties and early seventies, and plenty of those houses still have the original in situ concrete drive with the garage down the side.

Concrete of that age cracks along its joints, tips at the edges where roots have got under it, and holds water in the low corner. Breaking it out is a day with a machine and a grab lorry. Where the slab is still flat and sound we will say so and leave it, because laying block paving over sound concrete puts the finished level two courses closer to the damp proof course than you want it.

Bungalow thresholds. Bungalows are about a quarter of the housing around Furzehill and nearly all of them have a shallow step at the door. Every surface laid over the last one takes the level up again. We take the finished level down instead, keep a clear gap below the damp proof course, and run a channel drain or a gravel border across the threshold where the ground will not allow the drop. That single detail is what stops a new patio making the inside wall damp.

The ground here is slow to drain, so infiltration is not the default answer. A soakaway wants a percolation test first and may need a positive outfall instead, and that is settled before a surface is chosen. The concrete flag and crazy paving terraces out the back are usually sitting on five blobs of mortar with nothing under the middle. They rock, they pond, and they turn slippery through a wet autumn. Relaying on a full mortar bed over a compacted sub-base ends it. For the back garden, see patios in Furzehill.

Sunken bays, rutting in the wheel tracks and weed growth up the joints nearly always trace back to an edge restraint that stopped at the gate and jointing sand that washed out years ago. Blocks hold each other up by pushing sideways, so once the perimeter goes the middle follows. Lifting and relaying the affected area, running a haunched kerb round the outside and doing a full re-sand with kiln dried sand costs a fraction of a new drive, and we will always price that option first where it is genuinely available. On anything built new, the depth of the sub-base is set by what the hole tells us, not by a standard detail.

We do not price drives by the square metre. The work under the surface costs more than the surface itself.

The frontage. A bungalow with a wide frontage on a seventies estate road, a detached house with the garage down the side, and a flat with a share of a communal parking area run quite differently. The communal one needs the freeholder's agreement before anything is dug.

The dig and the sub base. Where the soil is soft and wet the dig often goes deeper to reach firm material, and more sub base goes back to spread the load. Tree roots near the boundary add time, and so does breaking out an old concrete drive.

The water. The ground in Furzehill is slow to drain, so a soakaway may fail, and the water then needs a channel, a permeable build or a positive outfall. Approved Document H covers where it can go. Rainwater left sitting against the house is a risk to the foundation, not only a puddle.

The surface. Block paving, resin bound, tarmac and gravel all price differently, and edgings and kerbs take longer on a curved drive.

Ask any quote how deep the dig is, what sub base goes in, where the water goes, and who takes the spoil.

We lay drives across Furzehill and the rest of BH21, out through Colehill and Wimborne Minster to Holt, West Moors and Three Legged Cross. Furzehill is eight miles or so from Boscombe, where we are based.

Dorset Council is the planning authority and also the highway authority for dropped kerbs. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales with company number 15471719. The business belongs to Thomas Hannen, who walks the frontage with you and prices it himself. Our Checkatrade page carries a verified customer's 10 out of 10. The visit costs nothing, and the itemised written quote is free as well. Before you book a visit in Furzehill, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Furzehill 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.