Driveways in Hangersley
Gravel drives, bound entrances, patios and paths across Hangersley and BH24, built to hold up under what actually drives on them.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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On the lanes around Hangersley the surface is rarely the problem. Loose gravel spreads and entrances pothole because nothing is holding the edges and nothing is stopping the stone working down into the ground beneath it.
The problems come in three shapes. The gravel has thinned in the wheel tracks and ended up in the verge, so you are raking it back twice a year. The first few metres in from the lane have gone to potholes and hold water after every shower. Or the terrace at the back has dropped at one corner, rocks when you walk on it, and is green for most of the winter.
None of those need the whole drive doing. We come out, dig a trial hole and walk the length of it with you, and the quote often covers the entrance and the edges rather than the lot. Where the answer really is a rebuild, you get told why, in writing, before anything is booked.
The work
Gravel, long entrances and what holds them together
Loose gravel that will not stay put. The surface that gives most trouble on these plots. Gravel spread straight onto soil with no edge and no separation layer sinks into the ground, thins where the tyres run and migrates into the verge.
Doing it properly means excavating to a firm formation, a geotextile membrane so the stone and the subgrade stay apart, a compacted sub-base, then either a stabilising grid filled with gravel or a bound surface where the fall is steep enough to wash loose stone downhill. A timber or concrete edge restraint round the perimeter is what stops it wandering. Hangersley sits in the Western Escarpment conservation area, so what a frontage looks like from the lane is part of the decision as well: relaying like for like is maintenance, changing the material is not.
The apron where the drive meets the lane. The first few metres take every turning wheel and all the water that runs off the road, and on a rural entrance they are usually the worst part of the whole drive. We bind that section in tarmac or resin, set a channel drain across the mouth of it so nothing discharges onto the highway, and give it more depth of sub-base than the rest, because that is where the loads are. It also stops loose stone being carried out onto the lane, where it becomes a hazard for everyone using it.
Detached houses on generous plots are four in ten homes around Hangersley, and the parking areas that go with them get used by more than cars. Oil deliveries, builders and skip lorries all come up the same strip. Rutting and sunken bays mean the sub-base was built for a family car and asked to carry something heavier, and where that is the fault the surface is often salvageable and the base is what gets done again. The ground is slow to drain as well, so a soakaway wants a percolation test first, and sometimes a positive outfall instead.
Concrete flags bedded on spots of mortar rock, hold water and stain. Relaid on a full mortar bed over a compacted sub-base they stop moving. Porcelain and natural stone both want the same build up and the same attention at the threshold, so the paving finishes clear of the damp proof course and the step down from the door stays a comfortable height, not a trip. For a terrace at the back, see patios in Hangersley. Block paving here is often sound under a scruffy surface: weed growth up the joints and a couple of sunken bays usually means the jointing sand has gone and one edge has lost its haunching. Lifting the failed area, kerbing the loose perimeter and a full re-sand with kiln dried sand puts years back into a drive. We would rather quote that and be asked back in ten years than sell you a rebuild you did not need.
How it runs
A new drive in Hangersley, from the dig to the edging
Thomas walks the drive with you, notes the gradient and where the water runs when it rains, and prices it himself. His written quote separates the dig, muck away, the sub base, edging, the new surface and the drainage. The job is dug and laid under that one quote.
Many Hangersley drives are long, gravel and on a slope, so the new surface has to hold on a gradient and shed water without sending it into the lane or the house. Tree roots near the entrance are dug around with care, never ripped out. A mini digger and a grab lorry work from the lane where the gate allows. We keep a way in and out where we can, sweep the lane daily and take the spoil away. An old soakaway or a big root found in the dig is shown to you in a photo, with a price, and waits for your decision.
A new drive can be laid without planning permission as long as it is permeable or drains to a lawn or border on your own land. If rainwater would run onto the road from over five square metres of new hard surface, you need permission, as the Planning Portal page on front gardens explains. A wider entrance onto the lane needs a dropped kerb application to the highway authority. Because planning here is run by the National Park, before anything is ordered we check the address on its interactive property map.
Cost
Gradient, gravel and drainage: pricing a drive
Drives are not priced by the square metre, because the ground under a drive costs more to get right than the surface on top.
Where the drive runs. Some Hangersley houses sit at the end of a long gravel entrance, some cottages open straight onto the lane, and some bungalows have a turning area behind a five bar gate. Length, width and how a lorry gets in all change the job.
The slope. A drive on a gradient needs a firmer edge restraint, a surface that grips in the wet, and channels across it so water does not race down to the garage.
The dig and sub base. On cohesive ground the dig goes deeper to firm material, and the sub base is laid and compacted in layers. Roots from mature trees add time and sometimes change the line of the edge.
The water. On ground this slow to drain the outfall is a design decision with a cost, and Approved Document H governs where it can go. Water left beside a foundation on shrinking clay is a structural matter.
Before you choose, ask each quote how deep they dig, which sub base they use, where the water ends up, and whether spoil removal is included.
If it is urgent
A drive washing out, or a trip by the door
A block that has lifted, a bay that has sunk by the door or a gully that has stopped taking water is worth sorting before it gets worse. If gravel is washing onto the lane, or water off your drive is running into the road, tell us.
Ring rather than send the form, and if the line is busy, we call you back as soon as we can. We make any trip safe, get the water going somewhere sensible, and find out whether the sub base underneath has given way or a pipe has collapsed. Driveway work is booked Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
The one local thing
Inside the National Park, appearance is part of the spec
Hangersley falls within the Western Escarpment Conservation Area and within the New Forest National Park. Neither of those stops you rebuilding a drive that has failed. What they change is which answer is the easy one. Replacing like for like is maintenance and nobody argues with it. Changing the material, particularly on a frontage that can be seen from the lane, is a change to the character of the place and gets looked at that way.
Gravel, bound gravel and a dark tarmac apron read the way the lanes in Hangersley have always read. A bright multi coloured block paving does not, and it is the frontage that gets noticed rather than the back garden. The National Park Authority sets out how it handles this.
The parts that catch people out are almost never the paving itself. They are the things at the edge of it: a boundary wall rebuilt higher than it was, a pair of new gate piers, a hedge taken out to widen an entrance, or a run of railings where there used to be post and rail.
If any of that is in your plan, raise it at the site visit and we will price the drive and the boundary as separate lines so you can take advice on one without holding up the other. Where the property or a structure attached to it is listed, we say so in the quote and nothing is ordered until that is settled.
Who you are dealing with
Drives laid across Hangersley and BH24
Our driveway work covers Hangersley and all of BH24, from Ringwood, Poulner and Crow to Burley and Ellingham. Hangersley is about nine and a half miles from Boscombe, where our base is. Any planning side goes to the Park Authority, and dropped kerbs to the highway authority.
You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and it is Thomas Hannen who walks the drive with you before pricing it. We carry a verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit costs nothing, and neither does the written quote, set out line by line. Before you book a visit in Hangersley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Hangersley?
Most repairs in Hangersley 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 Hangersley |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Hangersley. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Western Escarpment Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Hangersley. 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 Hangersley
Does the Western Escarpment conservation area cover the front garden?
Yes, the designation covers what can be seen from the road, and that includes the drive. Inside the Western Escarpment area the National Park treats like for like as maintenance, so regravelling the same entrance is one thing and swapping gravel for black tarmac with concrete kerbs is another. If you want a different surface it is worth a call to the National Park before we order anything, and we say so on the visit.
Why does the bottom of the drive flood every winter?
Because the water has nowhere to go once the ground is wet. The soil at Hangersley has impeded drainage, so a soakaway at the low end fills in November and stays full until spring. The fix is usually to stop the water reaching the bottom at all: a cross fall part way up, a channel across the drive, and a piped run out to a ditch with somewhere to discharge.
Is resin bound sensible on a National Park lane?
It depends less on the resin than on what sits under it. Resin needs a solid, unbroken base, so on a long entrance that has only ever been gravel over subsoil the base has to be built first, and building it is the bigger part of the job. There is also the look. In the Western Escarpment area a smooth uniform surface reads as suburban next to the verges, and the National Park notices that.
Where does the lorry sit if the lane is narrow?
On the drive itself where there is room, otherwise tight in on the verge side. The Ringwood lanes around Hangersley have soft edges, so a loaded grab lorry standing in one spot for an hour will sink and leave ruts we then have to make good. We plan deliveries so stone comes in smaller loads and gets moved straight to the back instead of sitting at the entrance churning up the ground.
Can you match the gravel that is already down?
Close enough that you will not pick the join after a winter. Gravel weathers, so a fresh load always looks brighter for the first few months whatever we do. If you have a bag of the original left we work from that, otherwise we take a handful off the drive and match size and colour at the quarry. Where the stone has scattered rather than worn out, raking and topping up beats a new layer.
Nearby, and next door
Driveways near Hangersley
Nearby places we also cover for driveways, with straight-line distances from Hangersley, and the other trades we offer in Hangersley itself.
Driveways nearby
Our other trades in Hangersley
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Free quote
Tired of raking gravel back off the verge?
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We walk the drive, open a trial hole and put an itemised written quote in your hands. Both are free.