Driveways in Lytchett Matravers

Rebuilding a drive that has run out. Much of the village went up in the post-war decades, the biggest single share of it in the 1970s and early 1980s, and the drives went in with the houses: a strip of concrete, or a thin skim of tarmac over whatever came out of the trench.

Cars got heavier, which is why you get rutting and ponding rather than a neat crack. A rebuild is a dig to formation, compaction, a geotextile membrane where the ground is soft, then a real depth of sub-base before anything decorative goes near it.

Block paving is still a sensible surface here, and it earns its place where cars turn, because a sunken bay can be lifted and relaid, not patched. It wants an edge restraint haunched in concrete all the way round and kiln dried sand brushed into the joints. If yours has gone wavy the edge has let go; if weeds are coming up it needs a re-sand, not a new drive. Resin bound goes over a sound concrete or tarmac base, tarmac suits the longer runs, and concrete carries weight but always shows its repairs.

Where the water goes is the local part. The ground under the village drains slowly, so a soakaway here wants a percolation test first, and where the test fails the run off needs a positive outfall instead. Plenty of plots fall away behind the house, so a patio arrives with a step, a retaining edge and a decision about levels: finished well below the damp proof course, or a channel drain across the doorway if you want to come out level from patio doors. For the patio itself, see patios in Lytchett Matravers. Out on the lanes gravel ruts as soon as an oil tanker has been on it, and a cellular grid with a bound strip at the entrance keeps the stone off the road.

Most of the money on a drive goes into ground you never see again, so a price per square metre tells you little.

The clay. The village sits on cohesive clay that shrinks and swells with the seasons. It stays wet all winter, and it will pump up into a thin base and let the surface rut. So the sub-base here goes deeper than it would on sand, with a geotextile membrane laid between the clay and the crushed stone.

Where the rain ends up. Clay drains slowly, and a soakaway that would work on sand can fill up and sit full here. Permeable block paving on an open graded base, or a channel drain into an existing drain, is often the answer, and Approved Document H sets the rules for where surface water may go.

Getting in and out. A bungalow with a straight run off the road is simple to dig and load. A plot that falls away behind, or a cottage where the only way to the back is a side gate, means barrowing and extra days.

The finish. Block paving needs a restrained edge, tarmac a kerb, resin bound a solid bound base underneath, and gravel a grid or a firm edge to stop it wandering. Each one changes the bill.

Questions for any rival quote: how deep is the dig, what sub-base goes in and how thick, where does the surface water end up, and who takes the spoil?

Thomas Hannen runs the firm and comes to measure and price your drive himself. From our base in Boscombe it is about eleven miles out to you, and we work across Lytchett Matravers, Lytchett Minster, Upton, Organford and Holton Heath, and BH16 more generally, with Dorset Council as the local authority.

The legal name is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Checkatrade has a verified review from one customer scoring us 10 out of 10. We charge nothing for the visit, and the written itemised quote is free as well. Before you book a visit in Lytchett Matravers, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Lytchett Matravers 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.