Driveways in Poole

The right surface for a Poole drive comes down to four things: how much digging your ground needs, where the rainwater can go, how the car turns in off the road, and how much upkeep you want. All five surfaces sit on the same thing, a dug and compacted base, and that base decides how long any of them lasts.

Block paving. Concrete blocks or clay pavers, laid on a screeded bed of sharp sand over a compacted Type 1 sub-base. On a drive we lay herringbone, because the pattern locks together under a turning wheel where a straight bond creeps. A haunched kerb or a concrete-bedded edge restraint holds the whole field in place, and kiln dried sand is brushed into the joints and plated in. A sunken patch comes up block by block and goes back with no scar. Permeable blocks with open joints over a stone base suit a front garden that has to drain on site. More on block paving in Poole.

Resin bound. Dried stone mixed with a UV-stable resin and trowelled out over a sound tarmac or concrete base. The finish is smooth, holds no loose stones and lets water through, but only as far as the base below allows, so over solid concrete the run-off still needs somewhere to go. Resin bonded is a different product: loose stone scattered onto a coat of resin, and neither smooth nor permeable. Ask which one you are being quoted. It needs a dry spell to lay. See resin driveways in Poole.

Tarmac. Laid hot in two layers, a binder course and a finer surface course, each rolled while it is warm. It is quick over a large, simple area where a lorry and a roller can get in, and it needs a block or kerb edging so the sides do not crumble. On a small front garden reached through a gate, hand laying loses most of that speed. See tarmac driveways.

Gravel. Shingle over a compacted base, best held in a plastic retaining grid so it does not rut under the tyres or wander into the road. It needs the least digging, drains freely and is the quickest to lay. On a Poole frontage it also needs a hard strip across the entrance, covered further down.

Concrete. A poured slab over Type 1, brushed for grip or pattern imprinted, where a coloured surface is stamped and sealed. It is hard wearing, but it needs expansion joints to control cracking, and a patch never quite matches. It is non-porous, so it needs a channel drain and an outfall on your own land. Natural stone and porcelain are better kept to paths and patios in Poole, where no car turns on them.

Thomas Hannen measures the drive himself, checks the levels and where the water will run, and writes an itemised quote: excavation, muck away, sub-base, edgings, surface and drainage, each on its own line. You can ask him about any line on it before you decide, and both the site visit and the written quote are free.

Front gardens on the older Poole streets are often small, and a terraced front may only take a micro digger through a standard gate gap, with the rest dug by hand and moved by barrow. Spoil goes into a grab lorry where one can pull up, or into a skip, and a skip on the road needs the council's permission under section 139 of the Highways Act. At a block of flats, a shared forecourt needs the freeholder's agreement, and leaseholder charges can bring in section 20 consultation.

Nothing is left as an open hole overnight, the road and path are swept every evening, and if the dig turns up an old soakaway or a broken drain, you get a photograph and a price before anything extra is done.

Paving a front garden follows the national planning rules, answered in the questions below. In a conservation area such as Town Centre Heritage, Poole Park or Heckford Park, taking out a front wall or piers can need consent too, so check the council list before the wall comes down. The start date is usually set by that paperwork or the council's kerb work, not by the build.

Driveway faults rarely need an emergency visit, but a few get worse quickly: a block drive dipping by the door, a lifted edge that can trip someone, or a gully that has stopped taking water and sends it back at the house. Photograph standing water before it drains away, because it shows where the fall has gone wrong.

On the first visit we make any trip hazard safe, lift what is loose and find out why it moved, which is usually water sitting in the base or an edge that was never restrained. Scheduled work Mon to Fri, 8am to 6pm. Something urgent? Ring, and if we miss you we call back.

Call now: 07435 839745

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd lays drives across Poole, including Longfleet, Parkstone, Oakdale, Hamworthy and Creekmoor, from our base in Boscombe.

Thomas Hannen owns the business and measures and prices every drive himself. The company is registered in England and Wales, number 15471719, and holds a verified 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The site visit is free, and so is the written, itemised quote. You can read our customers' Google reviews word for word on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Poole 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.