Driveways in Rockbourne

Gravel frontages that keep moving. Loose stone is the right surface for most houses in Rockbourne and the wrong one if it is simply tipped on the ground. Without an edge restraint it walks out onto the verge and the street, and without a compacted sub-base it presses in until there is rutting in the wheel tracks and ponding after rain.

Built properly it is a strip out, a geotextile membrane at formation, sub-base compacted in layers, a haunched edging or a brick-on-edge border, then gravel in a grid so the stone stays where it was raked. Where you want something that stays swept, resin bound over a sound base gives the same look with a harder surface.

Doorsteps and flint plinths. The older cottages along here have their floors close to the ground outside and a plinth of flint or brick at the base of the wall. Every surface laid over the last one lifts the level a little more, and once the outside is higher than the floor inside the wall holds damp. We dig down, never build up, finish the paving clear of the wall, and where the ground will not give us the drop we run a gravel margin or a channel drain along the base. Those walls are bedded in lime, so we hand dig alongside them, support anything already leaning before the ground beside it is opened, and rebed what comes down in a matching lime mix, not a strong grey cement.

Tracks and shared entrances off the lanes. A rutted track is usually a drainage problem wearing a surface problem's clothes: water runs down the ruts, softens the formation and the ruts deepen. The fix is a crossfall so water leaves the track instead of running along it, a gully where it meets the road, and a stone build up chosen for what actually uses it, which out here often includes a tractor or an oil delivery. Old flags bedded on five dabs rock, crack and pond within a couple of winters, so we relay on a full mortar bed over a compacted sub-base, with the jointing pointed rather than filled with a kiln dried sand that washes out and lets weed and green staining take hold. For a terrace at the back, see patios in Rockbourne.

Water, and where it is not allowed to go. Part of Rockbourne sits in flood zones 2 and 3 with Sweatfords Water a few metres away, and you can check any address on the government flood risk service. Near water the design changes: no new hard surface tipping run off towards the channel, permeable construction where the ground will take it, and levels set so the water leaves the buildings first.

No rate per square metre, because the ground under a drive decides more than the surface on top. The site. A cottage with nowhere to stand a lorry, a farmhouse at the end of a long gravel track, and a house with an open frontage are planned in very different ways. Where a grab lorry has to stand in a passing place, removal is booked for a set time.

The ground. In the valley, near the stream, ground can be soft and wet. The dig goes down to firm ground and the sub base is laid thicker.

Water. Surface water must stay on your land. Permeable paving, gravel or a soakaway all cost differently, and in a flood zone the drainage needs extra thought.

The surface. Gravel, block paving, resin bound and tarmac each need different edges and bases. On a village lane, bound gravel with a firm edge is a common choice because it drains and does not wash out.

The entrance. A new or wider access needs a dropped kerb from Hampshire County Council.

Ask anyone else how deep they dig, what sub base, where the water goes, and who takes the spoil away.

The drive from our Boscombe base to Rockbourne is 16 miles. We cover the village and SP6 around it, from Fordingbridge and Sandleheath across to Damerham, Whitsbury and Martin. New Forest District Council handles planning, and Hampshire County Council the highway.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before any price is put on your drive, Thomas Hannen, the owner, walks the ground himself. Our Checkatrade page shows a verified customer's 10 out of 10. No charge is made for the visit or the itemised quote. Before you book a visit in Rockbourne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Rockbourne 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.