Driveways in Woodlands

The original drive usually has to come out. Nearly half the housing in Woodlands went up between 1945 and 1982, most of it in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the concrete and tarmac that went down with those houses was often a couple of inches laid on the natural ground with no formation and no edge.

It cracks in the middle, ruts where the wheels sit, spreads sideways into the borders and grows weeds along every joint. Patching it is money you will spend twice. We break it out, dig to a proper depth, lay a geotextile membrane, compact the sub-base in layers and only then decide the surface. Block paving, resin bound, tarmac and concrete will all sit happily on that. None of them will sit on what is there now.

Room for a second car. Frontages in Woodlands are wide and the drives on them usually are not, so widening is often a better job than relaying, because it lets us build a turning space and nobody has to reverse out onto the lane blind. Matching an existing surface across a join rarely works and we will say so: an old tarmac drive and a new bay always read as two different things, so either take the lot or choose a material where the join is a deliberate border, not a bad match. Where an access is being made or widened the crossing itself is a dropped kerb, and Planning Portal guidance on dropped kerbs covers how that is applied for. Where the lane is unfenced and stock can wander, a gate or a grid is part of the design from the start.

Plenty of plots here have mature trees on them or right over the boundary, and roots are the usual reason a slab is rocking or a run of block paving has heaved into a hump. Cutting roots to make a level surface can kill the tree or make it unsafe, so where it matters we build over them instead: a shallower dig, a root barrier at the edge, and a flexible surface that can be lifted and relaid in an afternoon, not concrete that will crack again. The ground here drains slowly and sits in flood zone 2 with a stream a few tens of metres away, so a soakaway is sized from a percolation test first and may need a positive outfall. Porcelain, natural stone and concrete flags go on a full mortar bed, falls running away from the wall, and the finished level kept clear of the damp proof course, because paving laid over paving until it buried the damp course is one of the commonest causes of damp in a house. For a terrace, see patios in Woodlands. Where a level threshold is wanted at a back door, the drainage channel that makes it work has to be designed in at the start. Loose stone works if it is contained, with an edge restraint, a compacted base and a bound apron at the lane. Repairs are often the honest answer, and if the base underneath is sound we will tell you on the site visit.

Most of the price is in the ground and the way in, not the surface you pick. Access and plant. A sixties bungalow with a wide frontage takes a digger and a lorry for the spoil. A detached house set back behind trees may need a smaller machine and more trips. A cottage on a narrow lane can mean hand digging and a skip on the verge.

What comes out. The depth of the dig and the volume of muck set the disposal cost. Old concrete, tarmac or gravel over a hardcore base all have to go before the new sub-base goes down.

Roots. Oaks and pines near a drive lift paving over time. Working around a root, or bridging it with a reinforced base, takes longer than a clean dig.

Water. The clay here drains slowly, so a permeable surface may need a deeper sub-base, and a drive that runs to the house needs a channel drain and a proper outfall. That outfall is a cost of its own.

The surface. Block paving, resin, gravel on a grid and tarmac all differ in material and labour.

Ask any competing quote: how deep is the sub-base, are the edgings haunched, and where does the water go once it is off the surface?

We build drives in Woodlands, Netley Marsh, Ashurst, Bartley, Cadnam and the lanes along the eastern edge of the Forest, and SO40 more widely. It is 17.8 miles from Boscombe, where our base is. Planning for a drive here goes to the National Park Authority, with building control at New Forest District Council.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is on the register for England and Wales with company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen runs it and comes out to price your drive himself. On Checkatrade, a verified customer has given us 10 out of 10. We charge nothing to come out and nothing for the itemised quote. Before you book a visit in Woodlands, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Woodlands 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.