Derbyshire
Driveways in
Ilkeston.
Sloping streets. Falls and channel drains get designed before anything else here.
Our yard is in Nottingham. What actually differs between one Ilkeston street and the next is the ground, and the only way to know which you have is to dig a hole in it. We do that at the first visit, before there is a price on anything.
The rest is the same wherever you are. 100mm of compacted Type 1 under a car drive on sound ground, 150mm and a membrane over clay, a concrete haunch to every free edge, and a minimum fall of 1 in 80 away from the house. Those four numbers decide whether a drive lasts, and all four are settled before a block is laid.
A trial hole, not a glance
We dig a small hole at the first visit and look at what is under your drive. Clay, sand, or somebody else’s rubble. It takes ten minutes and it decides the price.
Drainage designed first
Where the water goes, what the falls are, and whether the job needs planning permission. Settled before anybody chooses a colour.
The quote, by depth
Itemised with the excavation depth and the sub-base thickness written on it. A quote without those two numbers is not comparable to anything.
Dig, base, edge
Excavate to the depth quoted, lay and compact the Type 1 in layers, then the concrete haunch to every free edge before a block is laid.
Surface and joint
Lay to the fall, cut the edges, kiln-dried sand brushed and vibrated in twice with a week between. Then we come back and do it a third time.
Block paving
Laid on a compacted base with a haunched edge, because the edge is what fails first.
Resin bound surfacing
Permeable, seamless, and completely dependent on the base it is laid over.
Tarmac and repairs
New surfacing, overlays where an overlay is honest, and patching where it is not.
Drainage and groundwork
Falls, channels, soakaways and the paperwork that comes with paving a front garden.
Nearby