Find a Driveway Installer you can trust in New Tredegar.

There is a variety of methods available to ensure that your paving drains properly, for example draining into a lawn or soakaway. Correct drainage of paving is a requirement for planning permission. See our guide on planning permission for paving for more information.

Do you want to know the level of thickness a driveway concrete slab should be? Well, you are not alone! So many other home owners ask this question on a regular basis and reasonably so. In order to prevent cracks on your concrete over time, it’s crucial to ensure an even thickness across your driveway concrete. To determine the necessary thickness of your driveway concrete, there are some questions that must be answered. These includes:

• What’s the number of vehicles you expect to have on your driveway?

• Do you plan on parking heavy, industrial vehicles on it?

For a standard passenger vehicle driveway, you’d have a driveway spanning 8 to 9 feet in width as well as 15 to 18 feet for double width. The thickness for this type of driveway concrete is usually 4 inches of non-reinforced pavement. Ultimately, this enables you to park everyday family cars on it without having to worry about it cracking due to the car’s weight. Also in order to prevent cracks, it’s expected that the driveway should be sloped towards the street as this would make sure that there’s a run off of water especially for areas that experience lots of flooding. In addition, there’s also the need to install joints to prevent cracking. For the standard 4 inch thick driveway, these joints should be positioned about 10 feet apart.

Finally for parking heavy industrial vehicles, your concrete driveway is expected to be thicker in order to cope with the added weight. Typically, the concrete driveway will require a thickness of about 5 inches. The additional one inch may not sound much, but the fact is this can increase the load carrying capacity of the concrete driveway by up to 50 percent.

Removing oil from block paving can be tricky, and a professional clean and re-point is often the best option. However, for small stains, especially recent ones, it’s worth attempting to clean it yourself. To do this, you can purchase oil remover or driveway cleaning solutions – although be careful, as some may stain or mark certain kinds of paving stones. In general, stay away from acid based cleaners.

Paving can be used for driveways and is capable of bearing the weight of cars and other vehicles. Ensure that you choose the appropriate type of paving, as some are designed for paths or decorative use. Correct installation is vital as improperly installed paving may move or break under the weight of a car.

If you’re considering laying gravel on your driveway, then you’d probably want to know the amount of gravel you’ll need to complete the project. When you are calculating the amount of gravel you’ll require to cover your driveway, there’s an important factor you’ll need to consider and that is the type of gravel you opt for such as a crushed or pea gravel. There are varying grades which are found in particles from fine to course, with a size ranging from 2mm to 64mm. Therefore, there’s a need to estimate the volume of the gravel while also having the rock’s size in mind. Also, there’s a need to select your most preferred gravel which you’ll like to use before proceeding to dig the depth of your driveway and subsequently determine the amount of gravel that’ll be needed using these excellent tips.

✓ Determine the size and coverage. As you would have expected, the smaller the gravel is, the bigger the coverage will be, and gravels should be at least 4 inches deep. However, if the rocks happen to be a bit large then you can allow for an extra 1/2 inch.

✓ Measure the driveway. Multiply the width by the length and depth to get the size of the driveway in cubic feet. Meanwhile for cubic yards, you can divide the total cubic feet by 27. This is due to the fact that one cubic feet is same as 1.13 tons.

✓ Working with gravel. Here, you’ll have to calculate an underlay measurements differently. You can use 2 inches of road base that’ll be overlaid with 2 inches of gravel.

Have you decided to install block paving and wondering what the best sand to be applied to the joints is in order to achieve a perfect job? Well, you’re at the right place! This is one of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to block paving and we seek to give you a reliable solution once and for all.

The best sand for block paving is a kiln-dried sand. It’s an extremely fine sand which has been dried in a kiln to get rid of all the water before it’s incorporated to achieve the best results. Therefore, the sand contains no moisture and is commonly used to fill the joints of block paving to keep the paving’s structure rigid and strong. It also goes a long way to prevent the ingress of water while stopping the paving from moving and becoming loose. The major reason why the paving sand must be dried is to allow it flow easily into the joints as well as the block paving’s gaps. As result of this smooth flowing to the bottom of the joints, there will be no sand sticking to the sides of the pavers.

Another major reason why kiln-dried sand is commonly applied to the block paving’s joints is to prevent water from penetrating the paved area. It also tightens the individual pavers together to prevent from moving and becoming loose. In the event whereby you happen to leave the joints of your block paving without kiln dried sand, it’s highly likely that they’ll sink as a result of water penetration and the blocks will become very loose. After washing block paving, it’s very important to also replace any sand washed off in the process once the paving is dried to prevent water ingress into the joints.

While many professionals will recommend a pressure washer to clean block paving, it’s possible to clean your paving without one – just scrub the affected areas with a firm bristled brush and use plenty of soap. Then, rinse off the area with clean water.

Gravel, asphalt, concrete and paving can all be permeable. However, some types of asphalt and concrete are impermeable. This is why it’s important to be precise about what material you want for your driveway. If you want a permeable driveway, you should also make sure that your sub-base is also permeable.