You need at least a 100mm concrete slab, and 20 quid per m² is pretty cheap - does that include excavation and cart away, damp proof membrane, jointing, formwork, vat and all other sundries? Because I doubt it can be done for that price. If a sub-base is needed, it definitely can't be done for that sort of money!

The other alternative is a bitmac base layer, which would need to be at least 50mm thick, over a 100mm sub-base, and would be even more expensive.

The price for the resin-bound aggs is there or thereabouts, depending on total area and type of gravel selected, but what sort of guarantee/warranty comes with it? Can you see previous work? How long have they been in business? Have they given you a written spec?

If you're keen on resin bound aggs, then I'd strongly recommend you get at least 2 other prices, just for your own peace of mind. I get the feeling this could be one of those, "Oh dear, we'll have to charge extra for...." jobs, and what was originally 70 quid per m² suddenly becomes 100 quid per m².

Caveat emptor, as my Latin master used to say when he was selling ciggies to us.  

Be careful, Dickie!

Cracking is usually symptomatic of bad preparation or shoddy materials. If you choose a good contractor (easier said than done, I know) then you minimise the risk. Thorough, meticulous preparation is essential. The substrate must be sound, free from any contaminants. There should be no cracks in the substrate that could propagate through to the resin-bound surfacing, and movement joints should be installed, if required.

Check out your contractor. Check previous work, talk to previous clients, make sure you get an insurance-backed written guarantee, and don't jump at the lowest price. You have to live with the surfacing for a long time, so an extra few days of sussing out should not be passed over.

And heat will make the tarmac more pliable, but also make it more tacky, so there's no real gain.

Try using a bolster and lump hammer to split the surfacing from the tiles. There's no way you will get a completely clean finish - life doesn't work that way, but use the bolster and hammer to remove as much bitmac as poss, and then you could consider immersing the salvaged tiles in a bath of diesel for 24 hours or so to loosen what's left.

Once they come out of the diesel bath, you'll need to wash them off with warm, soapy water to get shut of the diesel. It's a long, tedious process - how much have you got to do?

Black is a swine of a colour, too. It takes a lot of dye to acheive a good depth of colour, and a light or silver coloured sand to acheive what is, at best, a deep grey. A true black, as in tarmac, is all but impossible with concrete; the best you could hope for would be a deep charcoal grey, and even that will fade in time.

If you're trying to create a black-looking concrete, consider doing an exposed aggregate concrete. Careful choice of aggregates, and blending of sands/aggs could give a reasonable finished effect, but it'll take some experimenting.

However, if you're just looking for a black/dark surface that will almost look a bit like tarmac to a blind man on a very fast galloping horse, then why not use charcoal block pavers? It's much easier and less likely to cause disappointment with the long-term results.

I'll be most interested to hear how you get on with this endeavour.

If you're going through a contractor, you should get a decent price from BC - they have a higher price list for diy'ers and non-account holders than that used for account holders.

I wonder if they have a regional pricing policy (which would make sense) and charge you, in London, considerable more than us in the north?

Total                     4.75m³ @ 1.9 t/m³ = 9 Tonnes

...so 10T will be plenty. In fact, in some parts of the country, you can get 10T delivered as a single load on a wagon rather than in a load of separate agg bags. It's worth asking BC to do it that way, as you should pay less.

Now, agg bags (or IBCs as they are properly known), seem to be a bloody law unto themselves. There are 3 suppliers I use fairly regularly:

Supplier #1 is a large national BM chain and they reckon each agg bag = 1m³ = 1.9 T approx. Yet their Hiab crane off-load is only plated for a 1200kg lift!

Supplier #2 is a small local BM and he reckons each agg bag = 1.2 Tonne

Supplier 3 is a certain DIY Shed and they claim each agg bag is 1 tonne on some days and 1m³ on other days!

One day, when I'm really bored, I might actually weigh one on the weighbridge and see who is telling the truth - my money is on Supplier#2.

See if you can get your contractor to arrange a single bulk drop - it's a lot easier and you know what youre getting as it is sold by weight rather than by the bag.

Oh...you mean that other team...the one with thingy, the one that's wed to a Space Girl...Engerlund....I don't hold out much hope for those amateurs!

Imprint/Prismo are one of the biggest contractors using this sytem - follow the link from the Links section for more info on them.

Make sure you're sat down when they tell you the price!

As for drawbacks - crap colours, limited choice of patterns, looks very 'commercial' and could make a large driveway look more like a supermarket car park.

Be aware that it is a monotone colour - that means it's all one colour, not multicoloured like much of the block paving or PIC that you see.

Let me know how you get on.

I don't believe the claim that Streetprint is the "No 1 paving sytem" in the US. How have they come to that conclusion? No 1 in terms of m² laid per year? It's not. No.1 in number of projects undertaken per year? It's not. Or No.1 in their eyes?

I'd ask them to verify that claim, as I know for a fact that imprinted asphalt is not the most popular choice, nor the biggest seller for paving work in the US.

Simply laying a 20mm wearing course will result in the car sinking straight through it the first time it is trafficked. For a residential driveway, the minimum I recommend is 50mm of base course plus 25mm of wearing course, giving 75mm of bitmac. This means your current level of 20mm below finished paving level is too high and will need to be re-graded.

For a 50m² driveway, using the thicknesses recommended above, you'd need around 5 Tonnes of base plus 3 tonnes of wearing course. You might be able to buy this in what is known as a split load, but, if the batch plant think it's a DIY job, they will probably not want to supply, as, in their eyes, you're more trouble than your job is worth. It's unlikely that a DIY'er could handle 8T of bitmac in the standing time allowed; it's a one-off job (unless you're planning to go into the Blacktop trade!) with no repeat business for them; and when the problems start, such as it getting too cold to lay or it's not rolled properly, they worry your first port of complaint will be them.

To handle 8T of blacktop in no more than an hour, you will need two barrow hands, a rake-hand and a roller operator. This really isn't the sort of job that can be handled by anyone who isn't skilled and supremely fit. The blacktop has to be laid while it's hot and you're continually working against the clock.
You need at least one tarmac rake, a couple of shovels, a couple of barrows, diesel to keep the tools clean, a firebox to keep the rake hot, plus gloves, boots, coveralls....am I putting you off yet?

With a split load, you have 30 mins maximum to get first the base course from the wagon and spread out over the driveway, then get it raked level to within 15mm, and rolled solid, which will then give you maybe 30 mins to lay the wearing course, to an accuracy of +/- 6mm.

And there's no second chance. Once it's cold, you've had it. If it's not right first time, it never will be right and your only option will be to rip it up and start again.

If you still reckon you can DIY this, then tell me whereabouts you are and I'll see if I can find a batch plant that would be prepared to sell to you, but I can't promise anything, and you can't say you weren't warned!

Sorry to put the mockers on your plan in this matter, but laying tarmac is possibly the least DIY-friendly surface in the paving trade, and I don't want to mislead you.

Make sure to wash off with plenty of clean water, and be prepared to do several treatments, if required.

Let me know if it works.

If this was hand-laid bitmac, it's likely that it was treated with 'Pen Oil' which keeps the bitmac workable for longer at lower temperatures, but has the side-effect of causing the surface to take longer to 'set' completely. It's similar to 'thinners' in paint, and is used throughout the industry, so no need to worry that you've been 'conned'.

Take your time with the car for the next 2-4 weeks. Avoid sudden braking, wheel spins, turning on the spot, parking motorbikes on their support stands etc, as all these will damage the still fresh surface. In a month or so, the Pen Oil will have completely evaporated and the bitmac will be much more resilient.

Which company did the surfacing? If you prefer not to mention them publicly, you can email me via - I ask only so that I know to put them on my 'trusted' list.

I can't give you a guide on price, as, with less than 50m² in total, your driveway has to be priced individually, as a one-off unique job, and I'd need to evaluate the site, know your location, consider access, see what other work we have on the book for red mac, etc., before giving a price. However, I wouldn't be surpised to hear prices in the region of £1,000-£2,000 for the surfacing work alone.

If you were to opt for block paving, then it's quite possible that the existing sub-base beneath the tarmac could be re-used, although it might well need a bit of tittivating or regulating. Going with a standard 200x100 concrete block paver, then I'd expect a price somewhere around 20-30 quid per m², provided the sub-base is usable. Add another 20 quid per m² if it's not.

I would say that it's well worth getting prices for both the tarmac and the block paving options, and then deciding what suits your taste and your pocket. Personally, I'd have the block paving every time, as I believe it's a much better surfacing, with a longer lifespan and is more attractive.

I'll email you the name and address of a contractor that works London. I can't guarantee they'll be interested, or that they'll be the cheapest, but they have a very good reputation and have a laid the paving to a number of jobs that I've designed.

I wouldn't bother with any cement, it only complicates matter when you're going for the natural look. Just make sure the bedding is well-compacted and the flags firmly bedded and it should survive the rigours of you local weather patterns.

I'd love to see pictures, if you get the chance. I don't get to see much stone paving from N.America, as everything on the web seems to be imprinted or etched concrete!

Gravel is always a bloody nightmare when first laid - it's loose, it kicks everywhere, it's like walking/driving through treacle - but 6 months from now, it will be much better. It needs to acquire a quantity of fines that will help bed it in. This can be accelerated by adding a quantity of grit sand or rock fines to the gravel, but, even then, it's not going to be ideal: that's something that comes with time.

Depending on your deal with the client, it's sometimes better to prepare a really good sub-base, and dress that with 20-25mm, allow it to be trafficked for a month or so, then add another covering; leave it for a month, add another covering; and so on for 4-6 months until you eventually end up with a relatively sound, solid surface that has the gravel well-embedded into it and a loose surface dressing of 10-20mm.

If the client wanted a sound running surface immediately, they should have opted for another type of surfacing.

There seems to be 2 or 3 decent contractors in most large towns, along with a bunch of well-intentioned amateurs, and then an opportunistic cowboy club, always looking for a chance.

Do you not use much Hoggin down your end, then? It always seems to be a popular request from folk in the South, looking for a cheap'n'cheerful driveway. I know it can be a bloody nightmare at times, but I get more emails about hoggin and where to get it, than about gravel.

The step - if you lay the tread blocks on a wet concrete, so that they stick to the bed, that will be fine. There's not a lot of pressure on these blocks, especially with it only being a gravelled area.

The 14-10mm is a 'clean' gravel, because it has no dust or fines, and is ideal for pipe-bedding or land drains, rather than surface dressing. Assuming both are visually similar, I'd go for the 20mm down.

BUT....I wouldn't put down 50mm of it! See Barry's post about grave, above. Keep it to 25-35mm and make sure you've a decent sub-base underneath it. There's no real ned to leave a gap in the concrete - water will find it's own way out, either through the sub-base or between the dry gaps between the edging blocks.

Q1 - use of 'hardcore' for base.
This is ok as long as you break up the rocks and concrete blocks to a reasonable size, no pieces bigger than around 150mm, and then spread as a layer around 150-200mm thick. Compact and then top with a material with plenty of fines to fill any voids. You can build up the layers, if you wish, but make sure each layer is really well compacted, preferably with a vibrating roller or a large plate  compacctor rather than a small 'block paving' plate compactor.
The last 150mm layer should be all quality material, ie, DTp1, but you can have as many sub-layers as are necessary to achieve the correct finished pavement levels.

Q2 - width of driveway at road.
This depends on what you think you'll need. A single width driveway should be not less than 3m in width, and then you might want to allow for a bell-mouth entrance, using a 3m radius, so the actual interface with the road would be 9m.
For a double driveway, look for 4.5m as the minimum width, and then again, allow for a bell-mouth of 3-4.5m radius.

Q3 - the first 40 feet
Without seeeing the site, it's not easy to say what would be best for this area at this particular stage, but the usual practice is to put in the kerbs/edgings along with a sub-base, and, possibly, a base of, say 50mm of bitmac to act as a temporary running surface. You should install at least a couple of 100 or 150mm ducts, with draw ropes, just to make it easier to get services in at a later date.

So, you have a few options - you could 'glue' it in place, using one of the resin bond systems. Deep pockets required, I'm afraid.

Or, you could use one of thge cellular plastic grass paving systems, such as Versaweb or Ritter, and fill that with the gravel rather than with grass. I think this would be my preferred option, but, without seeing the site, it's not really possible for me to say what would be best.

Finally, there's the age-old method of transverse bands - you lay bands of firm paving, such as flags or block pavers, running across the driveway at regular interval, say every couple of metres or so, and rely on them to 'arrest' the inevitable downhill migration of the gravel. The bands must be laid on concrete, and they are not 100% effective, but they do reduce the amount of migration.... a bit.

Is that any help?

...later...

Cellular Plastic geocells....

Ecoblock by Cooper Clarke in Bolton - 01204 862222
Recyfix by Hauraton Kaskade, Herts., - 01923 285601
NetPave50 by Netlon, Blackburn - 01254 262431
Golpla by Hoofmark, Tyne&Wear - www.hoofmark.co.uk
Geoblock Grassway by WT Burdens (nationwide) - 0117 986 1766

...for some reason, the manufacturers of these systems are sadly lacking in the website departments.

The Geoblock is a simple and cost-effective system, and, because WT Burdens are a nationwide chain of Civil Engineering Suppliers, it might be easier to source via them for a small, domestic project.

As for the drains, they need at least 450mm of cover. the way you have them at the moment, they are way too shallow and the only effective protection is to encase the lot in concrete, at least 100mm of it, which is not really possible, I guess.

If you do decide to re-lay the pipes, you can avoid 90 degree bends (180 degree is a mistake, I think! ) by doing a 45° bend, then 600mm or so of straight and then another 45°, but, there really shouldn't be a problem, as long as the falls are sufficient.

If you're going to be digging up the entire driveway, it's probably the best opportunity you'll get to re-do the drainage. For the deco-gravel surfacing, I'd recommend a sub-base of at least 100mm DTp1, and then one of the plastic cellular grids to contain the gravel and give a traffickable surface. Loose gravel is more trouble than it's worth!

However, you need to be offering work to a contractor on a 6-monthly basis at least, and if you can't do that, then you may be stuck with asking a few local contractors to price the work as and when it comes available. The prices will reflect the quantity of work, the materials to be used, the ease of access, the type of laying etc, so it's simply not possible to quote a 'standard' rate for that type of work.

Similarly with the specification - the surfacing taking a lot of hammer might need a 70mm base, whereas the light-use areas could get away with a 50mm base, but it would not be professional of me to suggest a 'standard' spec that would be suitable for your site without me having surveyed the site beforehand.

Q1 - you need at least 100mm thickness. Anything less will just fall apart.

Q2 - 13ft wide is roughly 4m, which is fine for a bay width, and then for the length, 96ft (I can't work in imperial, it's too bloody complicated! ) is roughly 30m, so I'd split it every 6m (that's about 20 of them feet thingies)

Q3 - using block pavers as you propose will create a weak spot in the concrete, which is what you want, so that it, effectively, acts as a crack control joint. Just how you get the blocks to stay put if you're doing a continous pour, though, is another matter!

If it were me, I'd consider laying block pavers to all the edges, so that they act as the shuttering, and are a decorative finish. Lay them on 50-100mm of concrete a couple of days or so before doing the actual main pour, and don't forget to haunch them, too! I'd also place the transverse break courses in before doing the actual concrete pour. You can cover the pavers with the dpm to keep them clean during the concrete placement, and then trim it down a day or so later.

No shuttering to strike, and decent-looking professional finish to the job.

The manufacturer is Colas and you can read more about Fibredec on their website. I'd check with Colas about suitability before committing myself.

Given thay you've a lot of building work to do yet, I'd go for a simple access track approach. Strip off the topsoil and stoire on site; get down tho a decent sub-grade of clay, and then lay a proper geo-membrane, such as Terram 1000 (not a landscape fabric! ) and overlay that with 150-200mm of DTp2 depending on the depth of excavation.

You can get away with using all Type 2 at this stage, as it's a temporary access, and then, once all the construction work is finished and you're ready to install the final surfacing, you'll need to strip off the top 50mm or so of contaminated sub-base material and replace it with decent material, probably a Type 1.

Yes, compact it with a roller when first lad, as it's quicker than using a Vibrating Plate, but the site traffic will consolidate it much better than any roller could, so, by the time you come to install the finsihing layer, it will be well solid.

12 quid a tonne sounds a bit expensive, especially given you're taking 500+ tonnes. I'd shop around and see what else is available. You should be able to get a crushed brick/concrete DTp2 material for less than 8 quid per tonne.

the drive can be laid right up to the house, as long a sits surface is at least 150mm below then damp course. So: no need for a gap or owt like that.

When it comes to using geo-membranes, I'd only recommend their use if the sub-grade is suspect in some way, and then it should be laid between the sub-grade and the sub-base, rather than between the sub-base and the gravel surface dressing. This prevents the sub-base mixuing into the earth below - the potential problem of the gravel mixing with the sub-base material is a very, very minor issue and a membrane between sub-base and surface layer would actually make it worse, not better!

And if you do opt for a geo-membrane, invest in a proper geo-membrane such as Terram 1000 or TDP115, rather than a landscape fabric such as Plantex.