Stone plank slabs - on a driveway?

[simonn]

We're having our driveway re-done. The driveway goes down the side of the house, round to the garage at the back. We're having a terrace built built along the back of the house, and would like to have steps down to the drive & continue across the drive in the same material. So the driveway effectively goes OVER the terrace.

The aim being to divide the driveway into the bit at the front - where we'll park cars normally - and the bit out the back, which will not be used so often (only getting the ancient car in & out of the garage when it's not so wet the car will rust away)

The problem is that we'd like to use "plank" paving. The initial plan was 840x140x20mm Strate Elegance Rimini. The team doing the groundworks were concerned about how thin the slabs were. I checked with Strata & sure enough they "don't recommend" this on a driveway.

Hunting around, I came across granite plank paving (800x200x25mm) from CED. They advertise this on their website as being suitable for driveways. However, I thought it best to check, and sure enough the 2 distributors I contacted said "not recommended", and one of the sales people at CED said much the same thing - "the website must be wrong".

Can this be sensibly done, or should we give up on plank paving across the drive & do something more sensible/boring instead?

[lutonlagerlout]

concrete block paving is ideal for driveways
25mm is way too thin
LLL

[John156]

I ve laid 25 mm granite from ced on a drive and no problems as yet.

[London Stone Paving]

If you really want the look why not take precautions and find a 40mm thick plank?

[lemoncurd1702]

If you particularly like the look of plank paving, Marshalls have a new product called "driveline metro" which has been developed for driveway use.

Sorry no link, they have not updated the website yet. Give them a call for a catalogue.

[mickg]

here is the link
Driveline Metro

[KLS]

Well the driveline metro are well... different!

[mickg]

you disapprove Kieran ?

[KLS]

Im not keen on the look of it, I think its the blend of the colours, just over the road we have network rails HQ and they have a similar style of paving around the whole building but in hues of blacks whites and greys, that seems to work though.

As a product for purpose I would say its one of the best options, especially if cost is to be included, as I can only guess it would be miles cheaper than a 40-50mm thick granite or similar.

The image is what the paving looks like in MK, unfortunately this is best image I could get.

[lutonlagerlout]

I posted a picture of a similar paving to metro a couple of years ago and people didnt like it much here
I think it looks great on a contemporary build
cheers LLL
and i still stand by 20-25mm is too thin for driveways 99% of the time
LLL

[higgness]

Kinda looks like all the leftovers at the end of the month, and someone decided that it all would not fit in the bin.

[cookiewales]

Check out ced offers I spoke to them yesterday they have 50 mm planks £35 m2

[simonn]

Thanks for the replies. Some follow up questions;

John156 - How long has it been down? did you do anything special for the construction to deal with the planks?

London Stone Paving - I'm happy to look at thicker planks, if anyone sells them. Perhaps looking online is the wrong way to do it. In the "Driveway Paving" of your website you have 900×200×25mm granite planks for reasonable looking price - would they need any particular construction? I couldn't see anything specific for them on your site.

lemoncurd1702 - Driveline Metro isn't quite what I am after, but thanks for the pointer!

Cookie - which CED branch was it you spoke with?

If anyone knows where I might get sawn sandstone planks which look a bit like the Strata product, but thick enough to lay as a drive, I'd love to know.

[sy76uk]

I stand by what others have said about 250mm being to thin but would also like to add that the surface area sounds too big.
a small but thick paver is stronger than a large thin one.
40mm granite laid on a solid base would be the minimum I'd risk driving on.

[cookiewales]

Thanks for the replies. Some follow up questions;

John156 - How long has it been down? did you do anything special for the construction to deal with the planks?

London Stone Paving - I'm happy to look at thicker planks, if anyone sells them. Perhaps looking online is the wrong way to do it. In the "Driveway Paving" of your website you have 900×200×25mm granite planks for reasonable looking price - would they need any particular construction? I couldn't see anything specific for them on your site.

lemoncurd1702 - Driveline Metro isn't quite what I am after, but thanks for the pointer!

Cookie - which CED branch was it you spoke with?

If anyone knows where I might get sawn sandstone planks which look a bit like the Strata product, but thick enough to lay as a drive, I'd love to know.

Thurrock they just pallet line them anywhere