Newbie advice - Block paving above grass level

[henspeed]

Hi all, I am new to this forum so please be easy on me.
I am looking to block pave my drive (approx 180m2) and have the following query.
My existing drive is hardcore from when the house was built (4 yrs ago) The existing hardcore sits flush with the grass and the entrance to the drive, I know normally you would excavate out to 250mm then build from there but the problem I have is that the ground is extremely hard i.e about 2 ot 3 inches then on solid rock.
Is is possible to use the existing hardcore as a base then re compact and dress up and go for it with the sand etc
If this is the case then how would I go about sorting out the edges to the garden and drive to look good.
I was thinking of either sloping my soldier course up the way or buildign a low wall around the perimiter to give me the depth I require. The DPC on the house side aint such an issue as it is about 600mm off the surface of the drive at the moment due to the hard ground as mentioned before.
I really dont want to have to go in heavy handed with a breaker to get down to the required level.
I hope you can visualise what I am trying to say and thanks for your help.

[cookiewales]

if your sure that your on bedrock you will be fine your new build up from bedrock 75mm type1mot 30 to 40mm sharp sand then blocks 50mm or 60mm normally we would raise the garden height.to the flow of the drive if you look on the websites of the boys in the brew cabin you will see the diffrence it makes.also leaves you with lots of options mowing straight on to blocks low box hedging which would also hide change of levels or a planting strip hope this helps cheers cookie :;): :;):