The Brew Cabin

Dear Paving Expert,

Excellent site - loads of useful stuff all very well explained. I'm now just about brave (or foolhardy!)enough to have a go myself but need some advice.

I have a block paved driveway which I would like to extend to either side (typical of modern houses you have to stand on the grass to get in/out of the car and in the winter it turns into a mess).

The driveway is currently just a simple rectangular area edged with plain concrete kerbing. I could leave the kerb in place but it would look a bit naff.

Question is, is it practical to extend an existing paved area without re-laying the whole lot? Any comments would be appreciated.

Hi Jim,

I don't know why so many modern housebuilders are so bloody stingy with the driveways. They seem to think 2.4m wide is plenty, and that folk who have just spend 100K+ on one of their homes won't mind stepping out of their car onto wet grass and mud because they have faux gold-plated taps oin the downstairs bog-room. One of the most popular requests we got from new housing estates was to widen existing driveways, as more or less every household capable of affording a mortgage thesedays has to have two partners working and therefore 2 cars to squeeze onto a just-about 1 car driveway.

You can extend what you have no problem, but I'd lose the plain concrete kerb otherwise it will stand out like the proverbial sore thumb. Here's a typical sequence of operations...

1 - excavate either side of drive to accommodate extra woiidth, remembering to add 'working room' of at least 100mm

2 - lay new kerbs and/or restrained soldier edging and haunch with concrete

3 - lay sub-base

(all this means you can get the essential preparatory work done without losing use of the existing driveway until it's absolutely essential)

4 - rip out existing pcc kerb and take out and edging blocks and/or cut blocks

5 - spread, compact and screed new bedding layer of grit sand

6 - lay new blocks, working from existing paving on both edges. Piece in as required.

7 - sand and wacker the lot.

8 - retire to pub. I'll have a bucket of Boddington's, please :)

How's that?

Dear Tony.

Thanks for the reply - goodness me - that was quick!

Can't agree more about some housebuilders - just a few more quid and a little bit of thought and the end result would be a lot better. Mind you, didn't stop us from buying the place.........

It all sounds very do-able. Any tips for avoiding a ridge or trough at the boundary of the existing drive where I have disturbed the bedding/sub-base?

All I've got to do now is work out which blocks were used (the house is about 3 years old) as they are a bit weathered and it's really not that easy.

Many thanks,

When you spread the bedding sand, compact right up to the edge of the existing paving, then lift off the first course of the old stuff, screed your bed including the bit where the old blocks go back, and then relay. That usually works.

When it comes to identifying blocks, send me a piccie, prefereably a close up and I'll see if I can help. Alternatively, try describing them in as much detail as you can and I'll post pictures showing possibilities.