Nidagravel - Does anyone have any experience

[suzieshaw]

Does anyone have any experience of Nidagravel. the website is www.nidagravel.co.uk. It is a plastic honeycomb matting that you lay on top of a subbase and then pour clean gravel into it. It seems to meet all my needs - i need to find a surface for our 860m2 drive which currently has an old tarmac which is beginning to break up. I didnt want the slightly suburban look of tarmac, i wanted something a bit more country. I am worried that with self binding gravel and 2 children and 2 dogs we will have muck in the house in the wet and i nearly had a heart attack when i got a quote for resin-bonded gravel. I wondered if anyone who had used it could tell me the pitfalls and good points. many thanks

[lutonlagerlout]

hmm looks ok,if the gravel drive is constructed properly and is fairly flat then you shouldn't get too much movement.
too many people try and gravel over concrete or tarmac,it needs to be on a flexible subbase i.e. type 1 MOT stone
what does it cost per m2 suzie?
LLL

[suzieshaw]

Thanks for such a quick response. It costs £12.50/ m2 for the plastic honeycomb. Then of course you've got the gravel and the sub base (which we already have with a bit of repairing ). The supplier says that the installers around him charge £45-50/m2 for a finished job including sub base. I hear from one of the suppliers that its been used at Oundle school so i'm trying to talk to one of the groundsmen to get the real story on how often he has to maintain or repair it. The problem is that because its quite a new product there aren't many places to go and see it near us, lots of the private clients have said they dont want to be reference sites as they dont want people coming to see their drives which is a bit miserable of them!

[lutonlagerlout]

on that sort of area suzie you would probably get it block paved for about £50 ish a metre
i would shop around a bit for quotes,£50 a m2 sounds a lot for plastic subbase and gravel
regards LLL

[Dave_L]

Red tarmac? Black tarmac with resin chips rolled into it to break up the blackness?

[Tony McC]

Nidaplast is a translucent version of the cell matrix idea. It's now distributed in Britain by CED after a lacklustre, half-hearted attempt by the Dutch manufacturer.

Some folk like the idea of it being translucent, but I find that this doesn't actually render it any more discreet than similar products coloured black or green. Also, I find the cell size a little small: this may be an advantage on driveways, but on a car park project I found it to be more of a hindrance.

Finally, there was an issue with it being somewhat more fragile than other products. This was explained to me as being a result of the over-riding desire to produce a translucent product, whereas those manufacturers producing coloured units are able to use additional plasticisers in the plastic mix, resulting in a more pliable, less fragile product. However, a month of so ago, I was chatting with an engineer who was after specifying it for a job in Cambridge (I think it was) and he said the supplier was claiming they'd changed the plastic recipe to improve pliability and durability.

[suzieshaw]

Thanks Tony, that is really helpful. I'm not put off yet! Now I know which questions to ask I shall get some references and make my decision. I will post here again with anything I discover. Can you just tell me how the cell size impacts the finished product please. Why would the smaller cell size possibly be an advantage on driveways? Do you think its worth looking at some other cell matrix products?

many thanks for your input

Suzie

[Tony McC]

Small size cells can look less 'industrial' on residential projects, but it really is a matter of personal taste.

If the only criterion was looks, I would probably suggest Hexapath for garden/light driveways and Aco GroundGuard for commercial projects.