Video Transcript
Today I’m going to talk about our stabilised gravel driveways. So stabilised gravel is a system we’ve used for many, many years and it’s our most popular driveway solution.
So this driveway just looks like loose gravel, but underneath there’s a honeycomb tray. You can see here that the trays are being filled up with the loose gravel.
So the trays are very clever. They stop the gravel migrating as you drive across it. And have a number of benefits over just loose gravel.
You can see here that the trays have got fabric on the back, so that stops any weeds growing up through the driveway. It’s a simple product to install if you know what you’re doing.
This shows a video of a car going over the driveway. You can see that you can drive and steer in the same spot without it rutting up the gravel.
You can also pull a wheelie bin over the drive and should you wish to, you can walk over the drive in high heels without sinking in and damaging your shoes.
Paving Options
So we normally install the gravel with some other sort of paving. So here we’ve got a rumble strip at the entrance of the driveway, between the driveway and the roadside.
In this case it’s made of reclaimed cobble sets. And we’ve installed some gate posts as well, some old gate posts. And the idea of the rumble strip is partly for aesthetics, but also if any bits of gravel stick to the tires of the car, they go onto this rumble strip rather than just going onto the road.
So you can see there’s the odd bit of gravel that moves onto the rumble strip. We also use block paving for a rumble strip.
Block Paving and Gravel
This is a job we did a few years ago. Very important design detail is that this edge between the block paving and the gravel has a hidden bit of steel which holds the block paving in and keeps it all separate. If that’s not there, then you can get the block paving moving, which we don’t want.
This is a different sort of rumble strip. This is using an Indian sandstone flag. These are 50 millimeters thick, so extra thick, not the sort of thing you’d lay on your patio twice as thick.
So here you can see you’ve got a good size area that really sets off the driveway and provides a hard standing at the entrance of the drive.
Reclaimed Yorkstone
The edging of the driveway is very important. So here we’ve got reclaimed Yorkstone which was already on site, so it was an environmentally friendly way of doing the driveway.
And it really fits in with the house in this case. Here we’ve got a reclaimed cobble set. Which acts as a really neat edge to the driveway and we use a special compound for pointing which is a resin based compound which goes absolutely rock solid so it doesn’t come apart when you pressure wash it.
Indian Sandstone Curb
This is an Indian sandstone curb. So another sort of edging a little bit more modern, but a very high quality finish and this is a reclaimed kerb, so the sort of things that you might find in a high street many years ago. So we use those for driveway edges where needed.
Finished Stabilised Gravel Driveway in Knutsford
This shows a finished driveway that we did in Knutsford. It’s a golden gravel that we’ve used here. And one of the major benefits of the stabilised gravel system is the drainage.
So the water goes straight through it, through the trays, and you don’t need to allow for any water runoff, so it’s environmentally a very solid solution. This is the same job from a different angle.
And this is another job using the golden gravel, a really traditional house, and the driveway fits very well with that.
Contact Us Today
If you’re thinking about your next project and would like to discuss your design ideas and options, get in touch with the team at Creative Gardens & Driveways today.
