Driveway refurb - Replacing paving stones with gravel?

[twigletz]

The driveway of my house has ugly old paving stones that we want to replace. Many of the nearby houses have gravel driveways which I think look much more natural and attractive. Some of them look like they're recent installations. I've mentioned the idea to a couple of people and they've reacted sceptically, as if they think gravel would be a liability, with vague mentions of stones spreading out onto the pavement, and weeds coming through. But the examples I see locally don't seem to have those issues. Does anyone have any insight/advice to offer?

If you do it dig deep anti weed matting - several layers and a deep load of gravel on top

Thanks, yes, we'd get it done professionally.

Don’t do it. Monoblock it instead. You will spend your life sweeping bits of Stray gravel

Make sure there’s a path for a buggy (even if just for the next inhabitants)

Might be worth looking at the porous resin bound gravel, it looks really nice although I admit I don't know how much it costs.

Thanks. Maybe that's what I'm seeing locally. I'll need to take a closer look.

Resin bound gravel yes, loose gravel no! Sticks in wheels, gets on the road and spreads everywhere and flicks up at the car.

We have a gravel drive and yes, the weeds coming through and stones going onto the pavement are really irritating. Also this time of year we get a lot of leaves from nearby trees - paving slabs, you can just sweep them up - gravel, you've got to do it all by hand. Will be replacing it with a non-gravel drive as soon as we can.

We have a gravel drive and have gravel matting under the gravel, game changer as the gravel 'sits' in the pockets so can't escape.

How big are the bits of gravel you are seeing?
I'd pea sized or smaller, it's probably resin bound, and go for it.

If conker sized, loose gravel, personally I'd avoid. My grandparents had it, and the only thing it was good for was letting you know someone was walking up the drive!

Our neighbours have a (poorly-executed DIY job) gravel drive. The stones are constantly spread across the pavement, outside regularly stinks from where they pour on bottles of citronella in a vain hope of stopping cats pooing in it, and the crunching is so loud when cars drive over it that we are woken every night when their adult son returns home between 11pm and 1am. They seem to be regularly out there raking it back flat too, as their cars make deep ruts pulling on and off.

I’d lift a few of the old stones first to see how deep the base is, because gravel behaves best on a solid, compacted layer. A membrane under the gravel helps stop weeds and keeps it looking neat. I did something similar and found the edging made the biggest difference in keeping the gravel from wandering. Kind of like how I use professional chimney cleaning in NJ for the jobs I’d rather not fuss over myself.