gravel for drive

[Lalalandfill]

When I say drive, it's a parking space for two cars ...

But it has manky old gravel on it

Can anyone suggest where to get new gravel? And what do you do with it, just pour it out of the sack and rake it over? I feel there must be more to it than this ..

We have a driveway with gravel, it's great but the old owners just put stuff on top again and again and so now it spills into the grass verges.

I would be interested in any tips too!

It would be best to dig up the old first but certainly you could get away with pouring over the top and raking.

Builder's merchants such as Travis Perkins of Jewsons will sell gravel in bulk bags (delivered by hiab truck). You just need to shovel it out of the bulk bag and spread it with a rake.

To stop gravel spilling into lawns you need some type of edging - there are lots of different things you could use, have a Google.

e.g. this edging strip.

you can get gravel thats laid in a clear resin. It looks fantastic like nice clean shiny gravel - but doesnt move about and make the annoying gravel sound when you walk on it - assume its expensive though.

Get proper hard gravel, don't get Cotswold stone type stuff it just grinds down to mud. Yes to digging off the top layer first, don't just build it up.

The resin bound/bonded gravel is very expensive. You have to have several layers of stuff under the surface to make sure it doesn't break up. Looks nice, though.

Where are you? I have loads of decent stones in my back garden. If you want them and have a way of transporting them you're welcome to them.

You may need to shovel them up yourself though (i can provide coffee, cake if you're nice)

You need rolled Hoggin, not gravel.

It contains small stones, sand, and clay which binds it into a cohesive mass when firmly rolled. I have known it last a hundred years.

Avoid pea-shingle, widely (but wrongly) sold for drives and paths. It kicks up, goes into wheel ruts, and slides downhill or into drains.

A local paving company will know it, if they are any good.

This website is very good, it looks like it is written by a retired business owner.

p.s.

I just looked it up, and there are regional variations in name and composition.

He calls it "self-binding gravel"

You'd need to grade off any existing loose gravel to lay hoggin, and then compact the hoggin (in layers if more than 80mm deep) and then can top off with a wearing course of gravel.

Hoggin is just a mix of gravel, sand, silt and clay (grain sizes from large to fine) that compacts well as the finer grains fill in between the larger grains. Think hoggin is possibly a southern England name? Breedon Gravel is a trade name for a similar graded material.

Thanks everyone! Extremely useful info

I am in London Apfel, I suspect you're not but thank you anyway!

Lol. Bit far unless you fancy a trip to the Midlands...

Thanks anyway! And that website looks awesome, that'll be my go-to

I would avoid the self-binding gravels. We had it at our last house.. In many ways it was more practical than gravel as it didn't move about, but the tiny stones in it stuck in shoes treads and went everywhere. Very scratchy when they get walked indoors (even in a shoes off household they seemed to migrate indoors) and we were forever picking them out of the footwell of the cars.