Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Flip

Original poster

Gravel driveway?

18 replies

JasmineBelle · 05/04/2018 16:30

I'd like to extend my existing driveway and am looking at options.

At the moment it's slabs but the area isn't big enough for 2 cars so I keep clipping the corner of the lawn and it's starting to look a muddy mess. I'd like to get rid of the lawn to save on cutting the grass. And just have the drive cover the whole front area.

Ideally I'd like a smart paved drive but the cost is looking to be over our budget. Does anyone have any experience with gravel drives? My DH's worried the gravel will travel and look a bit rubbish quite quickly.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. We're not very good at DIY ourselves.

OP posts:

AnnieOH1 · 05/04/2018 16:38

We've used the interlocking grid things for our extension over old lawn, cost just under £400 all in (sand membrane gravel grids cement etc) but can have soil and grass laid in it. The existing gravel driveway is a total PITA, because we come out of parking spaces with an immediate right angled turn onto main gravel drive it travels everywhere. The red stones we've laid as the additional parking area don't move. (The remaining stones are white so yes I can tell!)

Humptynumpty02 · 05/04/2018 16:58

We're currently looking into the interlocking grids, do they really keep all the gravel in?

EleanorRobinson · 05/04/2018 17:59

Gravel does settle over time - at first it will be everywhere but eventually it won’t be such a problem. I love gravel drives (and have always felt they are an excellent intruder deterrent too, because of the noise)

GreenTulips · 05/04/2018 18:02

Gets everywhere
Stuck in your shoes - then all over the house
Cats shit in it
Can push a pram over it
Can't ride a bike on it
Covers the pavement - due to car on/off

Justgivemesomepeace · 05/04/2018 18:02

I was always getting it stuck in peoples shoes and having it walked through the house. The neighbourhood cats thought it was a big litter tray and the poo was camouflaged really well in the gravel. I had it flagged over.

Original poster

JasmineBelle · 05/04/2018 18:33

Thanks for your replies, I think I've changed my mind about gravel already! I didn't think about it getting walked in the house... and the poo! Better get saving for something more permanent.

OP posts:

purplecorkheart · 05/04/2018 18:37

Avoid at all costs if you have a wooden floor. Family member has it down and her kids and their friends 'forget' to take of their shoes if home alone. The floor in the hall is wrecked. The gravel driveway does look fab though.

carrielou2007 · 05/04/2018 18:51

We moved a week before Christmas and one of my must haves after terrible parking in old house was a private driveway for 2/3 cars. Our new house had one space hard standing and two spaces with gravel (plus post/railing and tree so had to shuffle cars around). Had tree, one post and railing removed and lot block paved. No gravel all over the road and pavement mixed with leaves and cat poo. Don’t do it!!

phoenix1973 · 05/04/2018 19:19

The local kids just love to run through gravel. Cat litter lookalike too.
Only good thing is you can hear who's on your driveway.

eggsandwich · 05/04/2018 19:20

We’ve got a large gravel driveway which can take 5/6 vehicles, we got it mainly because of drainage when it rains, but ideally especially when my children were young and one was in a wheelchair it was bloody hard dragging the wheelchair across the drive.

A lot depends on what size gravel you have, ours is 20 Mill but neighbors of ours have smaller mill gravel that gets stuck in their shoes.

My sister also has a gravel drive and she has the interlocking grid which works really well, prior to that she use to have small gravel without interlocking grid and it was a pain, but ours is ok though from time to time I do rake it and occasionally we have to top the gravel up with more, but it’s great when it rains heavily.

OctoberOctober · 05/04/2018 19:25

If you go for the larger gravel I don't see how it will get trodden inside (20mm). We are currently parking on neighbours gravel drive and it doesn't come inside or get stuck in the car tyres. Doesn't seem to be an issue with it going over the pavement either. I was surprised as I was expecting all the issues raised above!

MissFritton65 · 05/04/2018 19:44

We have a gravel drive with the larger sized stones and don't have any problems with it getting stuck in shoes or tyres. Ours has been down for 10 years and we have just had some more delivered as it has gone "bald" in places. It is excellent for security as you can hear most movement on it. I'd thoroughly recommend it.

Original poster

JasmineBelle · 05/04/2018 20:50

Thank you so much everyone. You've given me lots to think about and have raised things I hadn't considered. Will have another chat with DH.

OP posts:

PigletJohn · 05/04/2018 21:16

don't use gravel. The correct material is called (there are regional names) Hoggin, which is a blend of sand and stones with enough clay to bind it. It is laid and rolled or compacted. If it ruts, it can be raked and rolled again. It usually doesn't. It should be smooth and slightly domed, like a road.

I've had a house with a hoggin drive and paths more than a hundred years old, it was still sound but untidy where some ignorant person had poured pea shingle over it. I had to dig a trench for a new water pipe, it needed a pickaxe.

Lowdoorinthewal1 · 05/04/2018 21:28

Our gravel out front (we live in a 'gated complex' ) is in this rubber hexagonal mesh to stop it moving. Is that what people are calling interlocking grids? It's completely fine- easy to walk on, the kids ride their bikes on it, it never comes in the house. However, when next door moved in their large removal lorry pulled it all up into waves and it had to be re-laid, so it is not infallible in every situation.

On the other hand, DH works at a very fancy school which has gravel covering the central quad area. It's a nightmare in all situations. Like walking in eternal snow. If I had an office on the far side of the quad I'd be going to work in crampons. Totally shit. (That said, it does make a nice, echoey crunch under the wheels of the parents' jaguars and looked good on the set of Wolf Hall.)

BubblesBuddy · 05/04/2018 21:38

We have a combination of tarmac, York stone and gravel sections. We must be a cat free zone as no problems there.

The tarmac section has a surface water drain and we also have a York stone path to the front door and connecting the upper drive to the lower drive. The lower drive is completely gravel. We have granite sets which keep the gravel in place.

There isn’t a cheap solution for a decent drive but a good one will last for many years. DH is a civil engineer and we would not have Hoggin as a top finish. It’s not very smart. Marshall pavers if you cannot afford York stone are more stylish.

8misskitty8 · 05/04/2018 23:53

OP, your local council might not allow a gravel drive.
When we extended our house we made the whole front garden into a drive (it had a monoblock space for one car originally), we didn’t make the drop kerb bigger or anything. Just the actual parking area. The council stipulated that the first 2 metres of our drive had to be made of a solid material to ensure no chipped stones would enter the road and potentially damage cars.

Youradviceneeded · 06/04/2018 00:06

We have gravel and I haven't experienced any of the problems listed. No cat poo (despite neighbours having cats which always come across our drive), doesn't get stuck in our shoes or tyres, I've pushed the pushchair over it hundreds of times very easily etc. You don't need a super thick layer. I also like that I can hear people approaching as I think it is good security. We have had an extra load of gravel dumped once in 10 years as it was going bald in places. I think the grid things that you can put down before the gravel do help to contain it and I wish we had them, but no great shakes.

Flip