Gravel driveway

[Sosayshe]

Gravel driveway owners.

Do the local cats use it as a litter tray?

Really want one but our neighbour’s cats already use the back garden as their en-suite so OH isn’t keen.....

I haven’t seen it happen to ours when we had cars our neighbors but I don’t really watch the driveways. We are going for gravel again as it is much much much more cost effective and I quite like it.

It's a no from it devalues a property for resale and looks so messy

No. But we don't have many cats near us, mostly dogs. However, we occasionally find cat poo in the flower bed beside the driveway.

I like the gravel driveway for aesthetics, drainage and security.

We've not had that issue...although it's a nightmare with the pushchair!

No, generally gravel is a bit large for cats. But flower beds though...

It's a very good option environmentally and aesthetically.

And despite PP above I've never seen it implied that it devalues a house.

I think it will be easy to keep it looking clean and fresh. I'd have loved a gravel path in our old house. We had a concrete drive and then block paving. But both ended up looking awful as tree roots grew and made the surface uneven. Unfortunately the drive was on a slope so gravel would have ended up at the bottom!

Never heard the idea that it would devalue a house. I associate gravel with large country houses and visitors crunching over it! And yes, the crunching is a great security benefit.

We get cat poo in the flower beds next to the gravel drive, but never in the gravel.

Agreed good from a security point of view, rubbish for pushchairs.

We've recently removed the gravel from our driveway partly for this reason.

Our neighbour's cat used the small gravel as litter plus the small stones stuck onto everything and constantly got trailed through the house.

I liked the scrunchy sound of it (you could hear someone walking up the drive) but it was just too messy. It got hills and valleys in it from doing the same manoeuvres in the car over and over plus any moss was tricky to remove. We're pleased the gravel has gone now and it's much tidier.

How about bigger gravel, and a path for the pushchair?
We've got one and the cats don't use it and I can hear anyone walking on it - but it was a nightmare with a buggy. My neighbour has a few flagstones in hers that make a path and that's much easier.

@IvySpivey

No, generally gravel is a bit large for cats. But flower beds though...

It's a very good option environmentally and aesthetically.

And despite PP above I've never seen it implied that it devalues a house.

Wish my cat would get this message - she'll happily use our large slated flower borders as a toilet - she'd love a bit of gravel instead!

I don't think there's any guarantee OP - some cats will use it, others won't.

We put a liner under ours as well as gridding so that we can park on it, and this seems to deter the cats. We have a pathway through the middle for the pushchair

I hated our one - messy, looks untidy, always came out of the actual driveway so needed sweeping but most importantly, ruined all my shoes.

Having said that, we couldn't afford anything different and never had issues with neighbours cats.

Borders 2 bricks high either side of the gravel driveway keep the gravel in place. It is annoying when it gets stuck in the grooves of (mostly DH's) shoes and is brought into the pitch but that's not enough of a reason to not have it.

We have a gravel drive and 2 cats. They have never poo'd on it. It looks really smart and the gravel crunch underfoot sound is a good burglar deterrent I'm told. Go for it.

Ours is excellent. Cats hate walking on it, think it hurts them, and it needs absolutely no maintenance because it has a membrane under, and edges. Also permeable so much better for local drainage.

We have a big gravel driveway but then a stone patio off the drive leading to the doors so this mitigates the stones being brought into the house problem. The scrunchy sound is great for security (we are quite rural) and to be honest if there is rogue poo (cat's/foxes) it tends to be in the flower beds or the on the grass.

we currently have tarmac but are replacing that with gravel (on top). I like it. It sounds posh

Hi all. Thanks for all your help and sorry for slow response it’s been a manic couple of toddler days. It’s been really helpful to get the cross section of thoughts!

I’ve had a gravel driveway on two houses. The last one was the larger gravel and it was awful and it was laid too deep. It was like clambering over a stony beach. Even after having lots of the gravel removed, there was no chance of pushing a pushchair on it and you couldn’t walk on it in heels. The gravel driveway I have now is the smaller shingle and I really like it. It does get stuck on the soles of some shoes but we don’t wear shoes inside anyway. Cats have never used either but they do use the flower beds.

Our neighbours have cats and we have never had an issue with them toileting on our gravel part of the drive.

Do invest in a good weed fabric though if you are laying the drive!

Forgot to add we used a lime stone, bigger pieces and a lovely light grey colour that looks fresh

Small gravel gets stuck in shoes. Large gravel is slippery (I've actually gone over on our crap gravel drive).

I'm hoping to get rid of it and install resin bound gravel ASAP.