Will I regret a gravel driveway?

[Becauseyouaskednicely]

This is my house. I have a tarmac driveway and then paving slabs closer to the house. It’s all very tired looking and needs sprucing. I plan to create a flower bed the whole width of the downstairs window and paint the side gate black. Also need to tidy up the front garden. I would looove to add gravel to the tarmac and paving slabs closer - I think it looks so lovely and almost every other house on my street has gravel. I would do this myself using gravel grids as I’m on a budget. But I’m worried I’ll regret it! Can’t afford to otherwise re-do the drive. So please let me have your thoughts:

1. Option 1 - cover the tarmac and paving slabs with gravel.
2. Option 2 - jet wash the paving slabs and use tarmac refresher paint on the gravel but otherwise leave as is, you will regret the gravel.

Team Gravel

@RuttleTuttle here’s an ai image of the gravel, it’s so lovely!

Definitely gravel, it will look lovely

Gravel on top of a hard surface will be a bit slippery when wet I would think? Also would it not create a lip trying to build and edge to retain/contain it?

It also always ends up migrating to the road.

Have you considered resin bound? That can be laid on top of tarmac, looks like gravel but doesn't slip and migrate? Costs more than gravel though.

Re the AI pic ....it looks lovely because it's refreshed absolutely everything in the picture! Including the render/paint on your house.

Unless you want to spend lots of time weeding don’t get gravel. As pp has said resin bound is nice and looks much better than tarmac.

If you have a bigger house and a larger drive area gravel looks good to me.

I would probably take up the tarmac though and put a good membrane in and all other weed prevention measures they might recommend as well as retainers.

Resin bound also a good idea.

Properly installed resin bound should not be laid on to existing tarmac. Resin bound is porous, and wearing course tarmac usually isn't. The reason lots of them fail is due to water entrapment and freeze/thaw expansion breaking down the material.

Conversely you could opt for lesser known resin bonded - non porous, and designed to be laid to wearing course tarmac or concrete - looks more natural, is cheaper and much more slip resistant.

My friend has gravel but block paved a decent area next to the road so it doesn't go everywhere.

Gravel is good for security as you hear people walking on it.

You do need to weed it.

It's hard work for weely bins.

Your neighbours will regret the gravel, even if you don't. It will be all over thr path and road near your house. That stuff does not stay still.

We bought a house with a gravel driveway, it had almost entirely disappeared under weeds. We've cleared it and I have to hoe it weekly to keep the seedlings down. Also need to sweep the road regularly to catch the escapees.

We plan to pave it when funds allow.

Also discovered no less than 4 manhole covers under the gravel - but that's a seperate issue really!

Don’t get gravel. Weeds grow through it. Wheelchairs and other wheeled things get stuck in it. My neighbours have gravel and half of it is over the pavement, in the road gutters, and in most of the neighbours drive, including mine. They regret having it done and are now looking to replace it with slabs.

Imo you have too much hedge/trees to go with loose stone. I can see where grass is building up along the kerb edge.

You will go from a quick sweep /leafblower to gravel raking.

To get a proper install of stone you would have to dig down from the current level removing the current surface and build a proper level back up in the grids.

And tbh under the window i would opt for pots which you can switch out by season rather than opening up a flower bed of fixed shrubs/flowers

You can put a walkway with slabs by the side for wheelie bins, wheelchairs and walking on.

It looks like the OP has most of this in place already.

Gravel can be retained and anything than escapes its a 2 minute job to sweep it up, nothing compared to dealing with the leaves that are normally around in a big house.

Gravel driveways really annoy me when there is gravel all over the adjacent pavement Really unpleasant to walk on. We have several in our street.

We have gravel on our front. It’s a nightmare! My daughter struggles the wheel the pram over when she comes round. My poor doddery mum is very unstable on it and has to have someone walk her across it. And I’ve stumbled and hurt both ankles at different times carrying shopping over it. It’s even worse when covered with ice or snow.

Can’t wait to get rid of it!

A resin driveway sounds lovely but also very expensive! Gravel, on the other hand, I can do myself for £250-£500 depending on the type of gravel I go for. So really it’s either gravel or keeping as is - the tarmac renewer is itself circa £100.

I’m not too worried about bins or prams - we are beyond the pram years and hopefully a couple of decades away from grandkids. And DH does the bins lol.

I would say 70% of the houses on my very long road have gravel. I suspect because we all have large driveways and it’s the cheapest attractive material. I’ve not previously noticed gravel on pavements or the road as an issue so perhaps everyone is very good at sweeping it up!

Very true re the ai pic. I used it as inspiration and, since taking the photo, I’ve almost finished repainting my house and have painted the door, gate and garage myself! A massive refresh just for the price of paint. Just need to do the bit above the door.

I have gravel next to my driveway (on what was once the lawn. I also have gravel on the driveway and spend half my life putting it back where it is supposed to be because it shouldn't be on the driveway. Gravel is a nightmare and it is going as soon as I can around it.

Gravel is a nightmare. We are surrounded by trees and the leaves and weeds are a nightmare to keep on top of with a gravel driveway.

You're not going to do that size of driveway in gravel for £250 plus you will also need retaining grids and you will need someone to install retaining edging.

Gravel is so noisy, it may piss off the neighbours if you arrive home late or early hours.

I'm afraid you absolutely do need to weed it. I'd love to post a photo (but I'm not that mean) of my poor neighbours' gravel drive which is an unsightly mass of weeds that they can't keep on top of (two owners previous to them had it laid so it's not our neighbours fault).

Resin bound looks great but is quite expensive. Another option would be to get a specialist tradesman to clean your drive and paving slabs using sodium hypochlorite (you need a licence to use it). I did this when I moved into my current house, which looked tired from the outside. It brought everything up beautifully and meant I had money to spare for some new planting ( it cost about £150). Several of my neighbours have since had theirs done.

Your driveway won't look like the AI picture for more than about 10 minutes ... as pp's have said, gravel gets everywhere.

Oh and it cost me nearly £250 in gravel for a 1 x 4 metre strip in my garden so I'd up your budget whatever you chose to do.