Driveways - the lowest of the low

[Timetogetgone]

Hi! I’m in a housing association property and desperately need a driveway put in. There’s been several crashes on the road and I really don’t want my car written off!

Much like everyone, I want to keep costs down as low as possible and don’t mind hard graft but I need a driveway and will have to pay the professionals.

I’m based in Buckinghamshire and was wondering if anyone down south (as I know there is cost differences) what was the cheapest you paid for your driveway!

Has anyone DIY’d it?

Hi OP, I am not familiar with this at all so may be entirely wrong here but I would assume that you put in a request to the association and ask the to do the work. Or ask them to do the work and you part fund it. They own the land so it is their responsibility. If you do this without them then you would have to return it to garden or whatever is there now when you move on. You are also liable for insurance and all the additional associated costs. You also need permission to drop a curb which they can deal with.

I would come up with a robust needs based argument and put it to them before you spend anything

Yes we did it ourselves, just pulled up the old bricks, knocked down the old wall, and then got a load of hardcore from Wickes and hired a whacker to firm it down.
Then sand on top and the blocks back down.
The hard part was getting the levels to all flow into each other, the original drive was flat, but the new one had to raise up to join the pavement, match up with the shared driveway, and actually be lowered at the house end due to dpc issues.
But in the end it came out brilliantly and it literally cost us a few hundred due to reusing the blocks.
It was my weekend job for about 2 months though.
Edit: oh yes and we also paid a couple of hundred for rubble disposal, that included loads of random lumps of concrete that were scattered around the back garden, and some other low walls at the back.

South wales - monmouthshire.
We paid about 8k I think (also got garage rebuilt at the same so all the costs have lumped together in my brain).

That included:
Digging up the lawn
Levelling out and putting in hardcore
Drainable resin
Putting in a new 6ft garden fence and gate.

It was put in round the back as the garages are in the back gardens and face out onto a land - there was no pavement or dropped kerb to consider. We did pay £25 to the council for a review to get in writing that we did not need planning for either the garage rebuild or the driveway.

Where we are, about 30 miles south of Bucks, it has to be done by the local council, you can't just arrange it yourself.
Not sure if this differs with HA properties or for your local area, but I'd be inclined to contact your local council first. Last time I heard which was about 5 years ago, our council charged about £800 to do it.

If you need a dropped kerb then you will need a license from the highway authority and will need to use approved contractors to do the alterations to the kerb. If it's a classified road (A,B or C) you will also need planning permission.

I'd double check your local council website, where we are you need planning permission for a hard surfaced drive (lconcrete/brickweave etc) due to flood risks. Gravel is fine though so that's what we used!