Driveway surface..

[PK99]

I think it is all down to the preparation and base layers
Hence the quality of the workmanship is critical - but you can;t really judge that at the time - or at least the average person can't.
So the only chance you really have is to try and check previous work and references and then hope for the best.
Often you only find out is was sub standard a few years later - unless it is REALLY bad

indeed. And for that reason, it is always best to use an established local contractor trading on reputation.

More expensive but more peace of mind.

This < https://www.pavingexpert.com/ > is an outstandingly good source of guidance on all things paving and landscaping.
Good way to use this is to gen up on the industry norms for the Job in hand and judge the contractor by what they propose - and get a specification not just a price.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

We used a parent from the school where I used to teach
He had a good reputation according to the staff at the school - and I knew that his kids were clever, sensible, polite and well behaved

He mostly did a good job when he did it himself - but he also had to manage some bigger jobs elsewhere so he left he 'lads' to get on with it quite a lot and some of the work they did then was not so good
He did come back and fix some things - but I think he was growing the company too fast and was let down by some workers he thought he could trust - when he came back it sounds like he had reverted to just doing jobs he could do himself - or at least be on site himself most of the time.

Luckily enough the main driveway was done with him there - so it seems mostly OK - just about 3 slabs came loose which the bloke next door fixed when he was building his massive extension as a "Thank You" for putting up with the noise and mess and letting the diggers go over our drive

 

[PK99]

We used a parent from the school where I used to teach
He had a good reputation according to the staff at the school - and I knew that his kids were clever, sensible, polite and well behaved

He mostly did a good job when he did it himself - but he also had to manage some bigger jobs elsewhere so he left he 'lads' to get on with it quite a lot and some of the work they did then was not so good
He did come back and fix some things - but I think he was growing the company too fast and was let down by some workers he thought he could trust - when he came back it sounds like he had reverted to just doing jobs he could do himself - or at least be on site himself most of the time.

Luckily enough the main driveway was done with him there - so it seems mostly OK - just about 3 slabs came loose which the bloke next door fixed when he was building his massive extension as a "Thank You" for putting up with the noise and mess and letting the diggers go over our drive

Local .... tick
Reputation .... half a tick
Established.... no tick

We have a local Roofing company. Guy who runs it has been in the business for 40plus years.
Reputation is for excellent work but high price.
He gave up the tools many years ago, but he prices every job and visits every job in progress. On our job, he visited on each of the three days.

Sounds like your paving guy was like many in the business - good on the tools but less able at running concurrent jobs.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Local .... tick
Reputation .... half a tick
Established.... no tick

We have a local Roofing company. Guy who runs it has been in the business for 40plus years.
Reputation is for excellent work but high price.
He gave up the tools many years ago, but he prices every job and visits every job in progress. On our job, he visited on each of the three days.

Sounds like your paving guy was like many in the business - good on the tools but less able at running concurrent jobs.

Yes - that is what it looked like

but he was established - been well know for quite a few years but had a new contract which involved a lotof extra work
as you say - not so good at running concurrent jobs - i.e. management

 

[postman]

We also need the driveway doing this year.Its paving slabs.So its going to be paving slabs again,we will need a better base we are going to reuse those that can be saved plus we are pulling up the short paved patio under the conservatory door.Reuse them on the driveway,put down membrane and pebble the patio.The plan is to retire to Northumberland so a better driveway can be done by the new owners.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

As far as weeds are concerned - is it not better to just spray some weedkiller all over once a year
it doesn't matter how good the base layer is or what membrane you use
if you have the smallest gap that some organic matter can get into a weed will find it and grow

personally I use one of the butane flame weed burners
probably inefficient and time intensive
but far more manly

or maybe I just like playing with fire??

 

[Dave7]

As far as weeds are concerned - is it not better to just spray some weedkiller all over once a year
it doesn't matter how good the base layer is or what membrane you use
if you have the smallest gap that some organic matter can get into a weed will find it and grow

personally I use one of the butane flame weed burners
probably inefficient and time intensive
but far more manly

or maybe I just like playing with fire??

That will work well on a tarmac drive

 

[Chislenko]

As far as weeds are concerned - is it not better to just spray some weedkiller all over once a year

To be honest modern day weedkillers are so diluted down they don't really do the job and new growth starts almost immediately.

Now if you could still get that kill all stuff they banned !

 

[CXRAndy]

But now that I park on it regularly, it has sunk fractionally in places

Sorry to say, shoddy workmanship. The installer should have dug down minimum 6" more like 10" covered in inch clean limestone, wacker plated to create a hard substrate

My drive has been down 18 years, no sinking even with delivery trucks over it. Full of weeds though

Never again will I block pave a drive

 

[pawl]

Sorry to say, shoddy workmanship. The installer should have dug down minimum 6" more like 10" covered in inch clean limestone, wacker plated to create a hard substrate

My drive has been down 18 years, no sinking even with delivery trucks over it. Full of weeds though

Never again will I block pave a drive

That’s exactly why I had a tarmac drive laid I have block paving paths but even with a pores membrane weeds still manage to grow in the cracks

 

[nickyboy]

As far as weeds are concerned - is it not better to just spray some weedkiller all over once a year
it doesn't matter how good the base layer is or what membrane you use
if you have the smallest gap that some organic matter can get into a weed will find it and grow

personally I use one of the butane flame weed burners
probably inefficient and time intensive
but far more manly

or maybe I just like playing with fire??

I have a large block paved drive/parking area...about 100m2. It has fairly large gaps which fill up with organic matter

Spray in April with a Glyphosate-based weed killer and apart from a few dandelions in the Autumn, no weeding required. I do scrape out the moss and organic matter during particularly dry spells

 

[Chislenko]

I have a large block paved drive/parking area...about 100m2. It has fairly large gaps which fill up with organic matter

Spray in April with a Glyphosate-based weed killer and apart from a few dandelions in the Autumn, no weeding required. I do scrape out the moss and organic matter during particularly dry spells

Imprinted concrete drive now down and sealed.

Made up with it and more made up that I won't be weeding the replaced block paving anymore 😀

 

[keithmac]

There's two types of resin drive, porous and waterproof.

I think we will go porous resin with ours when the time comes, been a few done down our street and they've all stood up very well to cars and foot traffic.

 

[JhnBssll]

My block paving is 2 months old and still pristine, I don't know what you guys are talking about 😋

 

[potsy]

There's two types of resin drive, porous and waterproof.

I think we will go porous resin with ours when the time comes, been a few done down our street and they've all stood up very well to cars and foot traffic.

I am leaning towards porous resin myself now, just been looking at a local firm that has been putting pictures of their work up on FB, will get a couple of quotes soon and see