Front Garden Drive Conversion issues

Joined
26 Mar 2022
Messages
21
Reaction score
1
Country
United Kingdom
Hi all,

Ordered a electric car and that along with parking issues on my road means I need to convert the front garden into a drive.

I don't know much about what I'm doing but with the help of AI, YouTube and here hope to pull it off!

Ive knocked the wall down to the 1st course - this seems rock solid and is sitting on a concrete foundation. The rest of the wall as it was 80 years old came down pretty quickly.

I'm planning on running some paving edging along the middle of the existing 1st course and fixing in place with concreate. Then I'm going to use MOT Type 3 as a sub base, then a weed barrier then probably the plastic grids and decorative gravel.

My issues are that my front garden slopes upwards from the house to the road and the pavement is quite high. I drove the Mrs Fiesta onto the 'drive' whene there where 2 courses and it bottomed out. My new car will weight 2 tonnes and have a battery in the floor so I want to avoid this!

Hopefully by using deep enough MOT and a whacker I can feather the drive on a angle so its not an issue.

Id be grateful of any guidance with regards to my plan!
 

Attachments

  • House.png
    House.png
    8 MB · Views: 8
  • 20260607_155235.jpg
    20260607_155235.jpg
    864.8 KB · Views: 8
Planning permission for dropping the kerb and making the garden into a drive?
Not yet but will when the drive is in place. TBH though there are at least 15 houses on the same road who haven't and have not had any issues. But obviously it will help with the bottoming out issue. My problem is the length of time the local council takes to make a decison and I need to charge my new car.
 
Not yet but will when the drive is in place. TBH though there are at least 15 houses on the same road who haven't and have not had any issues. But obviously it will help with the bottoming out issue. My problem is the length of time the local council takes to make a decison and I need to charge my new car.
If you dont have a drop kerb then how are you going to stop people from parking in front of your house and blocking your car in
 
If you dont have a drop kerb then how are you going to stop people from parking in front of your house and blocking your car in
I'm well aware that until I get a drop kerb that I cant - hopefully people will see my car charging on the drive and not park in front. Like I mentioned there are many houses on the same street that do not have a dropped kerb so Its almost like a unwritten rule for the residents of the street.
 
Not yet but will when the drive is in place. TBH though there are at least 15 houses on the same road who haven't and have not had any issues. But obviously it will help with the bottoming out issue. My problem is the length of time the local council takes to make a decison and I need to charge my new car.

Around here they ask for planning permission to create a drive AND permission to have the kerb dropped
 
Hopefully by using deep enough MOT and a whacker I can feather the drive on a angle so its not an issue.
Putting everything else aside, this is your solution in a nutshell. You have the sharp outmost edge of your (upwards) incline drive meeting the sharp inside edge of the public footpath. We had exactly this issue in a house I lived in years back. The drive was part of the original build so had the drop kerb. However the underside of my car slightly scraped the intersection of drive and path.

A general builder took out the two slabs that met the footpath (it was a slabbed and chipped drive) and essentially created a slight curve with cement. I think he slightly went into the public pathway with the concrete but I mean only slightly, not half way across!

Did the trick.
 

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Back
Top