Project driveway

[festive]

After getting some horrific quotes for block paving we've decided to try and do some of it ourselves. Ive done a fair amount of building work but hands up when it comes to garden landscaping and groundworks all I've done is dig up gardens and lay paving slabs on sand.



The current driveway as you can see is shagged, as are all the edging stones. Plus we want to make the turning area is wider. Also the driveway has an aggressive surface curve i guess prevent standing water, it's way too high in the middle. Water just collects along the edges and doesn't drain off.

The very front section i think is an issue as we have a 100ft pine tree there and the roots as you can see have already cracked the existing wall (i guess the wall is 8years old) we wanted to block pave the first six foot then add a threshold and add shingle thereafter( i will hire a professional for this)

What we would like is the following:

New Bricked pillars for 6ft gates
New wall at front (or fence over the front and paint the wall black)
New driveway edging reformed to follow different shape
New later of type 1 hardcode pack down with wacker?
Lay of new turf/lawn (under pine tree is that not good?)

The plan would be something like

Remove the old macadam driveway and the base (hardcore)
Mark out new driveway set in new edging stones
Apply type 1 hardcore pack flat
Apply top layer of pea shingle (or whatever!)

Any pointers or advice appreciated.
Anyone know here we could purchase some nice edging stones from without spending ages driving round builders merchants browsing catalogues agh!

Tia

 

[wrathkeg]

i can't offer any specific suggestions, but this book might be worth a look as it seems to deal with exactly your kind of situation...

http://www.pavingexpert.com/book01.htm

 

[ivixor]

Yep, but leave the hardcore in place. It still works!

Also I'd just pressure wash the walls and give them a fresh coat of paint. They look perfectly sound and just need a bit of a spruce up.

 

[wrathkeg]

since you believe the tree to have damaged the wall, you might also take into account the possibility of the tree doing similar to any new paving.

as for a lawn under the tree: it's never going to be great because of the light and water the tree soaks up. You don't see many pine forests with lush green grass.

 

[eddieed]

Don't use pea shingle use something bigger. It gets stuck in shoes, car tires and will travel everywhere including into your house. We used a 20mm on our drive to replace the pea shingle and have never regretted it.

 

[J_N30]

I'd lose the tree. Is it damaging the foundations of the house? As above pea shingle will be terrible. You want something like a Cotswold chipping so you don't sink on it when you walk/drive!