Widen driveway a tad-pedestrian

[Tigercubrider]

my drive can just accommodate 2 cars side by side.

When I get out I step onto the grass, and manoeuvring the car sometimes rips up the grass /public path/ lawn interface a little. In poor weather I tread mud through to the house

What I want to do is add 18"/50cm to the width -mainly as a footpath but also to take the weight of the car if I cock up reversing in.

The drive is just a 50's/60's concrete slab.
Ideally I would dig down a bit, add some kind of filler, a bit of concrete and finish with bought slabs.

Sound ok?
WhT to use as the filler/base?

It's pretty much the length of an estate car and 18"wide but I would rather not mix concrete as the top finish

Thanks

 

[Ian H]

You could bed cut 3x2's on a few inches of grit sand/cement mix.

 

[Alec_t]

How about using grass/ground reinforcement matting/grids, such as this?

 

[chris1982]

If it were me, I'd just put down some gravel. I'd remove two inches of the "mud", put down a weed control membrane, and after putting some edging fill with gravel.

 

[r896neo]

The normal make up for a concrete drive would be 150mm of type one MOT then 125mm of concrete. Obviously for occasional wheel and mainly pedestrian traffic that is overkill. However if you do plan to use slabs you will need a decent base to stop them cracking and flipping up at the edges.

I'd go for 75mm of compacted sub base and then lay the flags on a good solid bed of wet mortar. 4:1 grit sand : cement. You should add a little cement and sbr slurry to the back of the flags to make them stick really firmly as this will stop the car flipping the edges up as you weight one edge of the flag with a tyre.

The above is perhaps a little OTT but the proper way to do it so decide yourself how thoroughly you want to do it.

Rather than you sub base you could use semi dry concrete, the benefit of this is you wouldnt need to hire a plate compactor, walking it in would be enough but it will be more expensive to buy in. Ill let you work out the cost specifics.

2'' of gravel on a weed membrane is going to turn into soup the first time a wheel touches it in wet weather.