Resin Driveways in Solihull
Washed stone and resin trowelled over a solid base. Smooth to walk on, easy to sweep, and rain soaks straight through it.
What resin bound actually is
Dried, graded stone is mixed with a clear resin in a forced action mixer, then trowelled out by hand while it is still workable. Every stone gets coated, so the surface holds together as one piece with small voids between the stones. That is what makes it permeable, and it is why a resin bound drive has no loose gravel to kick into the road.
Resin bonded is a different product. There, loose stone is scattered onto a resin coated slab, so only the bottom of each stone is stuck down. It sheds grit, it is not permeable, and we do not sell it as resin bound.
Those are guide bands taken from published UK cost surveys, not a quote. Your price comes from the survey and is fixed in writing.
Permeable, and what that means for planning
In England you need planning permission for a new front driveway over five square metres only when the surface is hard, non-permeable, and drains onto the road. A correctly built resin bound drive drains through itself into the ground below, so it sits outside that rule at any size.
The catch is the layer underneath. A permeable surface over a sealed concrete slab has nowhere to send the water, and it will pond. Where we are building for permeability we lay an open textured base course so the water carries on down. If the ground below is heavy clay, we will tell you at the survey and price a soakaway or a channel drain instead of pretending the problem away.
How we build it
- Dig out. Excavate to formation, load out, and cart the spoil away on a licensed ticket.
- Edges. Concrete haunched edgings or a block soldier course, set to the finished level before anything else goes down.
- Sub-base. MOT Type 1 laid in layers and whacked between each one, checked for fall as it goes.
- Base course. Open textured asphalt or a permeable concrete slab, depending on the ground and the traffic.
- Resin. Mixed on site in small batches and trowelled at about 15mm to 18mm, worked wet edge to wet edge so there is no visible join.
- Cure. Foot traffic after a few hours, cars back on the next day, weather depending.
Colours and stone
The look comes from the aggregate, not from a dye. Golden and buff quartz suit the brick around Solihull; silver and grey granite sit better against render and modern glazing. We bring sample boards to the survey so you can hold them against your own brickwork in daylight rather than picking off a screen.
Aftercare
Brush it when it needs it and rinse it down two or three times a year. A pressure washer is fine on a wide fan from a good distance; a narrow lance held close will pick the stones out, so keep it moving and keep it back. Deal with oil drips before they soak in. Do not put rock salt on it in winter, and do not drag a metal snow shovel across it.
Price up a resin drive
Tell us the postcode and roughly how big it is. We measure up and put a fixed price in writing.