Tarmac Driveways in Solihull

A word about tarmac and doorstep traders

Tarmac is the surface the rogue traders use, and Trading Standards warn about it every summer: a knock at the door, a story about surplus material from a job down the road, a low price that turns out to be per square metre once the machine is running. So here is our position in plain terms. We never knock doors. We never turn up unannounced. We quote in writing, priced by the square metre, with the area on the sheet, before anything starts. If someone doorsteps you claiming to be us, they are not.

Guide price

£60 to £90 per square metre, fitted

Typical two car drive

About £3,000 to £4,500 for 50 square metres

Sub-base

100mm to 150mm of compacted MOT Type 1, deeper on soft ground

Time on site

Usually 2 to 4 working days

Planning permission

Needed on a new front drive over 5 square metres unless it drains to a border or you use porous asphalt

Those are guide bands taken from published UK cost surveys, not a quote. Your price comes from the survey and is fixed in writing.

How we build it

• Dig out. Down to formation, spoil carted away. On a drive that is only tired rather than failed we may overlay instead, and we will say plainly which one your ground needs.
• Sub-base. MOT Type 1 in layers, compacted between each, graded to fall away from the house.
• Edgings. Concrete edgings or a block soldier course set and haunched first. Tarmac laid without an edge crumbles from the sides inward, and that is the single most common fault we are called out to.
• Base course. Typically 40mm to 50mm of binder, rolled.
• Wearing course. Typically 20mm to 25mm of 6mm dense surface course, rolled hot to a tight finish.
• Finish. Joints sealed against the house and any gullies, then a bitumen edge seal where the tarmac meets concrete.

Colour and finish

Standard is black. Red is available and costs more, either as a coloured wearing course or as a chipping dressing. Both fade under sunlight over the years, more so on a south facing drive, and that is worth knowing before you pay the premium for red.

Weather and timing

Tarmac needs to be rolled while it is still hot, so cold or wet laying days work against it. We lay through most of the year but we will move a date rather than force a load onto a soaked base. If you are planning for spring, the diary for March to June fills first.

Aftercare

Keep everything off it for the first day or two while it hardens, and be careful in the first hot spell: motorcycle stands, caravan jockey wheels and axle stands will press in. Turning the steering wheel while stationary scuffs a new surface, so roll as you turn. Petrol and diesel dissolve bitumen, so mop drips up rather than leaving them. Weeds only appear at cracked edges, which is another argument for proper edgings.