Where does the rainwater go?

Not onto the road. Since 2008 a new front driveway has to deal with its own water, through a permeable surface, a soakaway, or a channel drain into your existing drainage. We work the drainage out at quote stage and it goes in writing, so there's no surprise and no puddle sat against your front wall.

How long does a driveway take?

Most drives run from a few days to a couple of weeks. A small gravel drive is quick. A large block or stone drive with drainage and a dropped kerb takes longer. We'll give you the timescale in writing before we start, and tell you straight if a wet week pushes it back.

What's the cheapest driveway?

Gravel, nearly always. It's the least to buy and the quickest to lay, and the market average lands around £2,878. It wants good edging and the odd top-up, and it's not ideal on a steep slope. If budget's the driver we'll tell you whether gravel suits your drive or whether it's a false economy where you live.

What happens if the drive sinks or something goes wrong later?

You ring Simon direct. We're out to look within three to five working days, same day if it's urgent, like standing water or a drain backing up. If it's our workmanship, meaning the dig, the sub-base, the edge restraints or the drainage, it's put right under the 10-year guarantee at no cost to you. The certificate, with the dates on it, comes when the job is signed off.

Driveways in Leeds · Block paving, stone and gravel

What we do

A driveway is a groundworks job with a surface on top

Most of the work happens below anything you'll ever see. Get that part right and the drive is still flat ten years on. Skip it and no surface can save the job.

We lay block paving, Indian stone flags and gravel across Leeds, on everything from a tight terrace front to a wide double drive. It's the same small team on every job, a written and itemised quote before we start, and a site left swept when we're done.

Materials

Three ways to surface a Leeds driveway

The surface is the bit you see, so it's the bit people fixate on. Whichever of these you pick, the dig-out and sub-base are done the same way.

Block paving

Concrete or clay blocks on a screeded sand bed, edges haunched in. The most popular drive we lay, and the one you can lift and relay in patches if a drain or cable ever needs digging up.

Indian stone flags

Riven Indian sandstone, large format, on a full mortar bed. The dearest of the three and the best looking on the right house. More on this below.

Gravel

Loose aggregate over a gridded or bound base. Cheapest to lay, quick to do, easy to top up. It needs proper edging to keep it where it belongs, which is where DIY gravel drives usually go wrong.

Not sure which surface suits the house? Send a couple of photos of the drive and we'll tell you straight.

Get a written quote →

The dearer option, done right

Indian stone driveways, laid thick enough to take a car

A patio flag is not a driveway flag. For a drive we use the heavier calibrated stone, on a full mortar bed over a properly compacted sub-base, with the joints pointed to take the weight of vehicles rather than feet. Kandla grey, raj green, mixed buff, whatever suits the house. It's the same craft as our flag patios, built for a heavier job.

Why people replace a drive

→It's the first thing anyone sees of the house, and a cracked, patched drive drags the whole frontage down with it.
→Standing water. A drive laid with no fall and nowhere for the water to go puddles at the door and ices up in winter.
→Room for a second car. Most of the drives we widen were laid when the house had one car, not two.
→Sinking and weeds. Once a surface has dipped where the wheels sit or gone over at the edges, patching it buys a season at best.

And when we'd tell you to leave it

If your drive is flat, drains away from the house and just looks tired, say so when we come out. A wash and fresh joint sand is a very different conversation to a dig-out.

We'd rather tell you it has years left in it than sell you a job you don't need. The drives worth doing are the ones that have failed underneath, and that's usually easy to see once we're stood on it.

Real jobs

New block paving driveway with steps and pillars

Our own photos, from our own jobs. If we show it, we built it.

Indian stone flags up to the door of a stone-built house

Indian stone flags to the front door

porcelain flags on spacers, cut detail at the threshold

Where every drive starts

Fixed price, in writing

Measured on site and itemised line by line.

Get a written quote or see more driveways in the projects

How a driveway job runs

Most of a good driveway is the part you'll never see

Anyone can lay blocks on a Tuesday. The reason drives fail is nearly always under the surface. Here's the order we work in, on every drive.

Most of a good driveway is the part you'll never see

Anyone can lay blocks on a Tuesday. The reason drives fail is nearly always under the surface. Here's the order we work in, on every drive.

Dig out

We strip the old surface and dig down to firm ground, usually 200 to 250mm for a car drive, deeper if the ground's soft or it's taking vans. The spoil goes in a grab lorry or skip, not left in a heap on the verge.

Sub-base

MOT Type 1 crushed stone in and whacked down in layers with a plate compactor. This is the bit that carries the weight. Skimp on it and the surface sinks or cracks in a winter or two, whatever's on top.

Edging

Every edge set on concrete and haunched, so the drive can't spread or creep. Blocks laid without a restrained edge walk apart at the sides. It's the first corner a cheap job cuts.

Falls and drainage

The whole drive laid to a fall, roughly 1:60, running water off to a channel drain, a soakaway or a permeable build-up. Since 2008 you can't send a new front drive's water onto the road, so we build the drainage in.

Surface

Blocks on a screeded sharp sand bed, flags on a full mortar bed, or gravel over a gridded base. Cut in cleanly around manholes and thresholds, joints locked, and the site swept and left clean.

That's how we'd build yours. Tell us the rough size of the drive and we'll come and measure up.

Get a written quote →

Guaranteed for 10 years

A 10-year workmanship guarantee on the groundworks: the dig, the compacted sub-base, the edge restraints and the drainage. Whatever surface goes on top, that build-up is what decides whether the drive is still flat in ten years, and it's the part we put our name to. Surfacing materials carry their own manufacturer's warranties.

What it costs

Honest numbers, not a made-up "from" price

We won't stick a single headline figure on a driveway and pretend it means anything. The only number worth quoting up front is the market average for gravel. The rest we price by the square metre once we've seen the job.

Gravel: The market average for a gravel driveway sits around £2,878. Usually the cheapest surface to lay, and the quickest.
Block paving: [Guide figure to confirm]. Priced by the square metre once we know the size, the block and how much dig-out it needs.
Indian stone: [Guide figure to confirm]. Natural stone is the dearest of the three to buy and to lay, and it's worth it on the right house.

What moves the price

→Size in square metres. A bigger drive means a bigger dig, more sub-base and more surface.
→The surface itself. Gravel is cheapest, block paving in the middle, natural stone the dearest.
→Dig-out depth and spoil removal. Clay or old made ground means more muck away in grab lorries.
→Drainage. A channel drain, a soakaway or a full permeable build-up costs more than a simple fall.
→A dropped kerb. That's separate from our price.
→Access. Barrowing round the back is slower than getting a machine straight onto the front.

What's included

What's in a driveway job, and what isn't

Two quotes for the same drive can look nothing like each other because they cover different things. Here's where ours starts and stops, so you know what you're comparing.

In the job

→Everything from the old surface coming out to the new one being swept: groundwork, drainage, edges, surface, and the muck away.
→Skip or grab lorry hire, and the tip charges that go with them.
→The setting out, so the falls and the levels work against your thresholds and the road.
→Cutting in around manholes, gullies and inspection covers, which is slow work and part of the price.
→Making good where the drive meets the lawn, the path or the neighbour's boundary.

Not in the price

→A dropped kerb. That's a council application and a highways crossing, priced separately, and we'll point you at it.
→Planning, on the rare drive that needs it. A front garden over five square metres draining to the road has to be permeable or run to a soakaway, which we build in as standard either way.
→Anything the dig turns up that changes the job. If that happens we stop, show you, and price it before we carry on.

Most drives are a few days to a couple of weeks on site. The timescale goes in writing with the quote.

Common questions

Before you ring

For most driveways, no planning permission. Two things to know. If you're making a new opening onto the road you need a dropped kerb, which is a council application and a highways job we'll point you at. And if your front garden is over five square metres and drains to the road, it has to be permeable or drain to a soakaway to avoid a planning application. We build to those rules as standard and put the detail in your quote.

Alternatives