Driveway update

7 years ago

Houzz'ers I need your help please! We've just moved to a house with a very uninspiring concrete driveway. Not only is it ugly, it's borders are also very uneven. We've got a pretty limited budget to work with so I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good option to revive this ugly driveway. Perhaps something which could go straight on top of the concrete??
The house itself is of the Victorian era, grey stone.
Thanks :)

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Comments (3)

Sarah Chalker
Original Author
7 years ago
Whoops... Forgot to attach pic. Here it is
kl55hp
7 years ago
The grey stone looks handsome. Sure it will come up very nicely. I suggest you send away for a Marshalls brochure. It has loads of good ideas. Not sure of costs, but they indicate for each product: £££, ££, £.

If budget is really, really tight maybe spread a large bag of Marshall's aggregate (they have quite a few options) and then arrange - in a few spots - some eye catching pots arranged in 3s and 5s, or in a line if you prefer a more formal arrangement? Consider a statement pot at a few key locations e.g. gateway, near front door and near garage.

There are lots of cheap pots on ebay and car boot sales etc, and loads of pretty plants available at local and on-line nurseries providing year round interest in any colour for any location. Marshall's aggregate is relatively cheap. They won't advise putting it directly on top of the old concrete, of course. But I would have though that any rainwater will simply run through the gravel and then away as it currently does.

One tip - add some bricks or similar to contain the gravel at the front of your property and any where else you don't want it escaping from/into (e.g. garage door).

I could imagine your place looking great with Cotswold chippings (to pick up the golden/creamy accents on the edge of your house. Or grey slate to echo the handsome grey stonework. There are also mixes with greys and creams (can't recall what they're called).

Pots could be traditional terracotta (light or dark), or glazed pottery that comes in all sorts of colours. Pots of all different sizes and shapes seems to go together well.

See the website " Shoot " for lots of inspiration and advice when you're thinking about what plants to put in your pots. If you sign up (£3 per month) they send you monthly notes about what you need to do for your various plants. i.e. makes gardening very easy. And when looking for plants, I like the website "Crocus" and its " Plant finder ". It has a search facility makes life very easy even when picking plants for difficult spots like a shady, dry, north-facing garden! You can also search by "flowering month", "season of interest", "trailing", "height" etc so you can pull together pots with all-round interest. Also it has a function for "Goes well with ....." so you can quickly get a few things together that co-ordinate well. It's also possible to search gouge for "pots" or "window boxes" with "year round interest". Most plants can be bought on-line through places like Burncoose nurseries etc. If the plant doesn't live, just start again with something else. "Crocus" also has a tab for "inspiration".

Good luck!
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PRO
S&K Plastering And Building
7 years ago
If you have a good sub-base you can Tarmac over the top!

Driveway update

Comments (3)

Sarah Chalker
Original Author

kl55hp

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Driveway update

Comments (3)

Sarah ChalkerOriginal Author

kl55hp

Related Discussions

S&K Plastering And Building

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Sarah Chalker
Original Author