Lay gravel driveway over exisiting paving stones?

jkgray

We have moved into a house where the short driveway (only size of a parking space effectively) consists of two strips of paving stones with a border down the middle.

A few of the flags are cracked and uneven so it looks a bit unsightly.

As a short term solution to make it look more attractive I thought I might just order some aggregate and spread this over the area to effectively produce a gravel driveway.

I have priced up enough aggrate to cover 15 m2 and it will only cost about £100. Even Tesco sell it (!): http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.205-1226.aspx

Is this possible / a good idea? Anyone with any building or personal experience, I would be glad to hear your views.

Thanks.:beer:

stolt

i wanted to do something similar to a tarmac drve we have but would need to create a lip at the edge of the driveway otherise i reckon half the stones will be in the road in a week.

AdrianW2

The trouble with thick layers of gravel is that a car tends to sink in them and throw stones everywhere while the driver attempts to extract it.

The first drive I did was initially just a layer of pea-shingle. Eventually we dug it up and installed a proper sub-base, digging the old gravel out added half a day to the job.

punknzippy

it will look good but you would be forever sweeping the gravel off the footpath back onto your drive , best way is to remove the slabs and just lower the ground level a bit , if theirs no edging kurb it might be an idea to put one in just above path level then lay out some weed control material (also stops gravel sinking into the mud)then spread gravel on top ....... then have a nice cup of tea

Doozergirl

You don't want the gravel too deep as you will be wading through it to the front door.

But a thinner layer is actually dangerous as you can slip where there is little friction between the stones and the paving, they just slide around like marbles. Especially when wet. Really not a good idea.

27col

The gravel will not stay in place on a hard surface. As Doozergirl says it could be quite dangerous underfoot. It certainly will not look good for any length of time, due to the dispersal of the gravel. Better to save your money until you can come up with a permanent solution.

missile

I would suggest you ought to replace the paving slabs, they are not expensive.

payless

think they are being a bit OTT saying 1 bag will cover 12-15m2 at 5cm deep.

Think that 1 bags for that depth is more like 10m2