Improving an ugly driveway.

Tropez

I'm a very visual person and during the recent spate of good weather I have noticed how ugly my driveway is. It's basically an ugly grey tarmaced driveway with some blackish streaks in it. Contrast this to my rather pleasant red-brick house and the fact that all of my neighbours have some form of front garden with trees and plants to distract from their own tarmaced driveways and this whole thing is bugging me.

Therefore, I'm looking for some relatively inexpensive ways to make the driveway look more pleasant. The measurements are roughly 52' from the gate to the garage with a width of 28' 6" at the widest part and 27' 10" at the narrowest (these are rough measurements I performed yesterday... I'd have to do them again with someone else to be exact).

The garage is a two car garage. Ideally I would like something that would allow me to plant some small trees or flowers along the edges of the drive to add a bit of colour. I had considered a small, thin island in the centre but I don't know whether that would be feasible or whether it would make it too difficult to turn the car around in the drive (the drive is surrounded by my house to one side and a hedge to the other with a gate at the entrance).

Preferably I would like something that would compliment the look of the property and cost within the region of £2,500 although I could probably stretch to a little more. I would probably have to bring in a professional to actually perform any changes because I'm pretty rubbish at most DIY tasks. Gravel is probably out as my dogs like to play in the drive from time to time and I'm wary of the damage it might do to their paws.

Any ideas for some inexpensive solutions? Or am I being massively unrealistic with my £2,500 budget?

Any advice appreciated! :beer:

EDIT: Having considered it, I will probably be best waiting until next year anyway rather than pursuing anything this year. Hence, I could probably have a budget between £8,000 - £10,000.

yimmie

my first thought was something like pot plants which cost no where near £2,500! Or, even something like a rose bush, quite traditional..... but I guess that depends on the lay out and how you access the drive!

Tropez

I do plan to brighten the area up with plants but my main concern is that the entire driveway currently is just a big grey, black-streaked eyesore and really doesn't fit in with the other homes in the close.

The layout is basically the gate at the top, the garage at the bottom, the house to the right-side as you drive in and the bordering hedge to the neighbour on the left-side... basically in one big square.

ormus

gravel is probably the only solution, given your budget for that size driveway.
the best solution in my book.

buy the dogs some little shoes.

Tropez

Thanks.

I'm not using gravel because I'm not putting my dogs at any risk.

I'll probably just wait until next year and put another £6,000-£8,000 towards it and perhaps by not rushing I'll be able to consider a few more ideas.

niamhtra66

You could always paint the tarmac, we had an extension a couple of years ago and the builder painted the drive with tarmac paint due to scratches the skips and scaffolding had made, i didn't know such a thing existed but i have now seen it in B&Q, ours was old with bits that had been dug up to access pipes and now it looks perfect, jet black, think it's under £50 for a large tin that covered our double drive.

Tropez

I didn't know such a thing existed either but that's a great idea, thanks! :beer:

I'll get myself down to B&Q sometime next week and see what sort of colour options they have. At the very least it would be a cost effective solution for the time being until I'm ready to go for something grander.