DIY driveway

aurongrande_2

I hope I'm in the correct forum section for this.

I need to redo my parents driveway, but need to do it within government regulations. In effect, the driveway has to be porous. So no plain straight up hard-standing as in poured concrete.

You see this with new driveways, they're basically bricks set out in patterns. Looks good, and water drains away between the bricks.

There's also another way; gravel. However, gravel tends to shift about as it's travelled on. Upon a bit of research, you can lay a grid down which keeps the gravel in place.

http://www.gridforce.co.uk/build-a-gravel-driveway/

This method is the cheapest and easiest method. However, the grids themselves don't really come as cheap as I'd hoped.

Is there a method to get the same results for a cheaper price? My dad thought about using milk crates, but a quick internet search yield results that they cost almost £10 per crate. The grids cost about the same each and they are half a metre square. So basically not much different.

Surely there's a cheaper method.

gmgmgm

I've never seen these grids work successfully- won't you always see the grid itself?

Just rake the gravel every so often.

ormus

just use gravel and keep it in place with planks or stone/brick edging.
you can still use concrete if you wish, providing you only use two strips, for the car wheels.
(theres a sq m limit).

Avanice

You can get porous aphalt, my drive was done around 15 years ago and is still OK but has had 2 power jet washes in that time.

alanobrien

Depending on how much work you want to put in you can DIY something similar using galvanised wire mesh or plastic. I would create 1 metre square box sections and fix the mesh to each side.
Quite how effective these things are in the first place is another thing. Plenty of places to obtain mesh such as; http://www.meshdirect.co.uk/

aurongrande_2

thanks for the advice. I'll need to think things through again.

jcb208

Seen this grid system used on a gravel drive on a new build,makes it easy to walk, drive over and the stones dont get scattered about but you can see the outline of the plastic grid system if you really look for it

aurongrande_2

agreed, I've also seen it used in a few driveways and even a private carpark. It's pretty effective.

my dad has this cement mould used for making those patterned hole things that you see in walls. he suggests using that to make concrete blocks for the driveway and fill with gravel. not the first time I've seen this system. in a lego-brick council estate in our town, there's plenty of grass verges by pavements (not small fields) filled with grass so that cars can be parked on it. kind of like a temporary parking spot for visitors.