Driveways in Wallasey

One town, several different plots

Wallasey runs from tight Victorian streets inland out to the promenade and the larger houses around it. A driveway job here can be a two car frontage on a terrace or a sweeping in and out drive on a seafront plot, and almost nothing about the two is the same.

What they share is the weather. Exposure matters more for a driveway than people expect: wind driven rain fills joints with water, and on the seaward side wind blown sand gets into everything and ends up in the joints of block paving whether you like it or not.

Sand in the joints, and why the edge detail matters

Block paving holds its shape because every block is locked against its neighbours by kiln dried sand in the joints and held at the perimeter by a restrained edge. Lose the edge and the whole field slowly spreads; lose the joint sand and individual blocks start to rock.

On this side of the peninsula both happen faster. Driven rain washes joint sand out and wind blows different sand in, and an edge course that was haunched properly is the difference between a drive that holds for twenty years and one that needs lifting in eight. It is the least visible part of the job and the one most worth paying for.

Resin, and where it genuinely is the better answer

Resin bound is laid as a continuous surface with no joints, which is exactly why it suits an exposed plot: there is nothing for sand to get into and nothing to wash out. It is also permeable when it is laid on the right base, which matters for drainage.

What it needs is a sound base, and that is where resin jobs go wrong. Laid over an existing drive that is cracked or moving, it cracks in the same places within a couple of winters, because resin is a wearing course and not a structure.

Slopes down to the house

A good number of Wallasey plots fall from the road towards the house, which means any new surface is a decision about where several hundred litres of water go in a heavy shower. That is a drainage design rather than a detail, and it is the part of the quote worth reading twice.