Driveways in West Kirby

Sandstone walls and pillars, which are part of the house

The villas here sit behind sandstone boundary walls, pillars and steps, and on most of these plots that stonework is older than anything else on the site and is a large part of what the house looks like from the road. A driveway job is usually a job that happens between and around it rather than one that removes it.

Taking a pillar down to widen an entrance is sometimes the right answer and it should be a deliberate decision, not a consequence. Rebuilding one properly in matching stone is specialist work and we will say so rather than improvising it.

Sloping approaches off the main roads

A lot of West Kirby climbs away from the front, and the drives come off roads that are themselves on a gradient. That makes the transition at the kerb the critical detail: too sharp and cars ground at the entrance, which is both unpleasant and the fastest way to destroy the edge course of a new drive.

Permeable surfacing and the planning rules

Since 2008, paving over a front garden in a way that is not permeable and does not drain to a permeable area within the property can need planning permission. On a large villa frontage that is a real amount of water, and the rule exists because of what happens downstream when a street does it all at once.

In practice it is easy to satisfy, with a permeable surface or a soakaway or a drainage channel to a border, and it is designed in from the start rather than retrofitted. It is also the council's rule rather than ours, so the right move is to check your particular case.

Salt air and metalwork

Gates, railings and any ferrous fixing in a boundary will corrode faster here than inland. If a job includes new metalwork it is worth spending on the finish rather than the design.