Prices
What moves a driveway price
Not a price list, because a number for your plot needs somebody to look at it. What this is, is what a quote should contain and what actually changes it.
- Dig depth and sub base stated in writing
- Edge restraint haunched, not just laid
- Drainage designed, not left to the border
Driveway prices
Why two driveway quotes differ so much
Driveway quoting is unusually opaque, because the expensive half of the work is buried before the customer ever sees the result. Two quotes for the same drive can differ by a third and both look identical on the day they finish. The difference is almost always dig depth, sub base thickness, compaction and edge detail.
So the four things that actually move a price are these. The area, which is obvious. What has to come out first and where it goes, which is a real tonnage and a real cost. What goes back in underneath, which is the one worth interrogating. And access, because a plot a machine cannot reach is a plot dug by hand.
The honest way to compare quotes is to ask every contractor the same four questions: how deep are you digging, what sub base and how thick, how are you restraining the edges, and where is the water going. A quote that answers all four can be compared with another that does. A single number for a driveway cannot be compared with anything, and the lowest single number is low for a reason you will find out in year three. Often asked about alongside block paving driveways, resin bound driveways and tarmac driveways.
Get your own number in writingA plot a machine cannot reach is dug by hand, and that changes a price more than the surface choice does.
Excavated spoil is a real tonnage with a real disposal cost. It belongs in the quote rather than appearing later.
Dig depth, sub base and compaction. The line to interrogate, because it is the line that gets cut.
Done across Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, and everywhere else on the peninsula. Cleaning, sealing and re-sanding an existing drive is a different trade: that goes to Wirral Exterior Cleaning.
Driveway prices on the Wirral
What this job looks like
These are placeholders, not photographs of our work. There are no job photographs on this site yet and nothing here is borrowed from anybody else's. Real ones go in as jobs are finished and customers are happy for us to use them.
Why people use us
What our quote shows you
Excavation, sub base, edge restraint, surface and drainage as separate lines, so comparison is possible.
- Dig depth in millimetres and sub base thickness stated
- Edge restraint detail specified
- Drainage design shown as its own line
- Everything an estimate until the ground has been seen
Frequently asked questions
Driveway prices: the questions people ask
The ones that come up most. If yours is not here, ring and ask.
Why will you not give me a price per square metre over the phone?
Because the square metre rate is the least variable part of it. What has to come out, what goes back in and whether a machine can reach the plot move the number far more, and none of those can be answered down a phone.
Is the lowest quote ever the right one?
Sometimes, if it answers the same four questions as the others. Often it is low because it is digging shallower, using less stone or skipping the edge haunch, and those are the three things that decide whether you are buying a drive for twenty years or for five.
Can I save money by doing some of it myself?
Breaking up and removing the existing surface, yes, genuinely, and we will price it that way. What you cannot usefully do yourself is the compaction, because it needs the plant and it is the part that decides the result.
Do you charge for a quote?
No. Somebody comes and looks at the plot, the access and the levels, and where the ground is unknown we would rather dig a trial hole than guess. You get it in writing with the build up stated.
Done across Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, and everywhere else on the peninsula. Cleaning, sealing and re-sanding an existing drive is a different trade: that goes to Wirral Exterior Cleaning.
Get your own number, in writing
With the dig depth, the sub base and the edge detail stated, so you can compare it properly with anything else you have.
About Wirral Driveways
How the work is actually organised
Wirral Driveways takes the job as main contractor and puts the labour and the plant on it. One person quotes it, one person is answerable for it, and you are not chasing a groundworker and a paviour separately to find out who is coming.
What you get is a written scope with the build up stated, a date, and somebody whose problem it is if the date moves.
We install. We do not clean
This matters enough to say on its own page. Cleaning, sealing and re-sanding an existing driveway is a genuine trade and it is not this one. It needs different equipment, different materials and a different way of pricing.
So we do not offer it, we do not quote for it, and when you ask we will point you at wirralexteriorcleaning.com, which does it properly. Saying yes to work we are not set up for would be the easy answer and the wrong one.
What else we will tell you we are not
Structural retaining walls above a modest height, anything involving a highway other than a straightforward vehicle crossing, and tree surgery on a protected tree are all other people's work. All three come up on driveway jobs and all three are worth bringing the right person in for.
No photographs of our work, and why the site says so
There are no job photographs on this site. The slots are placeholders and they are labelled as placeholders. Nothing here is a stock picture presented as a job and nothing is borrowed from another company.
Real ones go in as jobs are finished and customers are happy for us to use them. The same goes for anything that looks like a customer quote: there is a section built and ready, switched off, until there are real ones with permission attached.
Get in touch
Tell us roughly how big the area is, what is on it now and which way it falls. A photograph from the pavement and one from the house answers most of it before anybody rings you back.
- Phone0151 453 8836
- Emailcontact@wirraldriveways.com
- WhatsAppSend us a photo of the job
- Based inWirral, Merseyside
- HoursMon to Fri 8 to 6, Sat 8 to 2, closed Sunday