Repairs
Driveway repairs on the Wirral
A sunken patch or a spreading edge is often a repair rather than a new drive, and the difference in price is enormous.
- Dig depth and sub base stated in writing
- Edge restraint haunched, not just laid
- Drainage designed, not left to the border
Driveway repairs
What is actually wrong, and whether it is worth repairing
Almost every driveway fault is a ground fault wearing a surface. Blocks do not compress and tarmac does not shrink, so when a drive sinks it is because the material underneath has settled, washed out or was never compacted properly. That means the question is never really about the surface, it is about how much of the base has gone and why.
The common patterns are readable. A dip exactly where the car turns means the base was too thin for the loading. A dip by the gate or along the edge means the restraint failed and the field has spread. A dip in a line means a service trench was backfilled badly, possibly years ago by somebody else. A hollow area near a downpipe or a gully means water has been washing the base out, and that one will come back unless the water is dealt with first.
Whether to repair or relay comes down to how much of the drive is affected and whether the blocks lift cleanly. One or two sunken areas in an otherwise sound drive is a repair and a fraction of the cost. A drive dipping in five places is usually telling you the base was wrong throughout, and repairing it five times over a decade costs more than doing it once. Often asked about alongside dropped kerbs, driveway drainage and groundworks and preparation.
Get the repair looked atLoading, edge failure, a backfilled trench or water washing the base out. Repair without the cause and it comes back.
Block paving usually lifts and relays. Tarmac, concrete and resin repairs are visible by nature.
One or two areas is a repair. Five is the base telling you something about the whole drive.
Done across Greasby, Moreton, 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 repairs 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
A small area lifted before anything is quoted
Lifting a square metre and looking at the base takes minutes and is the only way to price a repair honestly.
- A section lifted and the base inspected before a price
- The cause identified, not just the symptom
- Existing blocks reused where they lift cleanly
- An honest answer when a relay is the cheaper decade
Frequently asked questions
Driveway repairs: the questions people ask
The ones that come up most. If yours is not here, ring and ask.
Can a sunken driveway be repaired rather than replaced?
Usually, if it is one or two areas and the blocks lift cleanly. The base is made good and the same blocks go back. It is a small fraction of the price of a new drive, and anybody quoting a full relay without lifting a section first has not looked.
Why does the same spot keep sinking?
Because the cause was not dealt with. The usual culprit is water: a leaking downpipe, a blocked gully or surface water running to the same place is washing fines out of the base, and it will keep doing it under a new repair.
Can you repair tarmac invisibly?
No. New tarmac does not match weathered tarmac, and it never will. A repair will be sound and it will be visible. Same for resin and imprinted concrete. Block paving is the only common surface where an invisible repair is realistic.
My edges are crumbling. Is that fixable?
Yes, and it is worth doing before the field starts to spread. The edge course is lifted, a proper haunch is formed and the edge is relaid. Left alone, the whole field slowly opens up and that becomes a relay.
Done across Greasby, Moreton, and everywhere else on the peninsula. Cleaning, sealing and re-sanding an existing drive is a different trade: that goes to Wirral Exterior Cleaning.
Send a photo of the sunken area
One picture of the dip and one of the whole drive usually tells us whether you are looking at a repair or a relay.
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