How to Choose a Driveway Material

Start with the ground, not the brochure

Every driveway conversation should start with three site facts: what the subsoil is, how the water leaves, and how steep the drive is. Get those right and any of the five main surfaces will perform. Get them wrong and the most expensive material on the market will still fail.

Around Farnham and the Wey valley we work on heavy clay that holds water and moves seasonally. Around Farnborough and Fleet there is more sand and gravel, which drains but can wash out if edges are weak. The same driveway specification does not suit both.

The five surfaces compared

These are our own 2026 fitted rates including excavation, sub-base and edging on a straightforward plot.

Match the surface to the slope

Level to gentle, up to about 1 in 20: anything works. Choose on appearance and budget.

Moderate, 1 in 20 to 1 in 10: avoid loose gravel unless you fit a cellular grid, because it will creep to the bottom and end up in the road. Block paving, tarmac and resin bound are all fine.

Steep, above 1 in 10: tarmac and resin bonded grip best. Block paving is workable but needs careful drainage across the fall so water does not run into the garage.

Match the surface to how long you are staying

If you plan to sell within three to five years, the return question matters. Block paving and resin bound photograph best on a listing and read as recent investment. Tarmac reads as functional but tidy, which for a family home in Aldershot or Cove is entirely acceptable and leaves budget for the garden.

If this is the house you are staying in, buy the longest life you can afford and put the money into the base. A £4,000 drive with a proper sub-base outlasts a £6,000 drive without one.

Drainage is not optional

Since 2008 you cannot legally drain a new front hard surface of more than five square metres straight onto the highway without permission. There are three compliant routes: use a permeable surface, fall the drive to a border or lawn inside your boundary, or install a channel drain to a soakaway.

The cheapest compliant route is usually falling the drive to a gravel border. The most reliable on clay is a channel drain into a properly sized soakaway, at £900 to £2,000. Clay soakaways need to be bigger than sandy ones because the ground accepts water far more slowly.

Maintenance you are signing up for

Gravel: rake monthly, top up every two to three years, expect to sweep the pavement.

Block paving: resand joints annually, treat weeds twice a year, wash every couple of years.

Tarmac: almost nothing for the first decade, then consider a seal coat.

Resin bound: wash and de moss twice a year, keep leaf litter off.

Concrete: reseal joints, and accept that any crack is permanent.

Our default recommendation by plot type

Terraced or narrow front in North Camp or York Town: block paving, because small areas look cheap in tarmac and the neat edge does a lot of visual work.

Standard estate semi in Cove, Church Crookham or Heatherside: tarmac with a block border. Best value per square metre and the border stops the edges crumbling.

Larger detached with a sweep in Farnham or Merrow: resin bound over tarmac, or clay pavers if the house is period.

Rural or long approach in Rowledge or Crookham Village: gravel over a cellular grid, with a bound apron at the gate so stone does not migrate onto the lane.