Choose Your Driveway Surface Wisely!You have choices for what you want your driveway surface to be. It is an important aspect of the landscape design, so put some time and effort into this decision. Here are some things to consider when making this decision:
No matter what driveway surface is right for you, the base that holds the surface is of utmost importance. If it’s not strong, your surface falls apart.
Proper Drainage is always an important issue to address when installing a driveway, but especially with a driveway surface that is impervious. Water that can no longer percolate into the soil has to go somewhere. Know where this water is going to be redirected and make accommodations for it with the appropriate drainage system.
These are the most popular driveway surfaces:
Gravel
provides a loose stone surface that is installed over a good solid base. It comes in many different sizes and colors. It allows water to reach the roots of surrounding plants. This is the least expensive surface, so it is used to save money or on long drives that other materials would be too expensive. Extreme runoff can erode this surface and traffic tends to move it around. Plan on touching up the driveway surface as needed. I have used gravel drives successfully in natural as well as urban situations. Parking pads (large landings at the front door to accommodate a car) out of a solid type of paving material, like stamped concrete or concrete pavers, is a nice accent in a gravel drive.
Tar & Gravel, also called surface treatment or double shot, has a similar appearance to a gravel driveway with a layer of tar under the gravel. The tar helps to better hold the gravel in place. This eliminates having to touch up the grade from time to time. Over time the gravel is pushed into the tar making the driveway the tar color more than the decorative gravel color. This surface may need new gravel every 7 – 10 years depending on the amount of traffic and how fast folks drive on it.
Asphalt provides a dark black surface that is smooth. It is the least expensive solid surface driveway. Keeping the asphalt sealed is important. The sealer keeps the water from getting into the crevices of the asphalt and freezing. The freezing water expands and breaks the asphalt. Asphalt creates a great surface for children to play on and people to easily move around on. There is no stray gravel following you into the house with this surface! Asphalt is a dark surface, so consider how this will look in your landscape design.
Concrete as a driveway surface has a number of different color and design choices to offer. The least expensive concrete is the common gray type that has been around for many years. It is installed as a slab with expansion joints to minimize cracking. One way of dressing up this all purpose material is to introduce a contrasting material, such as brick, as the expansion joint. You can add color to the entire driveway surface to give it an updated appearance without a lot of extra cost. Exposed aggregate concrete, as seen in this picture, is a little more expensive. It has decorative gravel in the surface. It is a beautiful surface, but rough to the touch because the exposed gravel sits above the concrete. Decorative concrete has color added to it and patterns stamped into it. There are many different color and pattern combinations to do. Needless to say, this is the most expensive of your concrete choices. The concrete is soft, smooth and easy to walk on. This is because the sand in the concrete mix must be fine in order for the pattern to be stamped into it. More than one color can be blended together to give a range of color that looks more interesting than a monotone.
Concrete Pavers
provide a solid, beautiful surface with a few advantages. The cost of this material is similar to stamped decorative concrete. There are many styles and colors of pavers. Shapes range from brick size, squares to patterns that replicate natural stone. This surface is completely dry laid. The base material consists of layers of thoroughly compacted aggregates. The pavers have no mortar joint between them, but are laid tightly against one another. Polymer sand is then swept in between the pavers to create a tight joint. This type of construction is helpful, if settling occurs. The pavers can be picked up, the base repaired and easily installed again.
Natural stone paving is not often seen as a driveway material because of being so expensive. I did want to mention it because it is such an exquisite, really incredible looking driveway. Driveways that are constructed out of cobblestone and slate paving can be seen around Richmond, VA in some of the older prominent neighborhoods. One section of our city, Shockoe Slip, has kept the cobblestone streets and some alleys. To try to incorporate some of this look, I have designed aprons (a pad that is at the entrance of the drive) out of cobblestone, brick or concrete pavers. Adding aprons to a gravel driveway adds a nice design element, as well as keeps the gravel from being pushed into the street. I have also used a band of cobblestone paving at an entrance gate into a property (as seen above). This adds another dimension of detail to the entrance of a fine home. The driveway surface is a strong color element in your landscape design. It can make a wonderful impression if made to compliment and blend with its surroundings. Driveway dilemma? I'd like to help! Ask a question and you will get a quick response. It will be posted as a web page on this site for all to read and to share with your friends. I hope to hear from you! Turn your knowledge into a website that generates income for you. SBI (Site Build It) is a powerful website creation and hosting system that shows you how it is done step by step. Take a look!
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