How to: Pave the driveway – which floor coverings are suitable, how do I proceed?

Stable, easy to care for and pretty – this is what the perfect entrance to the carport looks like. Fortunately, it is not far from planning to the paved driveway, as our instructions show.

Which flooring is suitable for your driveway?

The Rolls-Royce crunches over the gravel to the stately villa – what looks good in films is, however, less pleasant in reality. Because gravel and gravel are laid unevenly and loosely, so that impurities such as snow and leaves are difficult to remove and the small stones can scratch the car.

When it comes to being “easy to care for”, the beautifully looking turf chamber stones also lose, because weeds thrive well in the spaces between them and the turf has to be cared for regularly and with great effort.

The other extreme: asphalt – smooth and uniform. But the construction effort is immense – it doesn’t work without special machines for asphalting. Drainage channels are also required, because rainwater cannot run off on an asphalted surface. That leaves the paving stones – as it quickly becomes clear, often the best choice. Call the professional at Asphalt driveways sydney to help you fix your driveways.

Cobblestones, gravel, turf stones or would you prefer smooth asphalt?

A suitable floor covering is not only required for the driveway, but also for garden paths. However, since this is a topic in itself, we have also written an extra article for you on designing garden paths.

Our choice: paving stones

The advantages of paving stones:

• Stable
• They only cause low costs
• They are easy to care for
• Different patterns can be created with the stones
• You will find a large selection of different colored stones
• Patterns can also be laid with paving stones.

In the following, we will show you how to professionally attach the substructure and pave the driveway.

Important: Contact the building authorities before starting construction work. Because cables or ducts could run in the area to be paved. In certain cases, a building permit is also required – for example if your house is a listed building or if you intend to seal the floor (when concreting).

Dig the driveway

Before paving can begin, the driveway must first be dug. To do this, mark out the area to be excavated. An excavation of at least 25 cm is recommended (in our example we assume an excavation of 50 cm), because the substructure needs its space. You can determine the depth of the excavation using wooden pegs and a guideline. A wooden stake is stuck into the earth at each corner of the pit and connected with guide cords.

With the help of an excavator, the substructure for the driveway can be excavated much faster than with a shovel – but it must first fit on the property.

The substructure

Your paving project stands or falls with the substructure. Because the subsurface of your driveway must be stable, frost-proof and be able to drain off water well.

Material and composition of the substructure

The substructure consists of a lower base course and an upper base course. Our example refers to a sub-structure with a height of 40 cm, on which a gravel bed layer of 5 cm will later be attached.

1. Lower base layer: approx. 20 cm high-grade chippings / rubble stones

Grain size: 2 to 60 mm or similar

2. Upper base course: approx. 15 cm drainage concrete
3. Split bed: approx. 5 cm

Grain size: 4 to 10 mm

The base course is distributed with a rake and reinforced with the vibrating plate.

Apply the lower base course

The guide line on the wooden pegs shows how high the lower base course must be installed. It also shows you when there is a gradient that can be leveled as necessary. Ideally, there should be 26 cm of space for the upper base course, the gravel bed and the paving stones. A lower base layer of 20 cm is sufficient.

Then you have to distribute the broken stone by hand and / or a rake and consolidate it with the vibrating plate.

Put curbs

Before you can put the top layers of the sub-structure in place, you need to set the curbs. They prevent the plaster from loosening or slipping.

Tip: Have the curbs and paving stones delivered as close as possible to the area to be paved in order to avoid unnecessary walks.