If you are looking to replace your old driveway, patio or garden area in County Durham or the Newcastle region, give TFJ Paving LTD a call.
We are specialists at building new driveways, replacing older driveways and extending existing driveways.
Our driveway options include block paving driveways, tarmac driveways, resin bonded driveways and concrete driveway installations.
Patio options provided by TFJ Paving LTD includes laying patio paving, garden slabbing, natural stone, Indian sandstone, granite slabbing, porcelain slabs and standard concrete slabbing.
All our work is done to the highest of standards with a written installation guarantee. Over 20 years in the industry with long term references and hundreds of satisfied clients.
One of the most common driveway
installation options in the United Kingdom is block paving.
It provides great
long-term value, durability and is extremely versatile with all the various
colours, patterns and styles you can design with it.
Removal of existing driveway
The first step would any new driver
installation is the removal of the existing driveway.
Once you removed the
existing driveway you need to excavate the area to ensure that you can have a
new base foundation installed.
We recommend on larger driveways to always
use diggers which will allow you to excavate concrete or tarmac without any
problems.
Always make sure when excavating a driveway
to check for any piping or electrical wiring may be running on the driveway.
You can use cable detectors or similar to find hidden wiring.
The same applies for water and gas pipes.
If in doubt we always recommend consulting your local council for drawings to
highlight where the piping runs.
We recommend always with new driveway
installations that you have at least 6 inches of a type 1 MOT foundation. This
ensures not only a permeable base it also ensures a solid foundation that is
capable of withstanding heavy vehicle traffic.
Standard foundation for any driveway is
made up of 2 to 3 layers.
The lowest level is generally a very coarse or dense
crushed concrete stone with the finishing layers being type 1 MOT hardcore.
Of course, this only really applies to
standard driveways if you are looking to install a permeable driveway which has
to deal with heavy water flooding the base foundation would be deeper, It would
also require type for MOT instead of type 1.
The next stage would be put down membrane
sheeting this is not as people think to stop weeds this is to stop base mixing
with the River wash sand which is applied on top of the membrane. Weeds very
rarely will grow through the ground especially if you have done your base
preparation correctly.
Weeds generally grow in the gaps between
the paving joints the joints are normally made up of KDS which is short for
kiln dried sand. This type of weed growth is easily handled with maintenance
once to twice a year.
At this stage you will decide whether you
wish to have a standard border around your driveway which will act as a
retainer or if you would be using edging curbs. Regardless of your choice it
should always be benched in concrete and set to an accurate finished level.
The next stage of your driveway
installation in Durham, is about setting in any drainage that is required according to
SUDS regulations or as needed to handle surface water.
Inspection Chambers or is more commonly
known manhole covers are generally replaced at this stage with a new recessed
inspection chamber.
This allows you to lay the paving inside of the cover
allowing it to blend in with the driveway.
River Washed Sand
The next stage of preparation is applying a
sand base preferably river washed to the driveway. Once you have roughly
levelled off the sand you will have to set accurate screeding levels.
Screeding levels are generally set when you
use conduit piping or similar which is set off a string line and a screeding
bar is used to pull back the sand set at the level of the conduit piping.
When you have screeded off the driveway,
you should remove your conduit piping. You can backfill the gaps left by the
piping by using sand and hand floating.
Laying The Block Paving
At this stage you can generally start
laying your block paving. We always recommend pulling a string line from the
house or from whichever angle you wish to lay the block paving off of.
The most common style of block paving
pattern is 45° or a 90° herringbone. You can of course choose to lay the paving
in a variety of different styles but the herringbone pattern is where the
original term of interlocking comes from.
This generally gives the strongest
interlock to the driveway paving.
Once you have laid the block paving the
next stage is to cut in any of the paving that needs to be cut. You have
generally two different ways of cutting block paving
The first option is to use block paving
splitter. The most renowned splitter for block paving is from Probst.
They are
generally safe to use but we do recommend having two people using it. One
inserting the block for cutting it and other to pull the handle of the
splitter.
The second option is to use a consaw.
This
is large version of a grinder which is generally powered by petrol. It uses a
diamond blade saw which will cut through the block paving at a very fast speed.
This option provides the best quality of cuts but we only recommend using a consaw
if you have prior experience to using similar equipment. It can be very
dangerous to use and not recommended as an amateur.
Once you have carried out all your cutting,
then apply KDS for jointing block paving. KDS is short for kiln dried sand
which is brushed into the joints. You will vibrate compact the finished block
paving using a Wacker plate.
Once you have finished compacting the block
paving, you will then reapply KDS over the driveway, making sure all the joints
are topped up.
