Slab Paving in Barking and Dagenham

Are you planning on investing in a new driveway for your home? If yes, then you’d probably want to know how much you’re going to incur to complete the project. In this guide, we’ll give you an idea of the cost of constructing a new driveway.

When it comes to driveway construction a larger part ( up to 80%) of the cost is made of the parts that are completely invisible to you - the sub base as well as the ground preparation, while the remaining cost of about 20 percent is required for the paving and other materials. As a result, there are multiple factors affecting the price of a driveway project. These includes the materials preferred, the level of work that’s required for the ground preparation as well as the complexity of the laying pattern or design. With this in mind, you’d have to schedule an appointment with two or more professional to obtain and compare their quotes.

Although there are many other options, but block paving happens to be a popular choice due to its cost effectiveness, visual appeal as well as being a hard wearing drive. The common choice for block paving I the Drivesett Tegula and the price usually starts from range between £30 to £35 per m2 and above. However if you’re looking for the conventional block paving with a modern twist, then the Marshalls coppice is a suitable option. The cost of the option usually starts from £25 to £30 per m2 and above. You can also opt for block paving in circle designs which gives you a better option to make an impression. Once you’re able to figure out the size of the paving area, you can roughly estimate what the cost of your driveway will be.

Do you want to know the level of thickness a driveway concrete slab should be? Well, you are not alone! So many other home owners ask this question on a regular basis and reasonably so. In order to prevent cracks on your concrete over time, it’s crucial to ensure an even thickness across your driveway concrete. To determine the necessary thickness of your driveway concrete, there are some questions that must be answered. These includes:

• What’s the number of vehicles you expect to have on your driveway?

• Do you plan on parking heavy, industrial vehicles on it?

For a standard passenger vehicle driveway, you’d have a driveway spanning 8 to 9 feet in width as well as 15 to 18 feet for double width. The thickness for this type of driveway concrete is usually 4 inches of non-reinforced pavement. Ultimately, this enables you to park everyday family cars on it without having to worry about it cracking due to the car’s weight. Also in order to prevent cracks, it’s expected that the driveway should be sloped towards the street as this would make sure that there’s a run off of water especially for areas that experience lots of flooding. In addition, there’s also the need to install joints to prevent cracking. For the standard 4 inch thick driveway, these joints should be positioned about 10 feet apart.

Finally for parking heavy industrial vehicles, your concrete driveway is expected to be thicker in order to cope with the added weight. Typically, the concrete driveway will require a thickness of about 5 inches. The additional one inch may not sound much, but the fact is this can increase the load carrying capacity of the concrete driveway by up to 50 percent.

Some paving projects require you to cut paving slabs to make them fit into a smaller space. To do this, firstly you need to measure the slab and draw a line in pencil or chalk where you want to cut.

There are then several different ways you can cut the slab – you or your professional can choose the one you or they are most happy with. A hammer and chisel can work well, or a handheld saw. You can also use an angle grinder fitted with a stone-cutting disc.

Slab paving is a great material to use to create a sturdy shed base.

Start by measuring out the area where your shed is going to be. This needs to be the size of your shed, plus about 10-20cm extra each way. Mark it out with string and pegs, make sure it’s square, and dig it down to about 6cm deep.

Then create a sand and cement mixture and put a layer down, followed by your paving slabs. Make sure you start in one corner and use a rubber mallet and spirit level to make sure they’re as level as possible. Leave this to set and you’re ready to use your shed base.