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Clearing snow from a gravel driveway can be tricky – you need to remove the snow without taking the gravel with it.

If the snow’s quite light and dry, try using a leaf blower. You might find that this is enough to get the snow out the way. If it isn’t, start by using a shovel. Use this to clear the top layer of snow off your driveway, leaving about an inch behind. Then, use a rake to remove most of the remaining snow. This won’t take away 100% of the snow or leave all of your gravel in place, but it’s still pretty effective. You can then lay salt to melt away the rest of the snow and stop it turning into ice.

Oil stains on your concrete driveway can look obvious and unsightly. However, there are several different ways to remove them.

If you’ve only just spilled the oil, you can use a mixture of absorbent material, like sawdust, and solvent, like acetone or lacquer. Combine these, place them on the stain, cover and leave for about 24 hours. Then sweep up the mixture and rinse the area with water.

If you’ve got a small, older stain, you can use a detergent like baking soda, vinegar, washing up liquid or laundry detergent. Cover the stain with the detergent and leave for about 30 minutes. Then, add hot water and scrub the area and rinse. You might need to repeat this if necessary.

If it’s a larger, more stubborn stain, you might need to use a special degreaser. You can use this similarly to a detergent but make sure you follow the instruction on the bottle carefully.

Can You Lay Block Paving On Top Of Concrete?

The replacement or improvement of your driveway is unarguably one of the most expensive projects you can undertake in the exterior of your home. When done by a true professional the results can be impressive and visually appealing, however you’d have to pay huge bucks to have this done. This is exactly the situation with block paving as it is not only time consuming, but also a lot more expensive when compared to other types of driveway.

A large chuck of this cost is associated with the removal of the existing driveway. So assuming your old driveway is concrete, can you simply pave over the existing concrete? If yes, will it save you money? The simple and short answer is yes. It’s in fact advisable to pave over concrete as this will not only add around 20% to your home’s value, but also make it look a lot more attractive and pleasing to the eye.

However, there are some problems associated with block paving over concrete. It may be better to remove the concrete in situations whereby the base is substandard. For instance, if the ground underneath the concrete is failing, there’ll most definitely be problems.

Also, there’ll be some issues with settling (not even the cracks). If your concrete is dropping little amounts every year, these can affect the blocks and ultimately lead to dropping of some sections of the block paving in such a way that they’ll no longer be on the same level as the other blocks. Giving a rise to the possibility of drainage issues, tripping hazard and lots more.

Other issues that may crop up can be triggered as a result of using the wrong size block height as well as totally ignoring or overlooking the undulations of the concrete.

Driveway work is usually done in the warmer half of the year. This is partly to avoid bad weather. If you want to get ahead and avoid waiting for a contractor to be free, you should try getting in touch with a professional in the early spring so a date can be booked for install as soon as practically possible.

There’s no doubt that weeds coming through your block paving can be unsightly and annoying. But, it’s relatively easy to get rid of weeds that are growing in the joints between your block paving. To start, pull out the larger weeds, and then you can use a pressure washer or firm bristled brush to remove the smaller weeds and debris from the joints in your block paving. It’s best to then refill the joints with additional sand to ensure your block paving remains level. Regularly brushing your block paving and treating with weed killer will help to prevent the weeds from reoccurring.

There is a variety of methods available to ensure that your paving drains properly, for example draining into a lawn or soakaway. Correct drainage of paving is a requirement for planning permission. See our guide on planning permission for paving for more information.

No, pattern imprinted concrete shouldn’t be slippery. Most good driveway installers will add a special anti-slip agent to the sealant before they brush it onto your driveway, so it will stop it from being slippery.

It’s important to ask a driveway company how they will seal your driveway when you get a quote from them. If an untrustworthy company seals your driveway badly, it can cause a thick and extremely slippery surface, so it’s vital that you ask any contractor what their procedure is before you engage them.

It’s also important to remember that pattern imprinted concrete isn’t a ‘non-slip’ surface – it’s just not slippery. You could still slip over on a concrete driveway, just like you could on tarmac or a block paved driveway. Also, once you’ve walked and driven over your driveway for a few months, its skid and slip resistance will increase as it weathers and builds up tiny specs of dirt on it. Pattern imprinted concrete is often used in high footfall areas in places like shops, fast food restaurants and theme parks, so if there was a significant slip risk these businesses wouldn’t use it.

You might think that you could ask your contractor not to seal the driveway to make it less slippery, but it could actually do the opposite. By sealing pattern imprinted concrete, it means that moss and algae is much less likely to grow, which can be extremely slippery to walk on if it’s left to its own devices. If moss does form on your driveway, the sealed surface is much easier to clean as you can simply pressure wash it away; this is not as easy to do on a non-sealed surface.

How to joint pave or grout paving slabs is a common question asked by several home owners. Most times they may have some existing paving and thinking its high time to have them re-pointed or laid some new pavings and wondering how to fill the gaps.

In the UK, patios don’t get much use especially during cold winter months. However even when not in use, the combination of wet weather and cold temperatures is capable of having the hardest outdoor living spaces looking a bit neglected. This may lead to cracked grouting which leaves gaps between stones making way to a place where weeds can grow and flourish during spring. You definitely wouldn’t want your outdoor living space looking this messy. Hence, there’s a need to get your patio back on track by grouting the paving slabs. However, if you lack proper training or experience, it’s advisable to employ a reliable professional who can guarantee the best results. In this guide, you’ll learn more about the paving slabs grouting process.

• Saturate the area that needs to be repointed with the help of a hosepipe and/or watering cans. Use a yard brush to distribute the water across the paving slabs.

• Pour a generous amount of your compound product over the newly soaked patio.

• Sweep the into the joints where it’s needed with the help of a broom. Do this carefully in order to make sure each and every joint is fully filled with the compound. If done right, this can help prevent premature cracking for a long period of time.

• Once the joints are filled with the compound, brush aside the exces product and strike it in. Ensure that the product is pressed firmly into each gap leaving behind no spaces.

• Sweep out the excesses which can be kept for future use.