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Resin drives - anyone had one done?


Mel B

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Whilst at the Stratford show we browed at a stall selling resin drives - it is made up of pebbles/grit/glass etc (depending on which type you choose). The aggregate is mixed with resin to coat each piece and it is then spread to a thickness of between 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch onto a solid base (ie our concrete drive) which then hardens - it's a bit more complicated than this but this is the simplified version!

 

We've had them round and they've given us a price of £3,800 for our very large drive which we don't think is bad seeing as a good few years ago a friend who ran a block paving company said he would do it for £3,000 - not that we would want block paving with our drive being 8 inch thick reinforced concrete it would be a mammoth task to dig it all out for no real reason as you can pretty much stand anything on it, unlike block paving.

 

I just wondered if anyone has had a resin drive done and/or have any comments on it.

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I have no experience of this Mel but somewhere in the back of mind (don't go there) there is a dim and distant memory of some bad publicity about cowboy installers or lack of durability but I can't remember what or where it was now - sorry!

 

I would be very wary about these 'national' firms where two blokes turn up in a Transit, do the job in half a day and then disappear never to be seen again.

 

I would be more inclined to trust a local firm and at least get the views and quotes of more than one.

 

Trading standards might be able to advise but of late they seem more concerned with not giving out helpful information because of data protection issues than they are with actually helping to avoid costly cockups.

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Hi.

 

We had ours done about 4 years ago (by a company seen at a motorhome show). The firm (salesman) was based in the south west but the cowboys who did the job were in the south east. The drive looked great at first but has since broken up in a few small areas and doesn't look as good as when it was first laid.

 

I recently contacted a supplier of the resin bond material so that I could repair the "bald" bits. I was going to use the gravel I had been able to sweep up for the patching as there was a lot of loose stuff about. After I described the resin originally used the supplier said - no wonder it is loose as the trader used the wrong stuff (cheaper grade).

 

The firm has gone out of business (apparently they weren't good payers either) so we are now left with having to recoat the original gravel with another coat of the correct boning material (approx £600) - the original job cost £9k.

 

Would I have it done again or would I use tarmac - yeh you got it - tarmac!

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Knight - that's one of the things that is worrying hubby - as we have to turn the car 90 degrees to get it into the garage, along with shuffling it back and forth in the process, he's wondering how well it would stand up to it.

 

Bernie - we've been wondering about tarmac instead - after all we have a very solid concrete base for it to go on so 'spreading' should be minimal even with the camper parked on it. We are concerned though that when it gets hot (and yes we do get some very hot days even in Cottingham!) whether it would then melt and we'd end up with tarmac dragged indoors.

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I've had Tarmac drives in Cornwall, Pembrokeshire and Suffolk over the years and none of 'em have ever melted.

 

Tarmac does remain soft when new and it pays to be very careful for the first few months on a new surface, especially if it is laid in warm weather, but after a winter and a summer of hardening and weathering only the heaviest of vehicles will scuff and only generally when the wheels are turned with the vehicle stationary.

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Guest pelmetman
Are you just trying to make it look a bit better Mel?..............we had a large ugly concrete slab outside our sun lounge, so when I redesigned the garden I had it laid with bricks on top in a nice herring bone pattern B-)

DSCN0167web.jpg.d788cc720483ff6fd4b846a161d3b029.jpg

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Hi Dave - yup ... the concrete is a pain to keep clean and was poured in sections originally so although not an 'eye-sore' as such, could look much better than it does. We also have a large bbq area (the base of the original 20ft square brick garage which for some reason the previous owners built slap-bang in the middle of the garden!) so would also like to do something with this too, and possibly our small patio near the bungalow which is too small to use really as it stands.

 

The bbq and patio areas could be done with blocks/bricks/paving slabs, but the drive isn't suitable for this as it would raise it too high for the damp proof course and for getting onto it from the road/over the path and there's no way I'm digging out the drive - at 8 inch thick reinforce concrete - I did that previously when we removed the much smaller section of drive that led to the original garage and we had to use a jack-hammer and three 8-tonne skips!!! 8-)

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1314854435_BBQarea.jpg.694d9cb18f9d844b506b9be191160c9e.jpg

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Guest pelmetman
The damp course isn't a problem Mel ;-)...........Ours is now above the dpc, but we left a 4" gap all round the wall which I back filled with gravel, you will probably need to dig out a drainage channel by your garage doors and taper the slop down to the garage floor level, but even that can be done sympathetically if you stick gravel into a concrete slope to look a bit like your resin idea :D
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Hi Mel

A solid concrete slab is not an ideal base for Tarmac or the Resin coated materials.

Tarmac is ideally partially porous & allows water to permeate through. As this happens over time the water will break the weak bond between the Tarmac & Concrete. This effect will be exagerated by each time you turn your vehicle on the tarmac surface. Similar effect (although slower) to what a F1 Car does to a tarmac racetrack during heavy braking.

During a cold winter a heavy frost will complete the job & lift the Tarmac. Tarmac is best laid on well compacted hardcore, which will allow any permeated water to drain through.

 

I have seen a Resin only self leveling layer applied to a concrete drive, which appears to have been successful but no idea of life span.

 

 

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The problems with block paved drives etc is that when they spread the stone they only use a wacker plate to compress it whereas they should use a vibrating roller to get the required compression before laying the sand bed and then blocking out.

Regular parking of a car weighing in at a couple of ton will soon leave an indent, when i did my own drive it had the withstand a 3 ton truck passing over it, i dug the drive out to the required depth then bedded in 1 metre lenghts of drainage channel at the bottom of the house walls to drain loose surface water away, put down a 4" layer of ready mix then crazy paved it, laying the slabs on a solid bed of sand and cement, using natural stone intermingled with broken concrete flags of different colours then pointed up with a jointer, that was 12 years ago and it looks as good now as when I first did it, I get plenty of compliments on it and have been asked by many people do theirs, but it was a labour of love and you can't put a price on that, the beauty of doing it myself was the fact that all the paving I got for nothing from the garden work that I do, its a bit of a sickener when you have paid out a good few grand and the job does not measure up to what the contractor says.

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Mel there is a company that puts a layer of material on top of the existing drive then creates a block pattern to you slected style. Two large houses near me had it done about 6 years ago and it still looks good they just have to hose the dirt off the suface and it looks new. Sorry but I cant remember the company but I've had a leaflet left some time ago so they are still going. The internet may help. John B-)
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Have you tried pressure washing it? I have seen concrete come up looking fresh and almost like new using one of these. If you do decide to get it top coated it will in any case need washing off to ensure a good bond. If thickness will be a problem, you could probably get away with using frost proof tiles - providing you observe the bay joints in the concrete. You'd need to choose the tiles, the bedding, and the grout with great care, and make sure the tiles are absolutely solid bedded.

 

You will need to talk to someone like Building Adhesives Ltd (BAL) for advice on bedding and grouting, their technical bods are (at least were) excellent.

 

I'd recommend someone like Johnson Tiles for advice on the tiles. They are a long established and well regarded manufacturer and importer and, again, their technical folk know their stuff. Possibly something like a swimming pool tile may work. Fully vitrified will be essential.

 

The problem I can foresee, is that your drive looks awfully flat and, IMO, nothing you put on top of flat concrete will last for long.

 

My final thought is to grind it. Problem is it leaves a polished surface, which is pretty indoors with the right aggregates, but not suitable outdoors, meaning it would need light scabbling after polishing to put some texture back. Shouldn't be that expensive if you get the right people with the right machines, but it will be very noisy!

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A long shot maybe, but have you considered painting the concrete?

 

I painted the concrete floor surface of a large garage many years ago, and was very very impressed with it's durability...

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Bruce - We've painted a 'garage' floor before but as it was open to the air (it's now our large patio area!) the paint soon deteriorated and was even more of a mess than it was originally.

 

Brian - The drive is quite flat with a slope but does have a 'roughish' texture to it so should be okay to provide a key for whatever we decide to do in the end ... but this texture is part of the problem with pressure washing as it 'accumulates' dirt so soon gets grubby again - I don't think it helps that we are opposite some open fields and the drive faces North so it gets all of the weather.

 

Not sure about tiles though, unless as you say they were very solidly bedded, they'd crack plus the thought of having to 're-grout' at some point doesn't bear thinking about!!! :D

 

Polishing isn't something I'd thought of but I don't think it would work on our drive and could be lethal too ... having seen dogs on 'ice' it can be hilarious but I wouldn't want the vet's bill for when they broke something!!!

 

We're not going to go ahead with the resin coating due to our own reservations and the comments above, and having been able to see one 'in the flesh' it seems a lot of money for what it is. If we do anything 'coating' wise it will probably be a 'quality' tarmac job, which can at least be easily repaired in the future if the need arises - we've had tarmac drives before and they are quite durable - with us having a solid concrete base there'll be no risk of it sinking which I know is a common problem with them when just put onto a rubble etc base (been there, done that ....).

 

However, as we're also probably going to do other bits and pieces to our place seeing as we've decided to stay put now, we'll proably wait until we've done them and then look again at getting something done to the drive as we wouldn't want it to get damaged/spoilt by doing it first.

 

So thanks for everyone's comments and ideas. :->

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Probably wise Mel. My final thought, when the time comes, is just get a local bod to come in and break it up and take it away. One JCB with a pecker on the back and a bucket on the front, and a supply of skips, should shift it in about a day, maybe 2. Needn't be as expensive as you might imagine, especially if he can drive the JCB to you. It will be done far quicker than you could ever imagine. It will leave a big mess, and you need to be sure of what is under the drive, in the way of services, drains etc, but if there is nothing there, and they can just get on, then it'll be quick.

 

However, if there are services beneath, then just forget it and leave the next owner, whoever and whenever, to worry about it! :-D

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Brian Kirby - 2012-07-07 11:16 AM

 

However, if there are services beneath, then just forget it and leave the next owner, whoever and whenever, to worry about it! :-D

 

Yep agree with that ;-)...............When we had the garage built for our camper back at the last house the first bucket from the digger found the village water main *-)...................It instantly added 3 and a half k to the job 8-)

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we were at stratford show as well looked at these resin based stone ideas but decided that they would probably be alright on a small area ie.patio but not for heavy traffic areas.as aby thought did you go into stratford?particularly cobbs yard by the river(a cafe/bar area) they have had areas of block paving covered by fake grass looked great and seemed to be stuck down well
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Brian, we have NO intention of digging up the drive itself, it is 8 inch thick reinforced concrete!!! 8-) So, our only options are to leave it as it is and try to keep it clean, or to cover it hence the original resin coating, or subsequent tarmac, ideas. :-D
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knight of the road - 2012-07-07 10:13 PM

 

I'm puzzled as to why you have 8" of re-inforced concrete in the first place? What were you parking up. A Tiger tank?

 

... because that's what the previous owners used when they laid the drive ... if you think that's daft, we've got the same stuff making up the floors in the bungalow!!!! 8-) We found this out the hard way when we had to dig a channel through it to run some radiator pipes, it took 2 days to do a narrow channel 4ft long!!!! *-)

 

The father of the previous owner was a builder so either he must've wanted to do a good strong job, or he'd got a good deal on the stuff .... :D

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  • 5 months later...

Hi have been doing my research on the internet as I do for our company and came across this thread. At the cost of sounding as though I am trying to sell, I wanted to just really give a bit of an insight into Resin and the misconceptions.

We have been working with Resin for over 10 years and mainly work with Resin Bonded as one of the key aspects is that it uses existing bases and is designed to save on mess, disruption and the unnecessary removal of a perfectly good base.

On reading through the comments it appears that Resin Bonded and Resin Bound are not differentiated between. They are both different have different qualities and purposes. Please feel free to look at our website www.drive-cote.co.uk where there is more info. If anyone has any questions then we are always available for a chat.

As a small business we pride ourselves on quality, service and workmanship and seek to educate (obviously a sale is always a benefit) in the benefits of Resin Bonded Resurfacing. The actual Resin Bonded finish for driveways was spawned from road use, so as far as caravanning and motor homes go it is a really good option. (It looks good as well). A number of our clients are caravanning and motorhome enthusiasts hence me finiding this post.

In this current environmental climate, drainage can be a major consideration, but this can be dealt with without having to have existing surfaces removed.

SUDS compliant and permeable paving are all major factors nowadays as is waste disposal so if it’s not broke don’t fix it!

I realise your posts are at least 6 months old but please feel free to ask away.

 

 

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Not much point in using different descriptions and initials unless you explain what they all mean and the differences?

 

Maybe your intentions are good but with respect your views are as oppositely biased as someone's who has had their expensive resin driveway break up and it would take a lot more than your advert to convince me that it is a sound, cost effective and attractive proposition.

 

 

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