Durable Tarmac Driveways & Resurfacing in Gloucester

What is a tarmac driveway?

A tarmac driveway is a hot-laid asphalt surface, rolled while it is still workable so it compacts into one continuous sheet with no joints for water to get into. It is the surface you already know from every road you drive on, and for the same reason: laid properly, it takes weight, it handles weather, and it costs less per square metre than anything else that lasts as long.

LayPave lays new tarmac driveways, resurfaces tired drives, extends existing ones and carries out road resurfacing across Gloucester and Gloucestershire. A professionally installed tarmac drive is built to last 15 to 25 years or more when laid correctly, with proper excavation, an MOT Type 1 sub-base, base and wearing courses, well compacted with the right drainage falls.

Personalise it with coloured tarmac, decorative borders or a block-paved entrance. Fully guaranteed, with no upfront payment.

What’s included

• Excavation, or planing off where we are resurfacing a sound base
• Spoil carted away, no skips left sitting on your drive for a fortnight
• MOT Type 1 sub-base laid and compacted in layers to the depth the ground needs
• A bitumen emulsion tack coat between layers so they bond as one
• Base course laid and rolled, then the wearing course on top
• Drainage fall gradient set away from the house, with channel drainage where needed
• Edgings, block paved aprons and border courses where specified

How we build it

Excavation depth depends on the ground and on what the drive has to carry. A domestic drive usually needs 150mm to 250mm out, more where the subsoil is soft clay, which a lot of Gloucestershire is. Anything that will not compact comes out and gets replaced with stone.

The MOT Type 1 sub-base goes in and gets compacted in layers with a vibratory roller. Falls are set at this stage. Getting the fall right at base level means the finished surface follows it naturally, rather than the gang trying to rake a slope into a hot mat that is already cooling.

Then the surfacing itself. A tack coat of bitumen emulsion is sprayed so the layers bond, the base course goes down and is rolled, and the wearing course follows. Both are laid hot and rolled while workable, which is what gives tarmac its density and its anti-slip texture. Where a drive takes heavy or turning traffic we specify a stone mastic asphalt (SMA) wearing course, which holds up better to shoving and rutting than a standard mix. Materials are laid to the BS EN 13108 standard for asphalt mixtures.

Edges are the other thing that decides how long a drive lasts. Tarmac with nothing holding its edge crumbles from the outside in. We finish against existing kerbs, new edgings or a block paved border, depending on what suits the house.

Resurfacing, extensions and repairs

Not every tired drive needs digging out. If the base is sound and only the top has fretted, cracked or faded, planing off and relaying a fresh wearing course gives you a new drive for a fraction of the cost of a rebuild. Where the cracking runs deeper, or where the drive is visibly sinking, the base has already failed and resurfacing over it just buys a season.

We will tell you which one you are looking at, even when the answer is the cheaper job. That honesty is also why we handle a lot of driveway repairs and resurfacing for people who were told by someone else that a full replacement was the only option.

Extensions and widening are common too, usually to fit a second car or a van. The joint between old and new is the weak point, so we cut a clean vertical edge, tack it and roll the new surface into it rather than butting warm tarmac against a broken edge.

Living with it

Tarmac wants very little from you. Sweep it, keep leaf mulch and moss off it in autumn, and get any cracks sealed early rather than letting water get underneath and freeze. Avoid dragging skips or trailers with jockey wheels across it in hot weather, and put a board down under motorbike or caravan stands so the point load does not dent it.

Weighing tarmac up against blocks or resin? Our guide comparing block paving, resin and tarmac sets out where each one wins on cost, drainage and looks.