Resin Bound Driveway, Silver Granite Setts & Entrance Path — Carlisle
A cracked tarmac frontage lifted out and rebuilt as two complementary resin surfaces — a warm golden path to the door and a cool silver-grey drive to the garage — separated and framed by hand-laid silver granite setts and a charcoal kerb line.
What the homeowners described as a simple driveway turned into a proper rebuild once the tarmac came up. The old surface had been laid thin over made ground, it was breaking at every edge, and the fall ran gently back towards the house rather than away from it. Patching would have bought a season; rebuilding buys decades.
The frontage was stripped in a morning. A mini excavator lifted the broken tarmac and the soft material underneath, and every bucketful went straight into a grab lorry standing at the kerb — no spoil heaps on the lawn, no material tracked across the pavement.
Clean stone was tipped straight from the grab into the excavation and worked out in layers, each one compacted before the next went down. Only when the base was solid did the setting out begin, and that is where the project changed character.
Rather than one uncontained surface, the drive was drawn out in stone. A charcoal kerb line was bedded on concrete along the boundary, and silver granite setts were laid by hand — bedded, tapped down, string-lined and levelled one at a time — to form the edge of the drive, the path to the front door and a crisp threshold at the step.
Two resin blends were then mixed in weighed batches: a warm golden gravel for the entrance path, and a cooler silver-grey for the main drive. Each was barrowed out onto the primed base, spread, hand-trowelled and finally power-floated to a dead-flat, seamless finish. The granite keeps the two apart and ties them together at the same time.
What we solved
Once the tarmac lifted it was clear the original drive had almost no base beneath it. The excavation went deeper than planned and the sub-base was built up in compacted layers — the reason the finished surface will stay flat under a car.
Water had been drifting back towards the front step. Levels were reset from the threshold outwards so the whole frontage now drains away from the house, with the permeable surface taking the rest.
A gold path meeting a silver drive only works if the junction is perfect. Granite setts were laid first as a permanent divider, then both resin blends were poured tight to the stone — no feathered edges, no colour bleed.
Installation timeline
Frontage set out and protected, the pavement crossing kept clear, and a walkable route to the front door agreed with the homeowners before anything was lifted.
Broken tarmac and the soft material beneath it lifted by mini excavator and loaded straight into a grab lorry at the kerb, so nothing was stockpiled on the lawn.
Formation trimmed and checked, falls reset away from the front step, and the finished level worked back from the threshold and the road.
Clean open-graded stone tipped from the grab and spread in layers, each one compacted before the next — the part nobody sees and everything depends on.
Surface water directed to the kerb line, the existing chamber brought up to finished level and a recessed cover fitted ready to be infilled.
Charcoal kerb bedded on concrete along the boundary, then silver granite setts laid one at a time to a string line, tapped down and levelled by hand.
The path to the front door framed in the same granite and the step threshold set square, so the door opens onto stone rather than onto an edge.
Golden quartz and silver-grey blends mixed in weighed batches, barrowed out onto the primed base and spread tight to the granite on both sides of the junction.
Each area hand-trowelled while workable, then power-floated to a dead-flat finish, with the recessed cover infilled to match the surrounding blend.
Surface left to cure, setts brushed down, the site swept clear and the frontage handed back with aftercare guidance.
From the film
We'll walk the space with you, talk through build-up, drainage and finish, and leave you with a clear plan — no pressure, no obligation.
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