21 Mar Is Getting A Resin Driveway The Best Option Today?
Everyone living in places like Manchester and Stockport knows that, contrary to popular belief, it does not always rain here. But there are times when it seems like it.
The first half of March has been like that and has continued a trend seen through the winter, The Met Office, which defines winter as the calendar months from December to February, stated that 2023-24 was the wettest winter on record for the UK as a whole, so it’s not just round here that it’s been raining a lot (indeed, the Manchester area was drier than most).
Wetter winters are expected to be a perennial feature of a changed climate, with warmer air meaning more water evaporates, thus filling up the clouds with more rain. That means the exceptionally wet weather of the last few months is not a one-off, but a new normal.
This means households will need to adjust how they handle the consequences of this, including the effect on driveways. Many a motorist will have found their driveway holding puddles of standing water and on the (albeit less frequent) occasions when it freezes, that water seeps into cracks, expands as ice, and prises them open.
Improving drainage can be achieved in different ways, such as having lawns and run-off trenches to the sides of the driveway. But you can also take steps to make the surface itself drain better, which is where a resin driveway can come in.
Driveway Expert describes two types of resin driveway, resin-bound and resin-bonded. The second of these involves laying down the resin and then adding the aggregate. In resin-bonded driveways, the resin and aggregate are mixed together. The latter is better suited to our climate, being more permeable and frost-resistant.
A key benefit of a resin driveway is that there are small gaps between each aggregate stone, which enables water to escape through it rather than forming puddles or running off to the sides.
At the same time, there are also many aesthetically attractive designs out there you can enjoy, so they look good as well as being practical.
Indeed, this practicality extends beyond better drainage; they are easy to install and maintain. They won’t crack like concrete or suffer as much from freeze-thaw and they don’t need frequent smoothing over like gravel, with which the tyres can gouge trenches.
Being low maintenance includes the fact that plants like moss don’t easily grow on them. But this is not always true, as it can happen on a dirty driveway. Therefore, as long as you keep it clean, you will be fine.
Another point to note is that occasionally the aggregate that can be used by some installers is not quite the right stuff, as it is too small, which makes it less permeable. This is why you should always use a reliable, expert supplier of resin driveways.
Of course, every driveway is different. Some are used more than others (resin driveways are better for relatively light use), while topography is a particularly important factor; flat areas such as many south Manchester homes sit on will not drain as naturally as those on steep slopes in hill or valley areas.
Nonetheless, for a great many homes, a resin driveway could be the very best solution for a wetter climate.