Driveway upkeep – common problems to look out for

Everybody wants to keep their driveway looking good – in many cases it gives visitors their first impression of your home, and is something that most householders take a lot of pride in.

If you want to keep your drive looking great for years to come, you need to put in the hours with maintaining it. Properly tending to it from the start will add to its longevity, reduce any potential repair costs and increase the value of your home.

The problems that are likely to crop up with a driveway, of course, depend on the material used to surface it.

One of the most commonly used materials is gravel, and the issues you might have include:

• Potholes – It’s difficult to avoid the pothole effect in a gravel driveway, no matter how tightly packed the stones are. The weather and continuous traffic will take a toll. It can be tempting just to take stone from another area of the driveway and fill any holes with it, but in fact what this will do is cause the same problem to eventually occur in another part of the drive, no matter how carefully you take stones from different areas! We suggest keeping some gravel back when you have the driveway laid so that you have a supply to remedy any uneven areas that crop up over time.
• Poor drainage – A driveway laid by a professional landscaper such as John Lessels Landscaping shouldn’t have any issues with drainage as this would have been organised at the start of the project. However, if you take on an already laid driveway, or lay your own, it’s something you could experience problems with at a later date. The first thing you might notice is erosion, leading to the deep ruts and potholes, and a loss of gravel. If the problems were caused by bad construction, you’ll probably need to call in an expert to install some sort of drainage system.
• Loose stone – If the gravel doesn’t seem to stay in the driveway, not only is it annoying but it can also damage lawnmowers if you don’t spot it. We’d suggest edging an errant driveway to prevent the stones escaping all over the garden, which will look good as well as keeping the gravel where it should be.

For advice on driveway projects, contact the friendly team at John Lessels Landscaping and we’ll help you find the solution.