By the family team at Hampshire Driveways · A practical homeowner’s guide
Walk down any Hampshire street and you’ll see two driveway materials dominating modern homes: block paving and resin-bound. Both look great, both last decades when installed properly, and both have specific situations where they shine. But they’re very different products — and the wrong choice for your property can mean a driveway you wish you’d done differently within five years.
This is the guide we wish more of our customers had read before getting their first quote. Three decades of installing both materials across Fareham, Winchester, Southampton and the wider Hampshire area has given our family team a clear view of what works where. No marketing spin, no upselling — just the honest comparison.
The 60-second summary
If you want the answer fast:
- Block paving is best for traditional Hampshire homes (period properties, red brick, character cottages), homes where you want flexibility on pattern/colour, and customers who don’t mind topping up jointing sand once a year.
- Resin-bound is best for modern homes (new builds, rendered properties, contemporary architecture), customers who want a clean, seamless look, and anyone who hates the idea of weeding patio joints.
- Cost sits roughly the same per square metre installed (£130-180/m² for both) when comparing like-for-like quality.
- Lifespan sits roughly the same too (25+ years when installed properly).
Block paving driveways: the traditional Hampshire choice
Block paving has been the default British driveway material for 40+ years, and there’s a reason for that — it’s incredibly versatile. Available in hundreds of colour, size and pattern combinations from quality manufacturers like Marshalls, Brett, Tobermore and Stonemarket, block paving can suit virtually any property style from a 17th-century farmhouse to a 2020s new build.
The advantages of block paving
- Individual blocks can be lifted and replaced. If a utility company has to dig up your driveway, or a single block cracks under heavy weight, your installer can lift it, do the work underneath, and replace it. Most patios and resin driveways can’t do this.
- Massive colour and pattern range. Tegular, classic, contemporary linear, circle features, contrasting borders, soldier-course edges — block paving lets you design something genuinely unique to your property.
- Familiar to British homeowners. Buyers know what block paving is and what it costs to maintain. That makes it a safe choice for resale value.
- Lower upfront cost on smaller driveways. For drives under 30m², block paving usually works out slightly cheaper than resin.
The disadvantages
- Jointing sand needs topping up annually. Brush kiln-dried sand into the joints once a year on a dry day. Skip this and weeds get a foothold.
- Weeds in joints. Even with proper sand, weeds eventually appear. Treatable but a recurring task.
- Surface can sink over time if the sub-base wasn’t installed properly. Properly installed block paving (200mm+ sub-base, compacted in layers) doesn’t do this.
- Cleaning takes longer. Jet wash with care — high-pressure spray can blast out the jointing sand.
Resin-bound driveways: the modern choice
Resin-bound surfacing first appeared in the UK in the late 1990s but only became mainstream for residential driveways around 2010. Since then it has become the dominant choice for new-build and modern Hampshire homes, particularly in cities like Southampton and Portsmouth where contemporary architecture is more common.
The advantages of resin-bound
- Seamless smooth surface. No joints means no weeds, no jointing maintenance, no sinking individual elements.
- SUDS-compliant out of the box. Resin-bound is permeable — rainwater drains through it — which means no planning permission needed and no need for a separate soakaway or drainage channels. Saves time, money and bureaucracy.
- Dozens of natural stone colour blends. Warm honey, silver birch, autumn gold, charcoal, granite mix — resin can replicate the look of natural stone gravel without any of the loose-stone problems.
- Stays put. Unlike gravel, resin doesn’t migrate, doesn’t get kicked into the road, doesn’t need raking.
- Wheelchair and pram friendly. The smooth surface is far easier for pushchairs, wheelchairs and elderly visitors than block paving or gravel.
The disadvantages
- Specialist install is critical. Sub-spec resin (polyurethane-based instead of UV-stable aliphatic) yellows and breaks down within 2-3 years. Cheap quotes here are a red flag.
- Sub-base needs to be near-perfect. If the base moves, the resin moves with it — you can’t lift and replace a section the way you can with block paving.
- Limited pattern flexibility. Resin is a uniform surface. You can do colour borders but you can’t do the same level of decorative patterning as block paving.
- Tyre marks can occur. Tight steering on a hot day can leave marks that don’t fully disappear. Less common with proper UV-stable resin but possible.
How to choose between them for your Hampshire property
Here’s the family-business shortcut our team uses at site visits:
| Your property is… | Best driveway choice |
|---|---|
| Traditional Hampshire home (period cottage, Victorian semi, Georgian) | Block paving in warm honey, brindle, or autumn-toned colours |
| Modern new-build (post-2010) | Resin-bound in light grey, silver birch, or charcoal blends |
| Rendered or white-painted house | Resin-bound in any tone — the seamless look works beautifully against render |
| Red brick semi (1930s-1990s) | Either works — block paving in brindle for traditional, resin in autumn gold for modern |
| Sloped or stepped driveway | Block paving (resin can be tricky on slopes over 1:20) |
| Larger driveway with shared access | Resin-bound (less maintenance on bigger areas) |
| Tight budget | Block paving (slightly cheaper on smaller areas) |
| You want zero maintenance | Resin-bound (assuming proper install) |
| You have utility access concerns (drains, gas, electric directly under the drive) | Block paving (so individual blocks can be lifted later) |
An honest note from our family team: we install both. We don’t favour one over the other because we don’t make more money on either. The right answer is whichever genuinely suits your property and life — we’ll tell you which we’d pick if it was our own house.
What about cost?
Cost-per-square-metre runs broadly the same for both materials when comparing properly-specified installations:
| Project type | Block paving | Resin-bound |
|---|---|---|
| Small driveway (15-25 m²) | £3,500 – £5,500 | £4,000 – £6,000 |
| Mid-size driveway (25-50 m²) | £5,500 – £9,500 | £6,000 – £10,500 |
| Larger driveway (50-100 m²) | £9,500 – £16,000 | £10,500 – £18,000 |
| Premium / complex projects | From £16,000 | From £18,000 |
Prices include proper excavation, Type 1 MOT sub-base to correct depth, full mortar bedding (block paving) or proper sub-base (resin), edge restraints, drainage and finishing. Cowboy quotes at half these prices skip the sub-base — ask any quote you receive to specify sub-base depth in writing.
Other materials worth mentioning
Block paving and resin are the two dominant choices, but they aren’t the only options. Quick rundown of the alternatives:
- Tarmac with block paving borders — the budget-friendly choice for large driveways. Tarmac main area, block paving edge for visual lift. Best for £-conscious projects over 50 m².
- Gravel — cheapest by far, but migrates onto the road, needs raking, and gets stuck in tyres. Mostly suited to rural cottage driveways.
- Imprinted concrete — effective in the 1990s, less so now. Cracks easily, hard to repair invisibly.
- Natural stone setts — beautiful, very expensive, mostly for premium country homes.
Common questions
Do I need planning permission for either material?
Resin-bound is permeable and SUDS-compliant by default, so no planning permission needed for any driveway size. Block paving requires planning permission if the area is over 5 m² AND the water drains onto the public highway. Most modern installs route water to a soakaway or use permeable block paving, both of which sidestep the planning requirement.
Can I mix block paving and resin?
Yes — resin main area with block paving borders is one of the most popular combinations we install. Gives you the clean resin look with the visual structure of paving edges. Particularly effective on larger driveways.
Which lasts longer?
Both should last 25-30 years when installed properly. Block paving has a slight edge in lifespan because individual blocks can be replaced; resin has a slight edge in maintenance because there’s nothing to top up. Real-world failure modes are usually about sub-base, not the surface material.
What’s the best brand of block paving?
Marshalls, Brett Landscaping, Tobermore and Stonemarket all make excellent products. Avoid uncalibrated “builder’s merchant” block paving from unknown brands — the colour variation is severe and the calibration can be off, making proper laying very difficult.
How quickly can it be installed?
A small block paved driveway typically takes 4-6 working days. Resin-bound has a longer total project time (sub-base needs to cure for 2-3 weeks before the resin goes down) but only 3-5 days actual on-site work.
The Hampshire angle
One thing that matters for Hampshire specifically: coastal areas need different specifications. If you’re in Gosport, Hayling Island, Portsmouth or the south coastal villages, salt air affects how materials weather. Our family team uses polymeric jointing on coastal block paving installs and specifies UV-stable resin formulations with anti-salt detailing for any resin installation within 5 miles of the sea. It’s a small spec change that makes a huge difference to 10-year durability.
Inland Hampshire (Winchester, Basingstoke, Petersfield, Romsey) has clay-heavy subsoils that affect sub-base depth requirements — we typically go to 250mm sub-base on clay grounds vs the standard 200mm.
Want a real opinion on your specific driveway?
The honest answer for your specific property is best given at a site visit. Our family team will come out, measure up, look at the practical context (access, slopes, sun, neighbouring style) and tell you which we’d genuinely recommend — including which one we’d pick if it was our own house. No high-pressure sales, no “today only” discounts, no obligation. We just like getting it right.
You can also browse our range of driveway services, see recent projects, or find your local area on the Areas We Cover page.
Ready for a free quote?
Call us on 01329 446 029 or WhatsApp 07787 114 711. We respond to every enquiry within 24 hours.
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