Any views on Gravel vs CobbleLock for a front drive of a normal suburban house ? We're undecided as yet but some people are telling us gravel is better for big country houses with long drives but I like the crunch of it under my feet
Gravel is cheaper as far as I know but the downsides in my mind (and which led us to get cobblelock) are -
- tracking gravel into the house - bad for wooden floors
- very hard to push a buggy and hard for kids to ride bikes and play on gravel (if you have kids),
- gravel ending up in the lawn making it hard to cut grass etc ( if you have a lawn)
- gravel moving around on driveway looking a bit messy and needing to be topped up after a while
Thats all I can think of for now but the cobblelock is great for us - kids love playing out there with push toys etc. A few weeds peeking up but we'll sort them out.
If you have a read through the many previous threads on driveways you will get plenty of advice from those although they will probably confirm the points that Toby has made above about gravel.
We had gravel in my parents house (normal 4 bed semi) - it was a magnet to all the kids in the neighbourhood (including all my friends) and my Dad spent a lot of time knocking on the window.
It need to be maintained to keep the weeds down and needs topping up from time to time. But having said that and having had cobblelock on a patio area - which also needs maintenance (cleaning and weed control)
if you aren't in an area with lots of kids I would go with gravel.
We have gravel, and I like it, but if your kids are young ie under 4, I would leave it for a while, ours and a lot of our neighbours kids seem to spend their time throwing stones, not pleasant and potentially dangerous. The novelty does wear off and the older ones 5+ seem to leave it alone. Otherwise its cheap easy and provided you have a thick layer, maintenance free.
Gravel is better from a security point of view as you can hear people coming up the driveway.
However the 10 mil washed river gravel makes great catapult ammo so beware. The golden chip stuff is nicer but more expensive.
If you decide to go with gravel think about a buffer zone ( I have seen bricks/cobbles used to great effect)about two feet wide outside the front door and inside your gates. Stops gravel migrating inside your house or out on the road.
We saw an interesting product in Roadstone recently, a plastic honeycomb lattice that you lay down and fill with gravel, they claim you can ride bikes on it.
I like Cobblelock , but our driveway is too long.Tobermore do a free 30 min design service that is well worth it but you have to book it in advance.
We had gravel in my parents house (normal 4 bed semi) - it was a magnet to all the kids in the neighbourhood (including all my friends) and my Dad spent a lot of time knocking on the window.
It need to be maintained to keep the weeds down and needs topping up from time to time. But having said that and having had cobblelock on a patio area - which also needs maintenance (cleaning and weed control)
if you aren't in an area with lots of kids I would go with gravel.