This is the question we get asked more than any other on driveways, and most of the answers online are written by people who only sell one of them. We lay block paving. We don't lay resin at all — so we've got nothing to gain by steering you either way, and if resin is right for you, we'll say so.
Block paving
What it is. Individual concrete or clay blocks laid on a compacted base and a sand bed, with edge restraints holding the whole thing in.
It wins on: repairability. Oil spill, sunken patch, or a trench dug for a new supply — you lift the blocks, sort what is underneath, and put the same blocks back. Nobody can tell. It also handles heavy vehicles and point loads better, and it will drain through the joints if it is laid properly to falls.
It loses on: weeds and ants in the joints, and the sand needing topping up every few years. Blocks can also sink or lift if the base was skimped — and the base is where cheap driveways get cheap.
Resin bound
What it is. Stone aggregate mixed with a clear resin and trowelled out over a solid base — usually concrete or tarmac — as one continuous surface.
It wins on: looks and maintenance. It is seamless, there are no joints for weeds, it is genuinely permeable when laid bound rather than bonded, and a leaf blower is most of the upkeep.
It loses on: repairs. A damaged patch is very hard to make invisible, because the new resin will not weather-match the old. It also lives or dies on the base underneath it. Laid straight over old cracked concrete, the cracks come through within a couple of years — and it's the most common way resin driveways fail.
The honest summary
- Staying put for fifteen years, want it to look sharp: resin, but only with a proper new base underneath. Do not let anyone lay it over your old drive to save a day.
- Heavy vehicles, a caravan, or services likely to be dug up: block paving.
- Tight budget: block paving is usually the lower number, and the cost is mostly in the digging and the base, which is exactly where you must not cut.
- Can't decide: look at the two driveways nearest yours that are ten years old, not the ones that are ten weeks old.
The bit both need
Whatever goes on top, the job is dig out, cart away, hardcore sub-base, whacked in layers. Anything laid on 50mm of whatever was already there will fail, and it will fail after the guarantee has run out. If a price looks a long way under everyone else's, that is almost always where the difference went.
You can get a realistic figure for a block paved drive on our price estimator — search for "driveway", put your measurements in and it will tell you. Resin is not on there, because it depends too much on what is underneath.
Want it done rather than done yourself?
We cover Chelmsford and all of Essex, and we take the small jobs as well as the big ones. Price it on the estimator, or just ring and ask.