Blackburn · about twenty minutes
Driveways and patios in Darwen
Darwen is the town on the hill south of Blackburn.
Earnsdale and Sunnyhurst are not the town-centre terraces. Steep streets send water at the house if the fall is wrong. Clay under that slope is why a thin base fails.
The work we can do here
Same jobs as the rest of the run, with the finish on each one. Read what people have said.
The work
Driveways
A drive is the front of the house. The picture is the finish. The job is making it sit on your plot.
Patios
A patio is somewhere you can put a table and not sit in a puddle.
Block paving
Block paving is one of the surfaces we lay when you want a drive that is not one flat shade.
Porcelain paving
Porcelain is the clean outdoor slab. Tight joints. Not a bathroom tile taken outside.
Pathways
A path is the bit you forget until you cannot get a bin down it.
Landscaping
A garden you can sit in. The fence is up, the stone is down.
Fencing
A fence is what makes the garden feel finished. The pictures show the difference.
Summer houses
A room in the garden. Some people work from it.
Pagoda
A custom built pagoda. If it rains, the electric drawer shuts it.
Repairs
Something has dipped, or a joint has gone, or there is a trip at the door.
The finish
Brindle block paving
Look at it. Mottled. A reddish brown, with charcoal in the mix.
Indian sandstone
Indian sandstone is the patio slab most people mean when they say Indian paving.
Resin driveways
A resin drive is two different jobs, and they can look similar from the kerb.
Imprinted concrete
Imprinted concrete, or stamped if that is what you have always called it, is a printed slab.
Resin bound
The stones are mixed through the resin and laid as one surface.
Resin bonded
Resin goes down first. The stones are scattered on top and held.
Tarmac driveways
Tarmac is the black drive. One of these took six days.
Gravel driveways
Gravel only stays a drive if something holds it. Otherwise it walks into the road.
Concrete flags
A flag patio is still a proper patio. Not everyone wants porcelain.
Garden paving
Front garden, the side passage, the back. That is the outside of the house.
Garden steps
If the garden drops away from the door, you need a landing and steps.
Garden walls
A sleeper or a low wall holds a new level, so the soil does not end up on the patio.
Gates
A gate has to fit the opening you have, and the height of the new drive, or it will stick.
Artificial grass
Artificial grass is the green that stays green, usually next to a new patio.
Driveway finishes
Blocks, a print, resin, tarmac, or gravel. The pictures are the difference.
Closeboard
Vertical boards, overlapped. No gap to see through.
Lap panels
Horizontal boards. The overlap is the privacy.
Feather edge
Vertical boards, tapered from the leading edge.
Hit and miss
Boards on both sides of the frame, with a gap so the wind can pass.
Slatted panels
Horizontal boards with a gap between them.