What Are The Best Driveway Materials? Imprinted Concrete Vs Block Paving

Looking for the best driveway materials for your property? We explore the difference between two of the most popular UK driveway materials in 2022 – imprinted concrete and block paving.

Choosing The Right Driveway Surface For You

Your choice of driveway materials can have a big impact on the overall aesthetic of your property, how long it will take for your new driveway to be installed, the type of maintenance involved, and of course your bank balance. 

Updating your driveway is one of the quickest and most cost efficient ways to increase both the kerb appeal and value of your home. In fact, installing a new driveway where one doesn’t currently exist can increase your house price by as much as 10%.

Imprinted Concrete

Imprinted concrete is an extremely popular choice for driveways in the UK due to its range of benefits. 

Imprinted concrete is simply standard concrete that has been colour treated and stamped to give it the appearance of other materials, including cobblestones, slate, flagstones and brick paving. 

There is a huge range of colour and pattern combinations to choose from, making it suitable for any type of home. At Avon Cobblestone, we can work with you to achieve custom designs to give you a truly unique look. 

Imprinted concrete is very quick to install, making it a convenient and cost-effective option. Once a good foundation has been prepared, fibre reinforced concrete is poured to give a single solid surface. This is then coloured and imprinted with the pattern of your choice before setting.

The single surface means that imprinted concrete stays completely free from weeds, making it a low maintenance, highly durable driveway material.

When installed by experienced specialists, imprinted concrete gives the appearance of an individually laid stone driveway, but without the cost, maintenance, or sinkage issues.

Block Paving

Another popular choice of driveway material is block paving, which consists of individual brick-like blocks. 

Block paving is one of the more expensive driveway materials, both because the cost of materials is higher and because it takes longer to install. 

There is also more to take into consideration when installing a block paving driveway, such as slopes, soils and rainfall. 

A benefit of block paving is that individual blocks can be replaced if they become damaged.

However, a key disadvantage of block paving is that high traffic areas can sink over time (or if not laid correctly). In addition, weeds and moss grow between the blocks, making it a higher maintenance driveway material.

The Best Driveway Material

At Avon Cobblestone we specialise in imprinted concrete driveways because we believe this material provides the best balance of aesthetics, cost, durability and maintenance levels. 

We have over 30 years’ experience in installing imprinted concrete driveways and our craftsmanship is second to none. 

We work with you to plan your new patios, driveway and paths. Together, we select the textures and colours, incorporating turning spaces, parking for several vehicles or blending awkward slopes – to ensure that it functions as well as it looks.

For a no obligation chat about our services please contact us on 01454 633394.