Driveways and patios in Hastings — The Vale Company
Did you know that driveways never sink because of the blocks?
They sink because of what is missing underneath.
When two builders give you a price, the blocks cost the same. The sand costs the same. So how can another quote be £2,000 cheaper?
- They dig less deep. They leave out tonnes of crushed stone you never see.
- They pay their workers less. Rushed, low-paid workers cut corners just to finish fast.
We pay our crew properly. Skilled men who care about straight cuts and solid levels don't work for cheap cash. When workers are paid well, they don't rush the digging, and they don't skip the stone underground.
On day one, both driveways look brand new. After one cold, wet winter, the cheap one sinks under your car tyres and puddles form.
It happens to a lot of people
- 35% got surprise extra costs halfway through the job.
- 33% ended up with poor-quality work.
- 22% were left with an unfinished job.
Sources: Federation of Master Builders and HomeOwners Alliance; Checkatrade and Focaldata; Which? research reported by Building.
Check any quote before you pay a single penny
You don't have to hire us. But please don't get caught out. Our free guide, "Before You Pay a Builder: 7 checks every homeowner must make before paying a deposit", shows you the questions to ask and what must be written on your quote.
Sent with your starting price. No salesmen. No phone calls.
If you choose us, the risk stays with us
- We look at your real ground. Cosmin or a site manager comes out to measure. Never a commission salesman.
- 10-year written guarantee. On the crushed stone base and the surface, in writing. It transfers with the house.
- Zero deposit option, if you qualify. It's at our discretion. We confirm it in writing with your fixed price after we've seen the site.
What it feels like when it is done right
When you come home and pull onto your new drive:
- It looks sharp every day. Clean lines, tight cuts around your drain covers, and a front that makes your whole house look proud.
- No puddles under your feet. You step out of the car in the rain with dry shoes. The water runs where it should.
- Still flat in ten years. No sinking tyre tracks. No wobbly blocks. And our 10-year written guarantee backs it.
Have it done before the neighbours put their lights up. It'll be the first thing your guests and family see this Christmas. Book now and it could be finished before they arrive — leave it, and you might be waiting until spring.
You deal with builders, not salesmen.
Cosmin Visan, owner. When you book a visit, I or one of our site managers comes to measure. They see the ground as it really is, talk through what you'd like and answer your questions on the spot. No commission reps, no sales calls.
01296 914375Not ready to call?
Send a photo and your postcode. We'll reply on WhatsApp.
Driveways don't fail at the top. They fail 200mm down.
Sinking, rutting, rocking blocks, water sitting in the middle — almost none of it is the paving. It's what somebody did or didn't do to the ground before the paving went on.
We dig to depth, lay MOT Type 1 in compacted layers to 150mm, put a membrane under it, and haunch the edge restraints in concrete so the whole thing can't creep outwards. It takes an extra day and it's the difference between a drive that lasts twenty years and one that needs relaying in four.
You won't be able to see any of it once we're finished. That's exactly why we photograph it. More on why driveways sink.
Look at the edge of one of our works.
Every drive we lay has somewhere for the water to go. It's the difference between a driveway and a puddle with blocks in it, and it's the first thing a cheap quote leaves out.
The most expensive patio mistake is 150mm high.
A patio has to finish at least 150mm below the damp proof course, and it has to fall away from the house. Get that wrong and water bridges into the brickwork — and you don't find out for a year, when the skirting board goes soft.
By then the fix isn't the patio. It's lifting the patio, lowering the ground, and replastering the room behind the wall.
We set the level against your DPC before anything is bedded, and it goes in the build record with the measurement written on it. If your ground won't allow the full 150mm, we'll tell you at the quote and design a channel in — we won't lay it and hope.
What you get from us
The price is published before you call.
Every surface has a per-square-metre price on this site, and a calculator that works out your drive. Then the visit. Everyone else quotes "subject to survey" because they haven't checked the job properly — we do the survey first. We measure properly, check levels and where the water goes, check what planning rules apply, what has to come out, manholes, access for digger and skip, and ducts. By the time we write the number down we know what the job needs — that's why it's fixed, and why it doesn't move once we start. If we've mis-measured, that's our problem, not a variation on your invoice. As far as we know, nobody else in Hastings works this way. Ask your other quotes what they checked before they priced.
Every stage photographed.
Excavation, sub-base, compaction and finish, with depths and materials noted, handed to you as a PDF at the end. It's yours. Keep it with the deeds — if you sell, it goes to the buyer along with the guarantee, which transfers with the property.
Zero deposit option
Zero deposit option for jobs that qualify. We confirm your payment terms with your fixed price, and there are never stage payments.
Ten years on the sub-base, ten on the surface.
The sub-base is the part that fails and the part nobody else will put a number on, so we put ten on it. The surface is our workmanship, so we put ten on that too — wear, staining and fair fading are the only things it doesn't cover, and the full terms say exactly which.
Here's roughly what these cost. No form first.
Most driveway websites make you ring up to find out whether you can afford them. We'd rather you knew now.
Put your own measurements into the calculator and you'll get a starting price in about a minute, before we ask for your name. It's an estimate, not a quote — the dig, the drainage and the access set the real number.
Recent work
Every photograph on this site is our own completed work. We don't name streets.
Common questions
Do I need planning permission for a new driveway?
Not for a permeable surface of any size, and not where the water runs off onto a lawn or a border. You do need permission for more than five square metres of impermeable surfacing that drains onto the road. This applies to houses, not to flats.
How long does a driveway take?
A typical two-car block paved drive of around 50m² takes four to five working days: a day to excavate and cart away, a day for membrane and sub-base, then laying, cutting and jointing. Drainage work, a dropped kerb or difficult access can add a day or two.
Do you take a deposit?
Often not. Jobs that qualify get our zero deposit option: we buy the materials, we build the job, and you pay once, on the day, after you've walked it with us and the build record is in your hands. Otherwise you cover the materials when we break ground and settle the balance on completion. We confirm which applies when we give you your fixed price, and the price is the same either way.
Can the council make me take my new driveway up?
Yes. If a new drive over 5 m² is laid with a solid surface and the rainwater runs onto the road, it needs planning permission. Without it, the council can serve an enforcement notice requiring it to be put right, which can mean digging it up, and since April 2024 they have ten years to do so. The notice goes to the homeowner, not the contractor. A cheap quote rarely mentions any of this. We design every drive so it doesn't need permission — a permeable surface, or falls and drainage that keep the water on your land — and we put it in writing. The rules are on GOV.UK: Permeable surfacing of front gardens and Enforcement and post-permission matters.
Is the guarantee transferable if I sell the house?
Yes. Our written guarantee — ten years on the sub-base we build and ten years on the surface — runs with the property, not with you, so it passes to the next owner. Hand over the guarantee document and the photographic build record with the paperwork and the buyer can see exactly what is under the surface.
Do weeds grow through block paving?
Not through it — in it. Weeds germinate in the dirt that settles in the joints on top, so the answer is keeping the joints full of kiln-dried sand. We do it twice on the day, and you top it up whenever the drive gets washed.
More detail on the build is on the how we build page, and the full terms are on the guarantee page.
Get a fixed price for your driveway or patio
Hastings and within 25 miles — including St Leonards-on-Sea, Bexhill-on-Sea, Battle, Rye, Eastbourne, Hailsham and Robertsbridge.