Gravel driveways in Hastings
The cheapest driveway you can build properly. Fully permeable, quick to install, simple to repair, and much better than its reputation — because its reputation was earned by gravel tipped onto soil with nothing holding it in.
Gravel driveway
Price by email
Lower end where the existing ground is sound and little has to be carted away. Upper end for full excavation, a gravel grid throughout and new edge restraints.
See how the price is built up → · Why we're not the cheapest quote you'll get
Before anybody digs: three things to check
Planning permission, the kerb crossing and where the water goes. We work these out with you at quote stage — these pages explain the rules so you can check them yourself.
- Do you need planning permission? The 5m² rule →Loose gravel over an open-graded base is permeable, which is why it is the one surface that almost never raises a planning question.
- Dropped kerbs in East Sussex — who approves it and the order it goes in →
- Where the water is supposed to go →
East Sussex Highways: dropped kerb (vehicle crossing) applications (opens in a new tab)The highway authority's own page, with its current fees, criteria and approved-contractor process.
Download the “Before anybody digs” checklist (PDF)Two pages you can print and take round the drive — planning, kerb, drainage, and the questions to ask before accepting anyone's quote.
What a properly built gravel drive is made of
Excavate to depth and cart away. Geotextile membrane over the formation so the sub-base and the subsoil never mix. 150mm of MOT Type 1 laid in 75mm layers and compacted separately. Edges — block, kerb or steel — haunched in concrete, because gravel is only as good as the thing stopping it leaving.
Then a gravel grid: a cellular panel that holds the stone in place under a turning wheel. Angular 10–20mm stone fills and slightly overfills the cells. That build-up is the same structure as a block paved drive, minus the blocks.
When gravel is right — and when it isn't
When it's the right choice
- Budget is the deciding factor and you'd rather have the base done properly than the surface done prettily.
- You need permeability without a soakaway — gravel drains through, so surface water rules don't apply.
- It's a long driveway, a parking area or a rural approach where the look suits the house.
- You may dig it up later for services. Gravel is the only surface where a repair is invisible.
When it isn't — say so and pick something else
- The drive is steep. Above a modest gradient gravel migrates downhill onto the road, grid or no grid.
- Wheelchair, pushchair or heavy trolley access matters. Gravel is hard work to push across.
- It opens straight onto a busy pavement and you can't restrain the edge properly.
- You want a crisp, formal frontage. Block paving will do more for kerb appeal.
A fixed price before anyone starts digging
We measure, agree the build-up in writing and give you one price. It doesn't move. Not for hard ground, old concrete, rubble, roots or a soft spot — that's our risk and it's already in the number.
Zero deposit option for jobs that qualify — we confirm the terms with your fixed price.
Everyone else quotes "subject to survey" because they haven't checked the job properly. We do the survey first — measuring properly, checking levels and where the water goes, what planning rules apply, what has to come out, manholes, ducts, and access for digger and skip. So by the time we write the number down, we know what the job needs. That's why the price doesn't move, and why we can put it in writing before we start. If we ever do hit something, we stop, show you, and agree in writing what happens before we carry on. Ask your other quotes what they checked before they priced.
Ten years on the sub-base, ten years on the surface
Most guarantees quietly stop at the surface. Ours starts underneath it: the excavation depth, the membrane, the compacted sub-base, the falls and the edge restraints carry ten years, because that is the part that sinks and the part you can't check. The paving on top carries ten as well, because the laying is our workmanship — wear, staining and fair fading are the only things it doesn't cover, and the full terms say exactly which.
On gravel the ten years covers the base, the edgings and the grid. Loose gravel is a consumable — it migrates and needs topping up — so we guarantee what holds it, not the stone itself.
Common questions about gravel
Is a gravel driveway a compromise?
Not when it's built properly. Excavated to depth, membrane down, 150mm of MOT Type 1 compacted in layers, a gravel grid to stop migration and edges restrained — that is a driveway, not a shortcut. What gives gravel its reputation is stone tipped onto soil with no edge to hold it.
Does the gravel move?
Loose gravel over nothing does. Gravel laid into a grid and held by a restrained edge stays where it's put, including in the wheel tracks where cars turn. You still top it up occasionally — that's normal maintenance, and it's cheap.
Do I need planning permission?
Gravel is permeable, so a gravel drive does not need permission on the grounds of surface water run-off. Dropping a kerb across a public footway is a separate application to the council either way.
Which size of stone?
Angular stone at roughly 10–20mm locks together and stays put. Rounded pea shingle rolls under tyres and migrates. On a slope, gravel is the wrong choice above a certain gradient and we'll say so rather than take the job.
Is it hard to keep clean?
It's easy to rake and it hides staining well. Leaves are the nuisance — a blower rather than a brush. Weeds germinate in wind-blown dirt on top of the stone, not through the membrane, so a periodic rake matters more than any chemical.
Towns we cover
We cover Hastings and a 25-mile radius.
- Hastings
- St Leonards-on-Sea
- Bexhill-on-Sea
- Battle
- Rye
- Eastbourne
- Hailsham
- Robertsbridge