Driveway repairs in Aylesbury
Sunken blocks, a dip in the wheel tracks, an edge that has given way, water standing against the garage door. Most of it is fixable, and the fix is far cheaper than a new driveway. Some of it isn't worth fixing, and we'll tell you that too.
Lift and relay
£75–£120 / m²
Lower end where the sub-base under the failed area is sound and only the laying course and joints need putting right. Upper end for a full lift, sub-base correction, new haunched edge restraints and re-sanding throughout.
Why we're not the cheapest quote you'll get
We build to a specification that costs more to deliver: a full-depth compacted sub-base, membrane, edge restraints haunched in concrete, and somewhere deliberate for the water to go. We quote a fixed price and carry the risk if we've measured wrong. And we photograph the whole build so you can see what you paid for.
If the lowest number is what matters most, we're probably not the right firm — and we'd rather say so now than halfway through a job.
What we repair
Sunken block paving
A dip that holds water, or a drop against a threshold or manhole. We lift the affected area, find out why it moved, correct the sub-base and relay to the right falls.
Lift and relay
Blocks taken up, cleaned, the laying course re-screeded and the surface relaid to level. The right answer when the paving is fine and the layer under it isn't.
Rocking and loose blocks
Almost always lost jointing sand. Re-sanding restores the interlock that makes block paving behave as one surface rather than a few hundred separate lumps of concrete.
Edge restraint failure
The edge course has spread, tipped or lost its haunching, so the whole field of paving is creeping outwards. We cut it out and re-lay it haunched in concrete.
Drainage retrofits
Linear channel across a threshold or along the low edge, connected properly, so water stops running to the road or standing on the surface.
Re-sanding and joint repair
Kiln-dried or jointing sand replaced across the drive. Cheap, quick, and the single best preventative job on a block drive.
Resurfacing
Where the base is genuinely sound, a new surface over it — resin bound over concrete or tarmac, or a fresh wearing course — rather than a full rebuild.
Potholes and tarmac repair
Cut out square to a sound edge, base repaired, reinstated and compacted. Cold-lay bagged tarmac shovelled into a hole is not a repair; it's a delay.
When a repair is worth doing — and when it isn't
When it's the right choice
- The failure is localised: one dip, one settled patch, one section of edge, one area around a cover.
- The rest of the drive is flat, tight and draining, and the blocks are in good condition.
- The cause is identifiable and correctable — a washed-out area under a downpipe, a missing edge, lost joints.
- The surface is a material that can be lifted and relaid at all: block paving, setts, flags.
When it isn't — say so and pick something else
- More than roughly a third of the drive has moved. At that point you are paying twice to relay the same ground.
- The sub-base is thin or was never there — scalpings straight onto clay. Relaying blocks over that just resets the clock.
- Ruts have formed in the wheel tracks across the whole drive: that's a structural failure, not a surface one.
- It's imprinted concrete that has cracked, or resin that has delaminated over a failing base. Both are rebuild territory rather than repair.
- The drive is at the end of its life anyway and you're planning to change the surface within a couple of years.
We will say when a rebuild is the honest answer. Relaying a driveway that is going to move again is easy money and bad work, and it costs you the repair as well as the rebuild.
How we put a sunken drive right
Lift the affected area and keep the blocks. Dig out the laying course and expose the sub-base, then find out what actually happened: depth, compaction, water, or an edge that let go. Correct that layer — usually additional MOT Type 1 compacted in 75mm layers, sometimes a full re-dig to formation with a membrane down.
Re-screed a sharp sand laying course to the finished levels, allowing a fall of about 1:60 to somewhere deliberate. Relay the blocks, cut in, haunch any new edge in concrete, then compact and sand the joints. Where the water was the cause, the drainage goes in before anything is relaid — otherwise the same repair comes back.
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.
- Where the water is supposed to go →Retrofitting drainage changes where the water goes, so it's worth reading before you commit to a repair.
- Do you need planning permission? The 5m² rule →
- Dropped kerbs in Buckinghamshire — £520.38 and the order it goes in →
Buckinghamshire Council: dropped kerb licence — apply here (opens in a new tab)The council's own application page, with the current fee and requirements.
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.
Five-year workmanship guarantee, sub-base included
Most guarantees quietly stop at the surface. Ours covers the part you can't see: the excavation depth, the membrane, the compacted sub-base, the falls and the edge restraints. If the ground work moves, we come back and put it right.
A fixed price before anyone starts digging
We measure, agree the build-up in writing and give you one price. It doesn't move unless you change what you've asked for, or unless we open the ground and find something nobody could have known was there — in which case we stop, show you, and agree the cost with you before we carry on.
Common questions about driveway repairs
How much does it cost to lift and relay a sunken driveway?
Lift and relay runs £75–£120/m². The lower end is a localised area where the blocks come up clean, the sub-base underneath is sound and only the laying course has to be re-screeded. The upper end is a full lift, sub-base correction, new edge restraints and re-sanding across the whole drive.
Can you reuse my existing blocks?
Usually, yes. Concrete blocks lift and relay well and clay pavers even better. Expect to lose some to breakage and cutting, so a batch of matching spares is worth having — colours weather, and a new pack rarely blends invisibly into a ten-year-old drive.
Why does one patch keep sinking again after it's been repaired?
Because the repair replaced the surface and not the reason. If the sub-base underneath is too thin, was never compacted in layers, or is being washed out by water with nowhere to go, relaying the blocks buys a season or two. The fix has to reach the cause, which sometimes means taking that section back to formation.
My blocks rock when I drive over them. Is that serious?
It's the early stage of the same failure. Rocking usually means the jointing sand has gone, so the blocks no longer interlock and each one is carrying load on its own. Left alone, edges chip, water gets into the laying course and the area starts to dip. Re-sanding early is cheap; relaying later is not.
Can you add drainage to a driveway that's already built?
Yes. A linear channel across the threshold or along the low edge, connected to a soakaway or an appropriate outfall, can be retrofitted by cutting a strip out of the existing surface and rebuilding it. It's the single most common retrofit we do, and it's the one that stops the rest of the drive failing.
Do I need permission to repair a driveway?
Repairing like for like doesn't change the planning position. Changing the surface, enlarging the drive or altering where the water goes can, and a new or widened kerb crossing is always a separate council application. The planning and drainage pages set out where the lines are.
Will a repair carry the same guarantee as a new drive?
Where we take an area back to a sound formation and rebuild it, yes — five years on our workmanship including the sub-base we laid. Where you ask us to relay over ground we haven't opened up, we'll say plainly what we can and can't stand behind before we start.
Towns we cover
We're based in Aylesbury and work about ten miles around it.
- Aylesbury
- Bierton
- Stoke Mandeville
- Weston Turville
- Aston Clinton
- Wendover
- Waddesdon
- Wingrave
- Whitchurch
- Quainton
- Wing
- Haddenham