Tarmac, gravel, concrete yard???

twenty8

Could anyone recommend me what to lay my yard in.

At the moment we have a long drive and large yard covered in pea gravel. However kids are getting older and want to have a hard surface for them. I got a quote of €3,600 for tarmacing just the yard part (happy to leave drive in gravel).

However - I am not sure if I want to bleak black tarmac surface staring back at me. The house is in the middle of the countryside and I just don't think tarmac is right.

Any suggestions and if so - any idea of cost? I really can't pay more than 5k.

Thanks,

CJhaughey

How about patterned concrete?
Concrete can look great if you take the time to do nice edging and borders.
It is also cheap.
have a look at pavingexpert.com and you might get some ideas.

Qwerty?

We had the same dilemma this time last year. Ended up paving the yard area and graveling the drive. With the recession definitely get a few quote for paving. It looks so much better than tarmac in the country.

Sonnenblumen

CJhaughey wrote: »

How about patterned concrete?
Concrete can look great if you take the time to do nice edging and borders.
It is also cheap.
have a look at pavingexpert.com and you might get some ideas.

Agree pattern concrete is cheap and looks it too:eek:

CJhaughey

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

Agree pattern concrete is cheap and looks it too:eek:

Not always, depends on the skill level of the operative.
I have seen brilliant jobs and ones that looked terrible.
As always get references.

henryporter

Any hard surfacing will require maintenance i.e. power washing etc. We have gravel which just gets a rake now and then to keep it tidy and a flame weeding to get any tough weeds. Biggest problem with gravel is that it gets into the house and up on the grass (due to large crazy german shepherd) but it's still the best to look at. I think we paid €2500 in 2006 for 20 tonnes which would cover a hell of alot of ground.

CJhaughey

henryporter wrote: »

Any hard surfacing will require maintenance i.e. power washing etc. We have gravel which just gets a rake now and then to keep it tidy and a flame weeding to get any tough weeds. Biggest problem with gravel is that it gets into the house and up on the grass (due to large crazy german shepherd) but it's still the best to look at. I think we paid €2500 in 2006 for 20 tonnes which would cover a hell of alot of ground.

I like gravel too, but I think the OP was thinking along the lines of gravel being hard to skateboard and cycle on for the kids.

Foleyart

henryporter wrote: »

Any hard surfacing will require maintenance i.e. power washing etc. We have gravel which just gets a rake now and then to keep it tidy and a flame weeding to get any tough weeds. Biggest problem with gravel is that it gets into the house and up on the grass (due to large crazy german shepherd) but it's still the best to look at. I think we paid €2500 in 2006 for 20 tonnes which would cover a hell of alot of ground.

Slightly off topic but I've been looking for a blow torch/flamethrower weeder for some time now, Could you tell me where you got yours? we had one at home years ago, very handy.

secman

Lidle had the blow torch weed killers about a week ago


Secman

mountain

We had gravel on our drive and parking area out side house, finally bit the bullet and had it all tarmacced (spell may be wrong!!) and its some of the best money we have spent, the kids love it for bikes, skateboards etc, its way cleaner that gravel, and even though we live in the country as well, it fits in fine.

Get 2-3 prices, talk to other people who have used the suppliers, and when you wave the cash under their noses, you wont be long getting a keen price.

Foleyart

secman wrote: »

Lidle had the blow torch weed killers about a week ago


Secman

Thanks secman just went in there hotfoot, and snatched one 39.99 not bad.;)

tinofapples

mountain wrote: »

We had gravel on our drive and parking area out side house, finally bit the bullet and had it all tarmacced (spell may be wrong!!) and its some of the best money we have spent, the kids love it for bikes, skateboards etc, its way cleaner that gravel, and even though we live in the country as well, it fits in fine.

Get 2-3 prices, talk to other people who have used the suppliers, and when you wave the cash under their noses, you wont be long getting a keen price.

Out of curiosity what size of an area did you get Tarmacadammed (Sp) and how much did it cost you ?

mossfort

CJhaughey wrote: »

How about patterned concrete?
Concrete can look great if you take the time to do nice edging and borders.
It is also cheap.
have a look at pavingexpert.com and you might get some ideas.

i think if patterned concrete is done properly in the right colour and properly sealed it looks far better than tarmacadam .
the only drawback is that it will need a run of the powerwasher now and again to stop any dirt lodging in the joints. tarmacadam is expensive for what you get.

secman

A cousin of mine did his driveway in Tarmac, looked great for about a year, its down 3 to 4 years now and it looks cat ! He's on a 3/4 acrer site, so driveway is big enough ,cost €6,k . I gravelled mine, a similar size and it cost €3,800. We do not have young kids so bikes etc not an issue !

The guy that did my gates was enquiring about cost of gravel as he had switched from gravel to tarmac about 5 years ago and he said it was the worst thing he ever did, he's going back to gravel ASAP.

I do appreciate that where there are kids in a house gravel is not ideal, but I do think it lasts longer and is very easy to freshen up either by simply raking it or at worst buying a ton bag of it @ €60 to €75 a pop.

Secman

looksee

We got a tarmac drive to a house in the country years ago, it cost a lot at the time but we got Roadstone to do it and they made a fantastic job of it, dug it out, put in hardcore then chippings, hammered it all down and put on the tarmac. It took a couple of days. There was never a weed, broken surface, anything, in the 10 years we lived there.

If you put down tarmac or concrete, get a good job done. We have a tiny patch that some amateurs put down as part of another job, and the surface is already beginning to break up after a year.

twenty8

Thanks for all your replies. Still at a loss. Agree that gravel looks better -but really need hard ground for the bikes etc etc. I have a big open area around the back door.

Patterned concrete - I heard that it cracks badly, gets slippy and very slow to drain away water. Does anyone have it - and what do they think?

Thanks again for all the responses!