# Project Driveway



## James_G (Mar 6, 2009)

I'm sat here recovering from some evil dental surgery so thought I'd pull a post together about the changes to my current garage/driveway.

Earlier in the year we were renting a place that came with a useful double garage, but a shared driveway. Here's our garage










And the neighbour's garage, not so far away.










So when we started looking for a place to buy, a double garage wasn't essential, but a driveway of our own was. Luckily we found somewhere with both, but on day 1 in mid November I quickly discovered that the other half's 1 series wouldn't go down it forwards and the Z4 wouldn't go down it in either direction, because the angle as it levels off going to the garage is too great. The driveway is something of a flattened "S" shape, being shallow, then very steep, then levelling off so that all the water runs off into the central drain. Unfortunately, the transition between steep and level happens too quickly, hence the problem.



















So my dad and I mix up some concrete the next weekend, in an effort to level things off, but we quickly realise that the amount I am going to need is "significant". I do some calculations based on levelling the slope and realise that I need 3 tonnes!

Since concrete isn't the most attractive, we decide to pull the trigger on having it block paved which also means we can widen the driveway to take two parked cars (who builds a house with a double garage but only parking for one car anyway). Plus the good news is that the team doing the job can start after the weekend, this being Saturday. The only problem is that they can't/won't clear all the trees in the way so a quick dash to Homebase to buy a chainsaw and at 9am on Sunday morning, much to the irritation of our new neighbours I suspect, we get to work.










Luckily my other half likes her car away in the garage too, so she was happy to get stuck in.










After a few hours, we are left with this:



















Here you can see my efforts with concrete at the bottom of the drive. Not doing much good though as the front of the car would scrape long before it got to that point. Should anybody need to know, the Z4 has a maximum ramp angle of 10 degrees, and this driveway was 16 at its steepest. As a result, the plan was to level the drive so that it was a constant angle all the way from the road to the entrance to the garage. By my calculations this would make it 6 degrees, more than enough for the Z4 and hopefully anything I am likely to own in the future. To get round the drainage issues, I went for some ACO style drains that sit right in front of the garage and flow back into the soakway system, which would now be covered.










Unfortunately then the snow came which not only set the paving back by a week, it also meant the car sat outside with snow on it for all that time too. Frustrating. But when work started, progress was swift. Here's what I came home to after day 1.










Here's the soak away drain which had necessitated the previous design of the driveway, that being to level off 1.5 metres in front of the garage door.










We asked them to block pave up to the front door too so as to keep things consistent. Not looking pretty at this point though!










Here's a delivery of a few tonnes of ballast to bring everything level, early on day 2.










And by the end of day 2, we had this:



















And after day three, the job was all but done.



















And the front door area. Note angle so water will run off into the drains.










And here are those drains, which are basically what allowed the driveway to be levelled off. Note Autobrite "Wash" bucket being used to catch drip from leaking guttering, which has now been fixed!










And finally, here's a slightly rough photo showing that both cars now fit very nicely in the garage.










All the boxes in the back have now gone and I've bought one of these, a Hormann Supramatic ready for fitting in the next day or two. And then it will be all done!


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

Looks a lot better, and even better that you can get your cars in, and a nice space to detail in..

Just need to sort the garage out now, some white smooth exterior paint will work wonders..


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## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

Nice job there, where does the line-drain actually drain to now?


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## Spuffington (Jan 26, 2009)

Nice looking driveway now - I agree that having a garage and not being able to use it is frustrating, at best.

Love the feeling of security knowing that the car is tucked up safely at night, not to mention keeping all the sap, bird poo and other rubbish that can land on it.


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## Footballer (Dec 7, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your teeth! 

The guys made a great job of your drive. :thumb:

What a fantastic garage. As qstix says, some white paint on the walls, grey paint on the floor with some shelving to boot, you're a complete family!!!

Nice choice in vehicles by the way.


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## Phil1971 (Sep 3, 2007)

Nice Work :thumb:


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## wadoryu (Jan 28, 2010)

nice work mate


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## Alan W (May 11, 2006)

47p2 said:


> Nice job there, where does the line-drain actually drain to now?


Exactly what I was thinking also John! :lol:

Alan W


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## DPN (Jan 7, 2006)

That is a serious transformation - The new drive way looks great and has really transformed the look of the house :thumb:


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## rossitigerr (Nov 7, 2010)

You live in an upside doown house too lol . My uncles house is same and for some strange reason all i mind as a kid is tellin him his house was upside down lol .
Anyway its lookin great good space you got there and that pic with the snow is awesome 
ATB
Drew


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## steview (Sep 23, 2010)

Nice write up of progress


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## squeakyclean32 (Mar 13, 2010)

What an improvement.....good to see you can now use the garage too :thumb:.....well worth the effort 
Hope your teeth feel better soon


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## James_G (Mar 6, 2009)

Thanks for the all the messages, and to answer some questions...

The ACO drain (http://www.aco.co.uk/product_detail.php?id=19) flows back into the original soakaway which is still in the same place, but now covered over by the block paving. According to the driveway people that is just an intermediate soakaway, and it drains to a much bigger one somewhere else, possibly a proper SUDS one.

The house isn't upside down, as the bedrooms are on top of the living space, but the garage is effectively on a mezzanine level. That's the 70s for you!

I plan to do more with the garage in time, but new house means lots of spending, so not for while yet. But as said, it's a great detailing space which I intend to use to the full.

As for the cars, both very good but for different things. Always liked BMWs though and I still occasionally read about my previous 330i, as it's now a long termer for BMW Car magazine.


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## F1 CJE UK (Jul 25, 2010)

looks great, car and drive :thumb:


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

Block pavers look great


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

very smart mate :thumb:


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## ChrisJD (Apr 15, 2009)

The new drive adds to the whole look of the property. For the size of driveway, they completed it quickly (hope the quality was good too).

Nice sized garage too:thumb:

Great write-up.

Chris.


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## PaulN (Jan 17, 2008)

Looks really good, much better final option than just a bit of concrete at the bottom....

Didnt you know neither car would fit before buying though???

Cheers

PaulN


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## 62mph (Jul 28, 2010)

ChrisJD said:


> For the size of driveway, they completed it quickly (hope the quality was good too).


I was thinking the same - it would take me and my little landscaping company alot longer than 3 days to do a drive that size! Must have been a large gang of guys that came in


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## Franco50 (Feb 5, 2008)

Nice transformation on the driveway but when you look at the pic with the snow that is a seriously steep slope. Must be fun trying to get up to the road in this weather - and in a BMW at that!


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## CleanYourCar (Jan 23, 2006)

wow, big improvement. I bet it's so nice to be able to get in the garage. We looked at a house similar and wrote it off because it had a really steep sloped garage.


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## Bratwurst (Jan 23, 2009)

Great job by the looks of things!

Just no comparison between the concrete ramp and block paviours as far as looks go. As someone said earlier, a bit of white emulsion in the garage and somewhere to store your goodies and you'll have a great man-cave.

Have you considered some insulation inside your garage? Rigid Kingspan stuff is very good and easy to work with. You can bond it or fix it to the walls and ceiling and then line with whatever you want, or even get away with painting it. You'll have a much warmer and easier to heat (when needed) garage.


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## grant motox (Dec 30, 2010)

James_G said:


>


Really like this pic, like the colours


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

awesome 

hows that drainage for getting rid of water? i reckon a heavy rainfall, and it might go into the garage??


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## ben330 (Aug 8, 2010)

62mph said:


> I was thinking the same - it would take me and my little landscaping company alot longer than 3 days to do a drive that size! Must have been a large gang of guys that came in


theres alot more prep on those jobs than meets the eye....one of the main things to look for is a well constructed sub-base, that the screed layer is not too deep and that the soldier course/curb edgings are concreted and weel secure. A lot more attention has to made on steep driveways due to the extra force caused by the car under load when breaking onto it and also just applying the handbreak.


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## SimonW (Jun 3, 2007)

Great read, and even better results!

Enjoy it, Simon
*Exotic Detail*
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## James_G (Mar 6, 2009)

Something of a thread resurrect, but four years on the driveway is still doing great service and there's been no issues at all with the quality of the work. You can see a very slight depression in the bricks where the cars roll in and out of the garage but other than that, nothing.

Since then the Z4M has been and gone, as have a few other cars.

Z4M for sale photo:










Honda Accord for sale photo:










Alpina B3 for sale photo:










We then had some work done on the house taking it from this:










Through this:










And ultimately to this:










While this was going on, we were thinking of selling my wife's 1 series so tested out a few cars in the garage:

Tried an X3:










Also tried a Mazda CX-5










Although in the end she chose an Audi Q5, seen here on day of collection:










The building work took about 6 inches of depth from the rear of the garage, due to the need to install a "firewall" and as a result the window was moved.










Fortunately both cars still fit, although with the extra width of the Q5, some ninja parking is required!










Now that all the work is complete, the plan is to focus on the garage and paint the floor, paint the walls and improve the shelving and storage at the rear. Update should be in months rather than years!


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## Keir (Aug 31, 2010)

ooooh nice.


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## shudaman (Sep 12, 2010)

47p2 said:


> Nice job there, where does the line-drain actually drain to now?


I would think theyve alll been run into the drain in the first pic!

Nice bit of paveing that! 
Its my next big job to do my front drive!


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## James_G (Mar 6, 2009)

shudaman said:


> I would think theyve alll been run into the drain in the first pic!


Yes, exactly that. Flows back to the original soak away, which itself flows on to another more significant one somewhere. Even in the heaviest rain I never get any water in the garage, but I do have to clean the leaves out of the drain run fairly regularly.


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## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

Nice update there!! :thumb:

You DO go through some cars though.  [love the Alpina :thumb:]


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## Sutty 90 (Aug 24, 2014)

That's exactly what it want. A double garage, or at least space to build one is a top priority for my next house!

Sutty.


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