Bonded Resin Drive

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lizziebell

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Has anyone experience of bonded resin drive surfaces, and how they cope long term with heavy vehicle use?

We are looking into attractive, non-gravel options for our driveway and husband concerned that having the horse lorry (and tractor) going over it will damage it and cause ruts (like an inside motorway lane)
 
Surely that would be dependent on substructure far less than the surfacing. I would expect the surface to wear or crack if not up to the load but it will only rut if the base isn't good enough. Have you spoken to a contractor? They should be able to give you a quote and talk about the design loadings.
 
We looked at covering the yard with this, but decided against it, partly due to the ridiculous cost, partly because we had seen some that had deteriorated very quickly! We think we will go with the geomat thingys with pea gravel in the hexagon spaces, so that we can top it up if it washes out. Our yard has to stand up to our own small (fergie) tractor, the hay delivery mans huge McCullack tractor and two or three cars in the yard, along with four horses and two dogs. We think that this is the best suds compliant surface at the bes tprice.
 
abbijay said:
Surely that would be dependent on substructure far less than the surfacing. I would expect the surface to wear or crack if not up to the load but it will only rut if the base isn't good enough. Have you spoken to a contractor? They should be able to give you a quote and talk about the design loadings.
Click to expand...

We have already spoken to a couple of companies, but they are trying to sell a product/ service so have all said it'll withstand the weight. They've offered site references, but those sites that take heavy traffic have only been down a short period of time. I was hoping to get someone's first hand experience of longer term use.
 
We put some in at work. It did not stand up to traffic. It was "repaired" to no avail. We'll be going back to tarmac at some point.

I absolutely would not recommend it for heavy vehicle use.
 
I explored resin bonded drives, but went with gravel.

The resin bonded surface looks great, but I read about issues where vehicles park with their wheels in the same place and turn steering direction while stationary or moving slowly. I reverse our trailer up the side of our house, but its a bit of a tricky reverse and means the front wheels of my heavy car (Discovery 4) have to be steered while the vehicle is stationary or moving very slowly, this can chew the surface up easily.

I also park my car in exactly the same place every day, my wing mirror lines up with the side of my garage and the rear is in line with a step, so the weight on the tyres is in almost exactly the same place all the time. Resin bonded surfaces don't like this.

Just google 'resin bonded drive problems', there's plenty out there.

This is interesting http://www.classicconcrete.co.uk/information/what-they-dont-tell-you.html
 
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The problem is that you are looking for attractive.

While block paving initially meets your criteria, and subject to a proper base that takes into account axle loading and axles per year. But as soon as you have to take it up to get at something underneath, it is never as stable again. For this reason, I wouldn't use it for a domestic driveway that only deals with cars.

Resin bonded. Well no, the link above says it very succinctly.

Tarmac. Nope, it will become chewed up and rutted.

Re-inforced concrete. Now you're talking. The driveway at my Mum's is re-inforced concrete laid in the early 60s. Still going strong, and for 20 years it had a coach reversed in and round the bend every night. As is always the case, the base has to be right and you have to specify the right concrete.
 
Resin bound gravel will just churn up quickly. You could possibly look at putting some of the stuff they use as anti skid on the roads (yellow/red stuff) but that needs to go on top of Tarmac and would cost a fortune
 
Is that the shiny coating that goes on top of ornate block paving ?

If it is, don't ride a horse on it. A friend's horse shied onto one and took the nastiest fall imaginable, then it could not get up and ended up falling forwards until its front feet hit grass. Wrecked the drive and the horse.
 
View said:
The problem is that you are looking for attractive.

While block paving initially meets your criteria, and subject to a proper base that takes into account axle loading and axles per year. But as soon as you have to take it up to get at something underneath, it is never as stable again. For this reason, I wouldn't use it for a domestic driveway that only deals with cars.

Resin bonded. Well no, the link above says it very succinctly.

Tarmac. Nope, it will become chewed up and rutted.

Re-inforced concrete. Now you're talking. The driveway at my Mum's is re-inforced concrete laid in the early 60s. Still going strong, and for 20 years it had a coach reversed in and round the bend every night. As is always the case, the base has to be right and you have to specify the right concrete.
Click to expand...

Thanks View. Lots to think about. The main drive is just under half a mile long and we plan on using reinforced concrete for that, so maybe we just extend it to the drive by the house too.
 
lizziebell said:
Has anyone experience of bonded resin drive surfaces, and how they cope long term with heavy vehicle use?

We are looking into attractive, non-gravel options for our driveway and husband concerned that having the horse lorry (and tractor) going over it will damage it and cause ruts (like an inside motorway lane)
Click to expand...

We seriously thought about having this surface last year. I was put off by the hard sellvtechniqe of the company I approached I must admit but booked a site visit, which I had to cancel for a vet emergency. Thank goodness I did! I have since seen that the edges soon break down and have heard that it hold heat, it would burn our dogs' paws in summer. I know someone who was very disappointed with theirs and couldn't get the company to sort it out properly. The online reviews are not very good, which is a pity as when brand new it comes look nice.
 
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