Gravel| Aggregate UK driveways national installations

Aggregates, or gravel, make up the decorative finish of all resin surfacing. There is a huge range of aggregates on the market for use with both resin bonded and bound surfacing, but some are more suitable than others for certain types or resin surfacing.

If the resin surfacing is to be installed to offer high skid resistance, but low decorative use, then one of the range of bauxite aggregates should be used, as they are extremely hard-wearing, but not too interesting in the decorative stakes!

If the surfacing is purely for light pedestrian use, then a softer more decorative aggregate can be used.

Most of the aggregates we use are produced, mined or dredged, in the UK. However, some are sourced from abroad, but these tend to be more expensive and less “Eco-friendly” and we try to reduce the amount of imported materials we use where possible. Most of the hard-wearing bauxite aggregates are sourced from abroad and have become very expensive over the last few years, but these tend to be the less decorative aggregates and would not be most peoples first choice for their driveway.

The size of the aggregate used for resin bonded surfacing is also dependant on its eventual use, with pedestrian areas using a smaller size of aggregate, usually 1-3mm and driveways using 2-5mm aggregate predominately, with larger sizes being available if required.

Resin bound surfacing uses a blend of aggregates and sizes, from 10mm to dust. This builds up a strong matrix of aggregate and resin and a more complex decorative surface than the resin bonded surface. The type and hardness of the aggregate for the resin bound surfacing is less important due to this matrix.

Gravels or larger aggregate are also used for loose gravel driveways, generally being around 20mm size. The type of aggregate chosen is important with loose gravel driveways, as the aggregate will grind against itself due to traffic use and can produce dust when dry and silty mud when wet. Therefore a hard aggregate, such as flint, is best in these circumstances.

However, these loose gravels can be installed in a retaining grid system, which reduces the wear and migration of the aggregate.