Resin, block paving or tarmac

This site sells resin enquiries, so treat this page with the scepticism it deserves and check it against what other sources tell you. What follows tries to be genuinely useful rather than a foregone conclusion, and it includes the cases where resin is the wrong answer, because those cases exist and pretending otherwise would make the rest of the page worthless.

Tarmac is the cheapest of the three to lay, typically somewhere around £45 to £80 per square metre for a domestic driveway. Resin bound and block paving are broadly comparable, both commonly falling between £70 and £120 per square metre for a full installation, with the overlap depending heavily on the specification of each.

All three ranges assume a full build. Resin bound has one option the others do not: where an existing base is genuinely sound, it can be overlaid at around £40 to £70 per square metre, which changes the comparison substantially on a property with tired but structurally intact concrete.

Resin bound on a sound base is generally expected to last fifteen to twenty years. What fails is almost always the base rather than the surface, and where a surface itself fails it is usually a fault in the original mix or a pour caught by rain.

Block paving lasts a long time, often twenty years or more, but it does not stay flat. Individual blocks settle under repeated turning, joints open, and sand washes out. It ages by degrees rather than failing outright.

Tarmac typically gives ten to fifteen years. It oxidises and loses its binder with age, becoming brittle and grey, and it softens in strong summer heat, which is where the ruts and depressions around wheel positions come from. Coastal exposure shortens it further.

Resin bound needs the least: an occasional wash, prompt attention to oil spills, and nothing else. No sealing, no re-sanding, no topping up.

Block paving needs the most attention over time. Joint sand needs replacing, sealing is recommended periodically, weeds establish in the joints, and settled blocks need lifting and re-laying. None of it is difficult, but it recurs indefinitely.

Tarmac sits in between. It benefits from sealing every few years to slow oxidation, and it stains readily from oil, but there is nothing to weed or re-level.

This is where the three genuinely diverge. Resin bound is permeable by construction, so it falls outside the English planning restriction on impermeable front garden surfacing. Standard tarmac is impermeable and falls within it, though permeable tarmac formulations exist. Block paving depends entirely on the type: permeable block paving systems with open joints and a designed sub-base are widely used, while standard blocks on a sand bed are not permeable.

The rule itself: in England, planning permission is required to lay more than five square metres of impermeable surfacing on land between the front of a house and the highway, unless the surfacing drains to a permeable area within the property. General guidance, not a compliance guarantee, and worth checking with your council for your own property.

Block paving repairs best of the three and it is not close. Individual blocks lift out and go back, and a repair genuinely disappears. If a driveway will need trenching for services, or if utility access is likely, that is a real argument for block paving.

Resin bound repairs are possible but visible: an area is cut out and re-poured, and a fresh batch against a weathered surface rarely matches exactly. Tarmac patches are straightforward and always obvious.

So: choose block paving where repairability and future access matter most, or where a patterned, traditional look is wanted. Choose tarmac where budget is the deciding factor and a large area needs covering. Choose resin bound where a seamless finish, permeability and low maintenance matter, and particularly where a sound existing base can be overlaid.