Do I need planning permission for a resin driveway in Perton?

Usually not. A resin bound driveway laid over a permeable base lets rainwater drain through it, and permeable surfaces in a front garden do not need planning permission in England. Permission is needed if more than five square metres of a front garden is covered with an impermeable surface that drains onto the road, and the rules are different for listed buildings. Perton is in South Staffordshire, so South Staffordshire Council is the planning authority if you want to check.

Is Vuba resin UV stable?

Yes. Vuba’s binder is an aliphatic polyurethane, which is the UV-stable type of resin used for driveways. Aromatic resins are cheaper but can darken or yellow in sunlight, which shows most on light stone blends like the one on this driveway in Perton.

What is the difference between resin bound and resin bonded?

A resin bound driveway is made by mixing the stone and resin together and trowelling them out into a smooth layer, so every stone is coated and held in place and water can drain through. Resin bonded is a thin coat of resin with loose stone scattered on top: it has a rougher texture, it is not permeable, and some of the stone stays loose. This driveway is resin bound.

Why does a resin driveway need edging?

The resin and stone mix is trowelled out to a set depth, and it needs a solid edge to finish against and to hold it in place once it has cured. Block paving edging does that job and gives the drive a clean border where it meets fences, the house and the pavement. On this driveway in Perton we used grey block paving all the way round.

Can resin be laid over an old gravel or tarmac driveway?

Not over loose gravel, which has to be dug out first. Resin can often be laid over existing tarmac or concrete if it is sound and in good condition, and we check that when we quote. On this driveway the old surface was dug out with a mini digger before the new base went down.

Do you lay resin driveways elsewhere around Wolverhampton?

Yes. We lay resin bound driveways across Wolverhampton and its surrounding areas, as well as Cannock, Stafford, Telford, Rugeley, Walsall, Penkridge and Dudley. Quotes are free and there is no obligation.

Case Study · Perton, Wolverhampton

Vuba Resin Driveway in Perton, Wolverhampton

A driveway surfaced in two halves — loose gravel on one side, old tarmac on the other — taken up and relaid as a single Vuba resin bound drive with a grey block paving border.

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The Project

From gravel and tarmac to one resin drive

This detached house in Perton, on the western edge of Wolverhampton, had a driveway that had ended up as two different surfaces side by side: loose gravel on the left and an older strip of tarmac on the right. We dug the old surface out and replaced the whole drive with Vuba resin bound surfacing, edged all the way round in grey block paving.

The result is one continuous, light-coloured surface from the pavement to the front door and the garage, with a crisp grey border that follows the fence lines on both sides and squares off the front where the drive meets the dropped kerb.

Old gravel and tarmac surfaces dug out with a mini digger
Ground prepared and a new base laid ready for the resin
Grey block paving edging laid around the whole drive
Vuba resin mixed with the stone and hand-trowelled to an even finish
Inspection cover set in a recessed tray and filled to match the drive
Resin taken right up to the house, the front step and the garage door

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Before & After

The same driveway, before and after

Driveway in Perton before work began: loose gravel on one side, old tarmac on the other, with a mini digger on site

The same driveway in Perton finished in Vuba resin bound surfacing with grey block paving edging

Taken from the end of the drive, before and after. The gravel ran down the left-hand side and the tarmac down the right — now it is one surface, edged in grey block paving.

Before

Gravel on one side, tarmac on the other

The before photo tells most of the story. The drive had been surfaced in two materials, split down the middle: loose golden gravel on the left, an older strip of tarmac on the right, and weeds and moss getting a hold along the edges where both met the fences and the pavement.

Neither half was doing its job. Gravel moves — it spreads onto the pavement, gets carried into the house on shoes and has to be raked back — and it gives weeds an easy home. Patching one side would only have left the drive looking like two jobs, so the way to a single, even surface was to take the old one up and start again.

That is where the job began: a mini digger on site to strip out the old surface, ready for the new base and edging to go in.

Mini digger stripping out the old gravel and tarmac driveway in Perton, Wolverhampton

The surface

Why Vuba resin bound

A resin bound driveway is stone and clear resin mixed together and trowelled out by hand into one smooth, solid layer. Every stone is coated and held, so nothing works loose — the opposite of the gravel it replaced — and the small gaps between the stones let rainwater soak through the surface instead of running off it, provided it is laid over a permeable base.

Vuba’s resin is an aliphatic polyurethane, which is the UV-stable type. That matters on a drive like this one. Cheaper aromatic resins can darken and yellow in sunlight, and on a light, silvery stone blend it shows straight away. With a UV-stable binder, the colour that goes down is the colour that stays.

The light blend brightens the whole front of the house and picks up the pale grey of the front door and garage door, while the grey edging gives it a defined frame. There is more on the surface itself, including colours and finishes, on our resin bound driveways page.

Close view of the Vuba resin bound surface and grey block edging in front of the house in Perton

The edging

Why a grey block paving border

Resin bound surfacing needs a solid edge to be laid against. The mix is trowelled out to a set depth, and without a firm restraint the edge would have nothing to finish to and nothing to hold it once it has cured. A course of block paving does both jobs, and gives the drive a clean line wherever it meets something else.

Here the grey blocks run the full length of both fence lines and straight across the front, where the drive meets the dropped kerb — the edge that every car crosses, every day. A course of blocks also runs along the front of the house and around the step, so the resin finishes to block on every side.

Grey frames the pale resin without competing with it, and ties in with the grey doors at the front of the house. We lay the same kind of borders on other surfaces too — see kerb edging and block paving.

Finished resin driveway in Perton with grey block paving edging along both fence lines and across the front

The finish

The details that make it look finished

A good resin drive should read as one surface from the road to the house, so the details are what you notice. The inspection cover near the front door sits in a recessed tray filled with the same resin and stone, so instead of a square of metal in the middle of the drive there is only a faint outline.

The resin runs right up to the block course along the house, the front step and the threshold of the garage door, and the edging follows the fences on both sides, so no strip of the old surface is left showing anywhere.

And the texture is the same from edge to edge — an even, hand-trowelled finish with no ridges and no visible joins between mixes.

Perton

Resin driveways in Perton

Perton sits about four miles west of Wolverhampton city centre, in South Staffordshire. Much of the village was built from the 1970s onwards on the site of the wartime RAF Perton airfield, and today it is home to more than 9,000 people.

One thing worth knowing if you live here: although Perton has a Wolverhampton postcode, it is not part of the City of Wolverhampton. Planning is South Staffordshire Council’s, and the roads and pavements — dropped kerbs included — are looked after by Staffordshire County Council as highway authority.

For most driveway replacements neither council needs to be involved. A permeable surface such as resin bound does not need planning permission in a front garden, where covering more than five square metres with an impermeable surface that drains onto the road would. And where a dropped kerb is already in place, the drive can be replaced without touching the pavement at all. A new or wider crossing is a separate application to Staffordshire County Council, and it has to be approved before the kerb can be lowered.

We lay resin, block paving and tarmac driveways across Wolverhampton and the surrounding areas — see the areas we cover.

Your Questions, Answered

Resin driveways in Perton: your questions answered

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