Upminster, RM14 - covering Hornchurch, Romford and the whole of Havering
Gants Hill is around half an hour from our yard on Corbets Tey Road, straight up the A12 past Romford, and we have laid enough drives there to know the streets. Most of the housing went up in the 1920s and 30s on either side of Eastern Avenue, which means a front garden big enough for a car and a bay window the builder never expected to share it with one. We dig out, lay a proper sub-base, fit the edging and finish in resin bound, block paving, tarmac or gravel. Every guide price covers all of that. If you want a drive you can leave alone for twenty years, call 01708 209015 and we will come and measure up.
We reply the same working day, usually within the hour.
Gants Hill takes its name from the le Gant family, stewards of Barking Abbey, and a Gantesgrave turns up in the records as early as 1291. The place you see today is a good deal younger. Aerial photographs from 1928 show semis going in along Eastern Avenue while the land behind was still open, and the Commonwealth Estate followed with roads named for Aden, Colombo, Auckland, Toronto, Quebec, Melbourne and Perth. Perth Road is the spine of it. Cranbrook Road runs north to south through the roundabout where five roads meet, Woodford Avenue heads off west, and Clarence Avenue feeds in as a one-way minor road. The Central line station under the roundabout opened on 14 December 1947 to a Charles Holden design with a barrel-vaulted concourse borrowed from Moscow. Above ground this is interwar semi-detached territory, and the fronts are the right size for a car.
We have not mapped Gants Hill street by street, so we treat the ground as a question for the site visit rather than something to assume. Ilford's brickearth and gravel lie to the south; what sits under a given front on Perth Road gets a trial hole before we fix a sub-base depth. Planning is Redbridge Council. The national rule since October 2008 is that more than five square metres of impermeable surface at the front needs permission unless the water runs off to a lawn, border or soakaway, so we build to drain and the question rarely comes up. Dropped kerbs are a separate matter. Redbridge builds them through its own contractor, charges a non-refundable £454 application and inspection fee, and will not approve a crossing onto a loose gravel drive. That last point settles the surface for plenty of Gants Hill customers before we have said a word.
Local
Upminster Based
Hornchurch, Upminster and across Havering
6
Surface Types
Resin to gravel, one crew for all of it
Free
Site Visits & Quotes
Written, itemised and fixed
Written
Guarantee
Handed over on paper at the final walk-round
From £80/m²
Smooth, porous resin and stone over a properly built base. The surface most Emerson Park and Upminster enquiries ask about first.
Learn more about Resin Bound Driveways
From £75/m²
Clay or concrete pavers in herringbone, stretcher or basketweave, machine-cut to the edges and held in a concrete haunch.
Learn more about Block Paving Driveways
From £55/m²
Two-course hot-rolled tarmac with a proper binder underneath, framed in block or kerb. The best value on a long drive.
Learn more about Tarmac Driveways
From £45/m²
Stabilised gravel on a honeycomb grid so it stays put, drains freely and suits the bigger plots around Emerson Park and Cranham.
Learn more about Gravel Driveways
From £90/m²
Porcelain, sandstone and limestone patios on a full mortar bed with falls, drainage, steps and walls designed in from the start.
Learn more about Patios & Paving
From £250
Sunken block relaid, tarmac patched or resurfaced, edges rebuilt and drainage sorted when a full replacement is not needed.
Learn more about Driveway Repairs
"Close to half the Gants Hill drives we price are tied to a dropped kerb application, and the Redbridge gravel rule settles the surface before anyone gets as far as colours."
Based on enquiries and jobs handled by Hornchurch & Upminster Driveways.
Most guarantees in this trade cover the surface, because the surface is the easy bit. Ours is written around the structure underneath, which is where a driveway on Havering's London clay either holds or does not. We put the excavation depth, the compacted MOT Type 1 thickness, the concrete haunch behind every edge and the drainage route on the quote, and we guarantee that build. If the surface sinks, spreads or ponds because any of that was not done right, we come back and fix it at our cost.
In
Writing, before we start
The guarantee terms go on the quote, not on a leaflet after the job
0
Overlays on a bad base
We will not lay a new surface over a base that has already failed, however cheap it would make the quote
Steps three, four and five are the ones nobody photographs and the ones that decide whether the drive is still level in fifteen years.
We come out, measure, and look at what is under the existing surface. On the clay that sits beneath most of Gants Hill that is where the decisions get made, not on the phone.
Dig depth, sub-base thickness, edge detail, drainage and the surface, each with its own line and a fixed total. The figure on the quote is the figure on the invoice.
Whatever is there now is broken out and taken away in full. We excavate to the depth the ground needs, lay a geotextile on soft clay and compact MOT Type 1 in two layers with a plate or roller.
Kerbs, block soldier courses or aluminium trims are bedded on concrete and haunched behind before anything else is laid, so the finished surface has something to push against.
Linear channels, gullies and soakaways go in now, with the falls set so rain leaves the surface and stays inside your boundary as the permitted development rules require.
Screeded sand and machine-cut block, hot-rolled tarmac, hand-trowelled resin or compacted gravel in its grid, laid by the same crew that built the base.
We walk the job with you, sand in or seal as the surface needs, take every scrap of waste away and hand over the written guarantee before the van leaves.
Not sure which surface suits the house? The cost guide compares all six side by side, and the site visit is free either way.
Resin needs a day before you walk on it and three before you park on it, so here are three good reasons to be out of the house.
01
Fifty-two hectares between Gants Hill and Ilford, open since 1899, Green Flag awarded and voted one of the ten best parks in Britain in 2019. County cricket has been played here since 1922.
Learn more about Valentines Park on Google Maps02
Built in 1696 for the widow of Archbishop Tillotson and restored in 2009, the Grade II listed house is free to visit and five minutes on foot from Gants Hill station.
Learn more about Valentines Mansion & Gardens on Google Maps03
Opened on 14 December 1947 to a Charles Holden design, the barrel-vaulted concourse under the roundabout was modelled on the Moscow Metro and is worth the walk down the stairs.
Learn more about Gants Hill Underground Station on Google MapsWe are on Corbets Tey Road in Upminster, so Gants Hill is a short drive for a site visit. Visits are free and usually within a few days of your call.
We would rather show you a driveway than a star rating.
Customer reviews are being collected and will appear here as they come in. In the meantime, when we come out to quote in Gants Hill, ask to see photos of recent jobs on houses like yours - and ask the other firms quoting the same question. A finished drive two streets away tells you more than a testimonial ever will.
Guide prices in Gants Hill run from £45 to £70 per square metre for gravel, £55 to £80 for tarmac, £75 to £115 for block paving and £80 to £120 for resin bound, with patios from £90 to £150 and repairs from £250. Excavation, sub-base, edging and the surface are all in. What shifts a Gants Hill quote is usually access: a semi on a service road off Eastern Avenue is easy for a grab lorry, a terrace with no side gate means barrowing spoil through the house, and that adds labour time.
What moves the price up or down →| Surface | Guide price |
|---|---|
| Resin Bound Driveways | £80 to £120 per m² |
| Block Paving Driveways | £75 to £115 per m² |
| Tarmac Driveways | £55 to £80 per m² |
| Gravel Driveways | £45 to £70 per m² |
| Patios & Paving | £90 to £150 per m² |
| Driveway Repairs | £250 to £2,500 per job |
Usually not. Since 1 October 2008 a front garden surface of more than five square metres has been permitted development only if it is permeable or drains to a permeable area such as a lawn, border or soakaway. Resin bound, permeable block paving and gravel all pass; a sealed tarmac or concrete slab draining to the street does not. The exceptions are a dropped kerb onto a classified road and a property in a conservation area, where Redbridge Council asks for a planning application first. We check both before quoting.
Redbridge Council does, through its own contractor - you cannot hire us or anyone else to cut the kerb. At the time of writing the non-refundable application and inspection fee is £454, a further £376 covers the legal agreement, and the council says to allow at least twelve weeks from start to finish. The council also requires the parking area to be permeable and will not approve a crossing onto loose gravel. We time the drive so the kerb and the surface meet properly.
We would be guessing if we gave you a single answer, and we would rather not. Ilford to the south sits on brickearth over Thames gravel, which drains well, but we have not mapped Gants Hill plot by plot. On the site visit we open a trial hole, see what comes out and set the sub-base depth from that. A free-draining gravel base gets a standard 150 mm of compacted MOT Type 1; anything heavier or wetter gets more.
Yes, and it is the most common layout we see around Perth Road and the other estate streets. The trick is the boundary: we set an edge restraint on the line, not over it, and fall the new surface away from the neighbour's wall so your rainwater stays on your side. If next door wants their half done at the same time we price it as one job, which saves both of you on the excavation and the skip.
Call 01708 209015 or send the form and we will come out from Upminster, measure the front, dig a trial hole and leave you with a fixed written price that includes the sub-base and the edging.