Over the years the options for driveways and patios have increased significantly giving homeowners more to choose from but also more pro's and cons to consider. At one time you had just tarmac, concrete or paving stones to choose from, nowadays there are many more options such as resin bonded gravel and pattern imprinted concrete, but which is best for you?
What is Resin Bond?
Resin Bond is a surfacing solution that is made from mixing and special resin and coloured aggregates (stones) together. This creates a mixture that can be towelled onto a surface to provide a smooth, flat finish. It's seamless finish will provide a decorative gravel surface that is beautiful, durable, and practical.
Resin bond is extremely hard-wearing and durable, as the decorative resin/aggregate mix is usually laid over a sturdy sub-base such as tarmac or concrete.
What is pattern imprinted concrete?
Concrete is renowned for its strength, durability and impressive load-bearing capacity which makes it ideal for traffic-heavy applications.
Pattern imprinted concrete or stamped concrete is a hard wearing and flexible concrete and resin mix that is coloured, patterned and/or textured or embossed to resemble brick, slate, flagstone, stone, tile, wood, and various other patterns and textures even pattern you design yourself.
With pattern imprinted concrete you get no sinking or lifting of block or flags, no loose stones, no weeds, meaning that a pattern imprinted concrete driveway or patio lasts much longer than any other driveway or patio options such as block paving, tarmac or stone resin, it is also low maintenance, long lasting, weed free and moss free too...
Strength and Durability
We all want a strong, durable driveway for our home, something that will stand the test of time and stay looking good for many, many years, but which material should you decide on? Paving stones and Paving blocks (block paving) can move and shift when being constantly driven over so that leaves us with Tarmac, Resin Bonded Gravel and Pattern Imprinted Concrete.
Tarmac has been used successfully on drives and roads for many years but just isn't aesthetically pleasing which is fine for say a business or pub cark park but for your home, your pride and joy you want something more aesthetically pleasing, something with more of a wow factor which tarmac simply cannot deliver.
Aesthetics
Where aesthetic are concerned the two popular choices are pattern imprinted concrete and resin bonded gravel, both of these even allow a certain degree of artistic licence.
With resin bonded gravel you can have multiple colours of gravel laid out in simple patterns and with pattern imprinted concrete you can have any pattern, any colour of concrete and professional installers can even create intricate details and patterns to give your driveway or patio area a stand out feature, a popular one being the four point compass although simpler patterns are popular too such as the imprint of your house number or name or your company logo if the driveway is for a business.
Maintenance
Both pattern imprinted concrete and resin bonded driveways are low maintenance as there is no sinking or lifting of block or flags and no gaps for weeds to grow through making weeding a thing of the past
Which is better Resin Bond or Pattern Imprinted Concrete?
Both have their merits; however resin bond hasn’t been around for as long as pattern imprinted concrete and the recent domestic use stems from its use in a wide range of commercial projects such as pathways, communal landscaping and beachfront promenades.
As such, careful consideration should be given to resin bond installations for your driveway if an area is highly trafficked or on a gradient with vehicles turning.
Pattern imprinted concrete has been being used for residential driveways for many years and has proven itself to be tough and resilient handling heavy vehicles and dense traffic without cracking or sinking.
Pricing
Both Resin Bond or Pattern Imprinted Concrete cost roughly the same price per square metre, however, with both installations there are a number of factors or variables that will impact the end price such as the size of the area, how much excavation is required and whether extra drainage needs to be added
