New lease on life: Brea St

Not every job that starts with "the driveway looks wrong" ends with a demolition truck. The problem was simply how it sat against the house: tired, and out of step with it.

Why resurfacing is often the better call

A sound base doesn't need replacing, on Brea Street or anywhere else. That's the logic behind permeable driveway resurfacing: keep what's still working, spend the budget on the part everyone sees drive past. The poured surface has no joints to rock loose. Colour is chosen against the house rather than off a swatch card: plain grey, charcoal, soapstone or sandstone.

What the job needed

A driveway carries more visual weight than almost anything else on a block. What needed attention was on top, not below.

What permeable driveway resurfacing involved here

The answer was permeable driveway resurfacing: keep the base, replace the wearing surface with a poured permeable finish, one continuous run with no joints. Colour and texture went through a few rounds with the owners before landing on something that reads as part of the house rather than a slab out the front of it.

Rain still passes straight through the new surface instead of running to the kerb, and the base still stores and releases the water it always did.

Whether a resurfaced driveway counts toward the permeable area on a site plan is a call your council makes, not us, though a Permcon pour is designed to qualify. If your driveway still works but looks wrong for the house, have a look at the finishes on our permeable concrete driveways page, and give us a call before you plan anything more drastic.