Upminster, RM14 - covering Hornchurch, Romford and the whole of Havering
Brentwood is a fifteen to twenty minute drive from our base on Corbets Tey Road in Upminster, up through Cranham and across the M25, and it is a different proposition from the flat suburbs nearer the Thames. The town sits on a ridge where sandy Claygate Beds and Bagshot Sand cap the London Clay, so a drive in Hutton Mount can be on free-draining sand while one on the lower slopes towards Warley sits on clay that swells and shrinks. We dig, build the sub-base, set the edging and lay resin bound, block paving, tarmac or gravel, all included in the guide price. Call 01708 209015 for a free site visit.
We reply the same working day, usually within the hour.
The High Street follows the Roman road between London and East Anglia, and the oldest housing clusters around it: the White Hart of about 1480 is Grade II* listed, and the Victorian and Edwardian streets run out from the centre towards the station. The borough absorbed Shenfield, Hutton, South Weald and the Warley parishes in 1934, and that is when the suburbs took shape. Shenfield's semis around Hutton Road and Priests Lane are typical 1930s stock. Hutton grew west of the old village after the war with estates served by the parades along Rayleigh Road, while Hutton Mount stayed large and detached. Warley's barracks closed in 1959 and the council built houses, shops and flats on part of the site; the Ford headquarters that followed closed in 2019 and is being redeveloped for housing. Pilgrims Hatch, north of the A12 around the Bishops Hall and Flower estates, is mostly post-war.
The ground changes with the contour. Essex Field Club records describe the Brentwood outlier of Bagshot Beds with Claygate Beds 25 to 30 feet thick beneath, running along the southern slopes from Great Warley Street eastwards. Sand on top drains quickly and makes a good soakaway; London Clay lower down does not, and it moves with the seasons, so a sub-base there needs to be deeper and better compacted. Planning is Brentwood Borough Council, working to a Local Plan adopted in March 2022, and the borough has thirteen conservation areas including the town centre, South Weald, Hutton Village and Great Warley. The 2008 national rule applies: over five square metres of impermeable front surface needs permission unless it drains to a permeable area. Dropped kerbs are different again. Brentwood is in Essex, so the crossing goes through Essex County Council's highways arm, not the borough.
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
"On the Brentwood jobs we dig, the trial hole on the lower slopes turns up clay far more often than the homeowner expected, and it decides the sub-base depth more than anything else."
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 Brentwood 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
A 700 year old, 500 acre former deer park at South Weald with lakes you can fish on a day permit and the Stick Man play trail, seven areas of themed equipment that keep younger children walking.
Learn more about Weald Country Park on Google Maps02
Another 500 acres of woodland and open parkland south of the town, with the Gruffalo carving trail, fishing at Old Hall Pond and a dog activity trail of ten obstacles over 500 metres.
Learn more about Thorndon Country Park on Google Maps03
Began life as an 1861 parish church, was given cathedral status in 1917 and was enlarged in a classical style late in the twentieth century - a quiet half hour away from the house while the resin cures.
Learn more about Brentwood Cathedral on Google MapsWe are on Corbets Tey Road in Upminster, so Brentwood 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 Brentwood, 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.
Brentwood guide prices are gravel £45 to £70 per square metre, tarmac £55 to £80, block paving £75 to £115, resin bound £80 to £120, patios and paving £90 to £150 and repairs from £250, each covering excavation, sub-base, edging and surface. The ridge sets the variable. A plot on Bagshot Sand near Hutton Mount digs easily and drains, so it sits low in the band. Clay lower down means a deeper excavation, more compacted Type 1 and possibly a linear drain at the garage door, and those move the figure up.
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 |
For most houses, no. Since 1 October 2008 the national permitted development rule has allowed a front garden surface of any size as long as it is permeable or the rainwater drains to a permeable area such as a lawn or soakaway; only an impermeable surface over five square metres draining to the road needs permission. Brentwood Borough Council has thirteen conservation areas, including the town centre, Hutton Village and South Weald, and a crossing onto a classified road needs permission from the borough before Essex County Council will consider the kerb. We check the address against both before we quote.
Essex County Council, through Essex Highways, not the borough - Brentwood is outside Greater London and the county is the highway authority. It is a two-stage process: you apply for consent and pay a non-refundable application fee that covers a site visit and a utility search, then an approved contractor books the road space and builds the crossing, with the work to be finished within six months of approval. The driveway needs at least 5 metres of depth and 2.5 metres of width. On an A, B or Class III road you need planning permission from Brentwood Borough Council first. We do not quote the county's fees because they change; the live amount is on the Essex Highways page.
Both, depending on where you are, and it matters a great deal. The town sits on an outlier of Bagshot Sand with Claygate Beds beneath, capping London Clay along the southern slopes from Great Warley eastwards. On the sandy high ground water drains away and a standard compacted sub-base does the job. Lower down on clay the ground shrinks in a dry summer and swells in a wet winter, which is what cracks a thin drive, so we dig deeper, compact in layers and keep water moving off the surface.
Yes, and slopes are common on both sides of the ridge. The job is to get water off the surface before it reaches the garage or the house, so we set a consistent fall away from the building, add a linear channel at the threshold where the drive runs downhill towards the door, and step the edging where the gradient needs it. Resin bound and block paving both cope well with a slope; loose gravel migrates on anything steep, so we will say so if it is the wrong choice for your plot.
Sand or clay, flat or sloping, conservation area or not - we will tell you what your plot needs and what it will cost before any work starts. Call 01708 209015 or fill in the form.