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Rainham Hall
A 1737 merchant's house on the Broadway, two minutes from the station and run by the National Trust. A well-preserved reminder of the money that river trade once brought here.
Learn more about Rainham Hall on Google MapsDriveways In Rainham
Thinking of replacing a tired drive in Rainham?
Driveway installation along Upminster Road South, Wennington Road, New Road, Lambs Lane South and the streets around Rainham Village
Rainham is the next place south of our base. Head down Upminster Road from Corbets Tey and you are in the village in a few minutes, which is why so much of our work sits between Rainham Hall and the marshes. The town has two kinds of ground. The old village and the roads laid out from the 1880s stand on gravel at 60 to 100 feet, and the land drops to about five feet above sea level on the marsh side, where the tide came in across South Hornchurch and Rainham in 1953. Those two conditions need two different builds, and we price them differently rather than guessing.
No obligation
Free Driveway Quote In Rainham
We reply the same working day, usually within the hour.
About Rainham
Rainham: a gravel village with a marsh on its doorstep
Rainham is in Domesday, and the church of St Helen and St Giles is the only medieval building left standing. The money arrived in the 18th century, when river trade paid for Rainham Hall on the Broadway in 1737. Housing came later. Roads were laid out in 1880 and the first estates were semi-detached and terraced houses; most of what you see today is post-war suburban building that spread out from Upminster Road South and the Broadway, with the roads and sewers failing to keep pace in the 1960s. The historic core and riverside have been a conservation area since 1968. That matters if you are on the older streets near the station, because any hard landscaping in front of a listed or locally important building gets looked at more closely by Havering.
Away from the village, the ground is the story. Rainham mostly sits on gravel rising to between 60 and 100 feet, which drains well and makes an easy base for permeable resin or block paving. Towards the Thames the land is marsh at around five feet, and the Port of London Authority filled 200 acres of it with nine million tons of dredged soil. Anything near that boundary needs a thicker compacted sub-base and a drainage plan that does not rely on the soil taking water away, because it will not. The 2008 permeable-surface rule applies across the town: more than five square metres of sealed drive without a soakaway or a lawn to drain to means a planning application to Havering Council. On the gravel streets that is easy to avoid. On the low ground we design it in.
Local
Upminster Based
Hornchurch, Upminster and across Havering
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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
Services
Every surface we lay, available in Rainham
From £80/m²
Resin Bound Driveways
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
Block Paving Driveways
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
Tarmac Driveways
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
Gravel Driveways
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
Patios & Paving
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
Driveway Repairs
Sunken block relaid, tarmac patched or resurfaced, edges rebuilt and drainage sorted when a full replacement is not needed.
Learn more about Driveway Repairs Why us in Rainham
What a Rainham drive gets from a firm up the road
- Before quoting, we work out where your plot sits between the gravel and the marsh. Higher Rainham streets get a standard permeable build; low ground near the river gets a deeper base.
- The 1880s and post-war houses off Upminster Road South have decent width, so two cars side by side usually fits without losing the front wall or the bins.
- Upminster Road and Berwick Pond Road are on Havering's classified list. If you need a crossover on either, we flag the extra planning step before you apply.
- Rainham's conservation area covers the old village and riverside. If you are inside it we keep to materials that suit the street and talk to Havering first if there is any doubt.
- Plots near the marsh and the A1306 pick up more road grime than the village streets, so we steer you towards a darker resin blend or block mix that hides it between washes.
"On the Rainham jobs we look at, perhaps half of the gravel drives have gone thin enough that the membrane underneath is showing through in the wheel tracks."
Based on enquiries and jobs handled by Hornchurch & Upminster Driveways.
The guarantee
What our guarantee actually covers on a Rainham driveway
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.
- Sub-base depth and compaction written on the quote, not left to the day
- Every edge course set on concrete and haunched, so nothing creeps
- Settlement, rutting or lifting caused by our groundwork put right free
- Manufacturer cover on resin, block and porcelain on top of ours
In
Writing, before we start
The guarantee terms go on the quote, not on a leaflet after the job
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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
How it works
Seven steps to a driveway in Rainham that stays flat
Steps three, four and five are the ones nobody photographs and the ones that decide whether the drive is still level in fifteen years.
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Free site visit
We come out, measure, and look at what is under the existing surface. On the clay that sits beneath most of Rainham that is where the decisions get made, not on the phone.
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Itemised written quote
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.
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Dig out and sub-base
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.
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Edge restraints
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.
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Drainage and falls
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.
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Laying the driveway
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.
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Final walk-round
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.
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Not sure which surface suits the house? The cost guide compares all six side by side, and the site visit is free either way.
Out and about
What to do in Rainham
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.
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RSPB Rainham Marshes
411 hectares of ancient grazing marsh along the Thames with a visitor centre at the Purfleet end. Flat walking and a lot of birds, whatever the month.
Learn more about RSPB Rainham Marshes on Google Maps03
Hornchurch Country Park
Up the Ingrebourne valley from Rainham, the former RAF Hornchurch airfield with Essex Wildlife Trust's visitor centre and the largest freshwater reed bed in London alongside.
Learn more about Hornchurch Country Park on Google Maps Where we work
Covering every part of Rainham
We are on Corbets Tey Road in Upminster, so Rainham is a short drive for a site visit. Visits are free and usually within a few days of your call.
Reviews
What customers around Rainham say
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 Rainham, 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.
Pricing in Rainham
A guide price before anyone comes out
Rainham prices split on ground. On the gravel streets near the village the dig is quick and the sub-base is standard, so resin bound comes in at £80-120 per square metre, block paving £75-115, tarmac £55-80 and gravel £45-70, with patios £90-150. Nearer the marsh we add depth to the sub-base and often a drainage channel, which adds a little per metre and shows as its own line in the quote. All figures include excavation, sub-base, edging and the surface. Repairs start from £250.
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 |
FAQ
Driveway questions from Rainham
Does a new driveway in Rainham need planning permission?
For most houses, no. Rainham sits in the London Borough of Havering, and the rule since October 2008 is that any size of front drive is permitted development if the surface is permeable or drains onto grass or a flower bed. Lay more than five square metres of sealed tarmac or concrete that runs to the road and Havering Council expects a planning application. Houses inside the Rainham conservation area, which covers the old village and the riverside, should check with the council before changing the frontage, and flats or maisonettes always need an application.
Who puts in a dropped kerb in Rainham?
Havering Council. The application goes through their website with a non-refundable £261 fee, then the council inspects the site and quotes the build cost. It is illegal for anyone other than the council or one of its approved contractors to construct the crossover. Rainham has several roads on Havering's list of classified roads where a crossover also needs planning permission - Upminster Road, Berwick Pond Road and Aveley Road among them - so check the list before applying.
My house is on the marsh side of Rainham. Can I still have a driveway?
Yes, but the build is different. The low ground near the Thames is alluvial, around five feet above sea level, and was tidally flooded in 1953. It does not soak water away like the gravel further up the hill. We dig deeper, compact a thicker MOT Type 1 sub-base, and route surface water to a channel drain rather than expecting a soakaway to cope. The surface on top can still be resin, block or tarmac. We just do not pretend the ground will do the drainage for us.
Which driveway surface lasts best on Rainham's gravel streets?
Resin bound and permeable block paving both do well on gravel ground because the sub-base stays dry and stable. Loose gravel is cheapest and drains perfectly, but on Rainham's busier roads it migrates onto the pavement and needs topping up. Tarmac is fine for a long drive or a commercial yard. For a standard semi off Upminster Road South we usually suggest resin for a flat, weed-free finish, or blocks if you want to lift and relay a section later.
Service area
Also covering the towns around Rainham
Get a Rainham driveway quote from the firm just up Upminster Road
Ring 01708 209015 or fill in the form. We will tell you which side of the gravel line your plot is on and price the drive to suit it, in writing, before any digging starts.