Block Paving near you

In England the front garden is the one part of a plot where the surfacing material itself becomes a planning matter, and the number to remember is five square metres. Cover more than that area in something water cannot get through, and you need permission unless the run-off has been given somewhere to soak away. Block paving has two routes round that. The first is to use the permeable version, which the Planning Portal names among the surfacings that drain through and therefore need no permission at any size, because the drive disposes of its own water through its joints. The second is to lay conventional blocks and send the rainwater to a lawn or a border to drain naturally, which the same guidance accepts but which demands a genuine fall and somewhere for the water to actually end up.

Permeable block paving is therefore the route most block drives take, because it satisfies the rule using the surface itself rather than requiring a soakaway, a rain garden or a redesigned front garden. The rule bites on replacement as well as new work, so lifting an old drive and relaying it in conventional blocks over the same area is a decision with a planning consequence, not a like-for-like repair. The permitted development rights concerned apply to houses and not to flats and maisonettes, and can be removed by a planning condition, an article 4 direction or another restriction, which is worth checking with the council before ordering materials.

Two things are outside this guide and still need settling. Driving across a footway to reach the drive is a separate highway authority consent, dealt with in the driveway repair guide, and Scotland and Wales reach the drainage question through their own rules rather than through the English five square metre wording, so a homeowner outside England should check locally rather than assume.

Modular paving in Britain is described by the BS 7533 series, which has been consolidated in recent years. Structural design now sits in BS 7533-101:2021, the code of practice for the structural design of pavements using modular paving units, published on 30 November 2021, which covers concrete blocks to BS EN 1338, flags to BS EN 1339, natural stone slabs to BS EN 1341, setts and clay pavers, for areas taking pedestrian and vehicular loading up to 11,000 kg axle loads. Installation sits in BS 7533-102:2025, published on 31 March 2025, which gives recommendations for the construction of every layer above formation: capping, sub-base, base, bedding and surface.

The permeable side of the series changed very recently, and it is the kind of detail that separates a current specification from a recycled one. BS 7533-13:2009, the guide for the design of permeable pavements constructed with concrete paving blocks and flags, natural stone slabs and setts and clay pavers, published on 31 March 2009, was withdrawn on 12 March 2026. Published the same day was BS 7533-103:2026, Design and installation of modular permeable pavements. A quotation for a permeable drive written against the withdrawn 2009 guide is not automatically wrong, but it is a fair prompt to ask the contractor which document they are actually working to.

Almost every complaint about a block drive has the same root: the structure beneath it. Ruts in the wheel tracks and a dip where the car turns mean the sub-base was too thin or was not compacted properly for the loading. Blocks that creep sideways and joints that open into wedges mean the edge restraint has failed or was never set on concrete. A dished area near a gully or a threshold usually means the laying course was screeded to fill a hollow rather than the formation being corrected first.

The joints are the second theme. A conventional drive depends on kiln-dried sand locking the blocks together, and once the joints have been blasted out by a pressure washer, washed out by a downpipe discharging onto the surface, or colonised by moss and weeds, the blocks begin to move independently and the deterioration accelerates. On a permeable drive, the failure looks different: the surface stops accepting water because the joints have silted up with fine material, leaves and moss, and the drive starts ponding like a conventional one. The remedies are different too, which is why knowing which type you own matters.

Efflorescence is the one that alarms people most and matters least. A whitish bloom appearing on new concrete blocks is lime brought to the surface as the units dry, it is not a defect in the laying, and it generally weathers away over the first seasons without treatment.

The blocks are rarely the biggest line. What moves a block paving quotation is the depth of excavation and how much spoil has to leave the site, the sub-base specification the ground and the loading demand, whether the drive is permeable and therefore has a full drainage build-up beneath it, the amount of cutting a curved or angled layout creates, the length and detail of edge restraint, whether levels have to be adjusted at a threshold or around ironwork, and where the water is being directed. Access for a grab lorry or a dumper, or the lack of it, can change the labour on a small drive completely.

LokalMatch exists to get that conversation started rather than to run it. Post the job once with your postcode, say roughly how big the area is, what is there now and whether you are after permeable, and block paving contractors covering your area will contact you. Homeowners are not charged; pros pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not lay paving, does not influence prices and does not vet, rank or recommend any of the firms who reply, so compare the build-up and the drainage as carefully as the total.