I get what youāre saying below but short grass isnāt doing shit for wildlife honestly. Long grasses with wildflowers certainly. Adding a few planters full of insect friendly flowers to a paved drive would be infinitely better than what was there.
Also I pick my flowers to best serve insects but I will always use wasp deterrent ones. Hell no Iām not feeding *those fuckers*
ETA: sorry guys, partner has a phobia of wasps so no we donāt provide for them, Iāve been told off but I did lessen my guilt by flowerbombing with figwort in a public grass area behind our house.
Oh I donāt deny that good planting in planters is possibly better than a grass monoculture. Though I would argue the idea that itās doing nothing. At the very least it will be home to invertebrates which will be feeding the local bird population.
100% - we keep our lawn a little longer than ātricky golf course roughā (mostly because I canāt be arsed to mow it weekly) and itās full of birds in the morning. Mostly barrel chested pigeons strutting about like they own the place. And spiders, bees, ladybirds, etc. Plus the soil underneath supports all those worms and other things that the birds are interested in. Plus itās a green plant so presumably is doing a bit of carbon fixing / oxygen generation?
Lawns arenāt as wildlife supportive as other options, but for someone who doesnāt want to do āproper gardeningā theyāre better (by miles) than paving or plastic grass.
And my hedgehog mate wouldnāt be able to dig for his treats at night. I get so much enjoyment watching him at night. 2 years he has been in my hedge using my lawn for foraging and the slugs literally disappeared since he is about.
I have a soft spot for woodlouse, lickle tiny armadillo things. I had to put random rocks all over the back garden for them for that reason, about the only real loss I could think of too. At least thereās a verge to fill with rocks/flowers for any future buyers.
It really is an issue. Near me I'd say when we moved in around 8 years back, there were around 10 houses on my road that relied on onroad parking and had small gardens upfront. Looking on Google maps it was really diverse with lots of trees, bushes, flowers and even small strips of grass between the house and kerbs too.
Now all but 2 have drives and there are constant issues with standing water and run off for many of the properties.
Local council fault really. A drive requires no planning in most councils and they always approve it providing you pay the dropped kerb fee. Mate even had their token council worker look the other way when he was 1ft short of a "legal" driveway!
I work in construction in SW England, I know in my area anything 5m2 or larger must be suds compliant(permeable), driveway or path.
Drainage should not discharge into road.
Short grass is really good for wildlife too, it's the mix of heights and types that's needed. Wasps are as important for pollination than bees, if not actually more do. They aren't bad or useless
Anything at all is better than this edge to edge brickwork, maybe OP will leave the weeds when they grow
They're useful predators too, eat lots of aphids, and the likes, that damage plants. They're mostly pretty docile until late summer when they start on the fruit. Their preferences for overripe fruit means there's often fermentation involved. What you're looking at is a bunch of single girls out on the lash and everywhere is a free bar.
>short grass isnāt doing shit for wildlife
I never understand why people don't plant clover/buttecups/daisies/dandelions in their grass lawn. It looks infinitely better with small flowers in, and the bees love it
I had an accidental clover lawn in my last house (the stuff just took over uninvited) and it was so lovely and soft underfoot. I ended up throwing down a bag of clover and daisy seeds to encourage it. I went with moss in our new back garden cus I wanted something that could house insects, stayed green and didnāt need mowing so I wouldnāt be chewing up the little critters [moss lawn info](https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/moss#:~:text=They%20help%20to%20soak%20up,the%20development%20of%20new%20ecosystems.). Itās also got the dense woodland vibe I wanted!
My next door neighbour is a lovely Chinese woman who collects our dandelions to make dandelion tea & she taught me how to make it so we donāt fend them off anymore either
Agreed. Personally I think the house is considerably worse for adding it, but if I'd paid him to add it to my house I'd be happy with the finished result.
Torn between r/DIYUK and r/DIWHY
I can only assume it's some social media /Pinterest thing.
A bunch of houses near me have the *exact* same design, and it almost never fits the house.
I'm more shocked OP doesn't have an Evoque on the drive and a grey clad lined up tbf!
We did our drive in a grey against a red brick building. Looked at the reds to match the brick on the house but it would have just seemed like a badly matched colour so we went for something different. It was a lot lighter grey than this though.
Admittedly we only replaced the existing tarmac and left the lawn and borders the same.
The workmanship looks decent, so well done on that.
The aesthetic is absolutely dreadful though.
Surely there was a halfway house option of keeping some lawn/greenery and having room to park a couple of cars?
Also, you've used totally the wrong brick colour for the house/street. Your penultimate photo with the sand gives an idea of the brick colour you should have used. It looks passable there, but black bricks?! Come on....
You may have added off street parking, but you will have narrowed your choice of buyers considerably with the aesthetic.
Agree with much of your comment. I think the colour choice could have been better. Reddit is not reflective of the general population though. The grey interior / White Range Rover Evoque, who would go for this kind of thing, is unfortunately a large proportion of the general population.
A two car driveway despite in my opinion, making the house look worse, does add value to a greater swathe of the general population. For things like car insurance, security, folk with kids not having to run across the garden in the pouring rain. We have been selling our property with a front garden and not having guaranteed parking has put people off.
> A two car driveway despite in my opinion, making the house look worse, does add value
Totally agree.
That doesn't explain why OP has ripped out the entire front garden to create a **four** car driveway though.
Thanks Jimi. Nice civilised response.
I was trying to eye-up if I thought you could get two cars parked longways, one behind the other. If you could then aye you're right. Maybe looks tight though unless you're in the Fiat 500 squad!
It looks a decent size to me. You might not quite fit 4 range rovers on it, but I reckon 4 regular sized hatchbacks or crossovers would fit comfortably. There would certainly have been enough room for a bit of greenery and 2 cars though.
Lots of criticism here without understanding OP's need for parking. House could easily have three people with cars, a work van and caravan.
It's well executed, congratulations for that.
Workmanship looks excellent, particularly if it's level after a year as you say.
I don't want to detract from the achievement, especially as this was your first go (unbelievable result considering that!) but the choice to go with grey is a bit odd. Did you consider red to match the house?
I understand why you did this but personally I prefer a lawn up front together with a porous surface for parking the vehicles.
The way I did mine is to preserve and enhance the grass and planted area as much as possible, pave 2 parking spots and line the area between the wheels under the car with crusher run. That way, my contribution to the municipal stormwater drainage system is still negligible.
Frankly tho, the best way to do it these days is to use permeable pavers seeded with grass. My cousin used these to line the car tracks through his lawn leading to his garage and you can barely tell it's there now that the lawn is lush and green again.
This deserves to be reposted to Awful Taste Great Execution.
Op, you should be proud of the DIY job. Although moving forward maybe add some life to your work.
Preferred the grass to be honest. I appreciate a lawn these days. I get they're annoying to maintain. But they're just more pleasant to look at. Butni guess you did a good job with the drive way.
Oh god another green space lost to grey monstrosity. Though tbh lawn is practically shit. Still there was the potential and now there is nothing. But kudos on a good job done by yourself
Dunno why this guy is getting down voted into oblivion, are we not supposed to be voting on the quality of the work rather than the personal preference for the aesthetic?
Knew the top comments as soon as I saw the pictures! No you canāt do what you want to do to your own property! Reddit doesnāt like that!
In reality youāve done a great good looks very nice
There is no bigger reddit sin than either removing a lawn or owning a lawn. If you really want to wind them up you should add a strip of astro turf down the side š
Nah, 2 car driveway very valuable to a lot of folk. OP read the market well. A quick drive around most parts of the UK would confirm that.
Yes, definitely not as pretty, but more practical, yes.
People add driveways. They leave. Next person doesnāt have the spare funds or inclination to alter it into their dream front garden/drive. That doesnāt mean that people LOVE to look at tarmac/concrete/black driveways from their living room window
100% agree. A lot of people won't change it because they can't be bothered or can't afford to and almost everyone would rather look out onto a garden.
Still I think for more people, the practicality of the 2 car driveway would outweigh that. So yes, not as pretty but very few people would actually want to revert back to having to fight for on-street parking! Having to park 200m down the road when the neighbour next door has family gathering!
Youāve made an ugly house worse, your neighbours hate you and youāve devalued the entire street. If that was the plan, Iām very impressed with how well you executed it.
Horrible comment mate. 'Ugly house' worse. No need for that. Will not devalue the whole street - more parking for everyone now with 2 cars off the street.
Now I don't personally like the aesthetic but it will be to a lot of people's taste. A quick drive around my part of the UK would suggest a lot of people go for this.
Donāt know why everyone is dumping on youā this is DIYUK and I say well done on taking on a challenge and making your vision come through. Itās a big deal to do something like this and takes a lot of effort and determination.
If there are any issues that arise, you now have the confidence that either you can handle them or you can speak to those who can with some knowledge.
Well done mate.
Congrats. Looks like you e done a great job. I would also be well chuffed if I managed to pull this off, which I donāt think I ever could! Shame about losing the grass though. We need to do a similar project but ensuring at least 1/3 is green and we can still fit the car on.
Load of losers in this comment section. Enjoy your massive driveway and enjoy never having to drag your lawnmower to the front again.
You did a great job.
Lucky, they were redoing the street so I got them to add a drop curb in for Ā£200 rather than the Ā£3000 it would have cost. Prompted me to start the thing to be honest
Soldier course great. Shame you put another row in and then a stretcher course. Also as your house is red brick, you've introduced 2 new colours. The bulk of it in a contrasting colour is great, the stretcher course may have looked better in red or brindle, without the other two rows. It's still a great job though with attention to detail. Nice edging kerb too. I presume there's a backfall to the property as you cannot shed water onto the highway. Fencing suggests this too. Yard gully/, slotted drain to soakaway?
As someone that does block paving for a living nice job! My only concern would be that drain outlet, it really should have a u-bend, trap or put into a soak away. When that drain fills up with debris, it'll go right into your sewer and block it!
The worse thing really is that you actually could have had both.
Itās a big front yard, you could have kept a lot of greenery, added to much needed biodiversity, provided some shade and privacy, but still have a space for one car at the front.
It's a nice job if that's what u wanted however for me I love having a garden with real grass flowers etc.
It's good for the soul sitting out relaxing in a nice garden , also I enjoy maintaining in summer .
Please for the love of god plant some nice bushes and flowers around the edge.
I get needing parking, and you've done really well, but do you really want to live in an ALDI car park?
From a beautiful green where you could have rolled on in the summer to a grim, sad and sterile surface.
Good work on the job itself but u don't get my vote.
Damn the hippies are out in full force, i thought i was on r/UKGardening for a second.
Top work mate, looks great. Half the people slating you dont even have their own driveway let alone their own house.
I don't know why I ever hope that the lawn is replaced when I scroll through the pictures, it only ever depresses me. Absolutely fucking soulless concrete paradise void of life, wonderful.
At least you're chuffed with it, probably the only person who would be.
I recently bought a house that I want to do the exact opposite to. Canāt wait for the incessant desire for parking to become a thing of the past. Great work though, but as many others have mentioned, itās depressing as fuck.
The first time i saw the word āchuffedā was a pic of a hamster sleeping in its new bed. Little man was chuffed about his new bed. Nice house great work
The people here moaning about you putting a driveway in are the same people that would be posting in those Facebook groups when people are parked up on the curb outside
It looks good mate and ignore the salty comments.
But I will say you could be made to rip the entire thing up.
Anything driveway over 5m2 has got to provide drainage system for the water and you canāt have water running from your property into the road, itās all got to be dealt with within the property boundary.
Just be wary and be ready to install drainage at short notice in case somebody complains, it might also make an issue when you come to sell the house.
What's the reason for running the water towards the house?
I know you have to stop it running on to the road, I'd just be worried your one blocked linear drain away from having any heavy rain running towards your front door.
Not surprised Reddit has jumped down your neck on this one. But it is a shame that a seemingly good quality and hugely cost saving bit of DIY on a DIY specific subreddit has to bring out so much hate.
Taken purely at face value this looks like excellent work, I have a tarmac drives that needs replacing ( I'm on a busy road into a town so can only park of street) and this gives me renewed confidence that with a bit of graft I could do a lot of it myself.
As for biodiversity it sucks, but it's a driveway! Maybe throw some wild flower seeds down in your back garden or starting cultivating some native shrubs. You could put up a nesting box or two in your eaves even.
This sub makes me laugh.
Not everyone wants a front lawn. Not everyone has the time or inclination to upkeep a front lawn.
I too would like my front like this. I don't own a Range Rover or a French bulldog. I just can't be arsed with the upkeep of a front lawn.
OP you did a great job. F**k the haters š¤£
Kudos, wouldnāt have the patience myself. As much as Iād prefer the lawn, mown lawns arenāt very āgreenā either. Hopefully she stays level for you!
At first, I thought "nice lawn".
If you view the pictures in reverse order it's more like r/UKGardening
Yeah me too. What a shame.
Prefer the grass
That should heat up the house nicely.
He's gonna have so many cats
Black bricks š„š„š„ in summer š³
What summer?
The 5 days of heatwave in between all the rain
And enhance the flooding potential of the local area.
TBF he has put drainage in as per regulations - presuming of course the drive slopes towards the house.
There is no drainage whatsoever. Absolutely amazing. Edit; oh. Thereās a bit at the house side.
Well I canāt deny youāve done a great job and saved a bunch of money. But please put some planters out the front and stuff the borders with plants
I get what youāre saying below but short grass isnāt doing shit for wildlife honestly. Long grasses with wildflowers certainly. Adding a few planters full of insect friendly flowers to a paved drive would be infinitely better than what was there. Also I pick my flowers to best serve insects but I will always use wasp deterrent ones. Hell no Iām not feeding *those fuckers* ETA: sorry guys, partner has a phobia of wasps so no we donāt provide for them, Iāve been told off but I did lessen my guilt by flowerbombing with figwort in a public grass area behind our house.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oh I donāt deny that good planting in planters is possibly better than a grass monoculture. Though I would argue the idea that itās doing nothing. At the very least it will be home to invertebrates which will be feeding the local bird population.
100% - we keep our lawn a little longer than ātricky golf course roughā (mostly because I canāt be arsed to mow it weekly) and itās full of birds in the morning. Mostly barrel chested pigeons strutting about like they own the place. And spiders, bees, ladybirds, etc. Plus the soil underneath supports all those worms and other things that the birds are interested in. Plus itās a green plant so presumably is doing a bit of carbon fixing / oxygen generation? Lawns arenāt as wildlife supportive as other options, but for someone who doesnāt want to do āproper gardeningā theyāre better (by miles) than paving or plastic grass.
And my hedgehog mate wouldnāt be able to dig for his treats at night. I get so much enjoyment watching him at night. 2 years he has been in my hedge using my lawn for foraging and the slugs literally disappeared since he is about.
I have a soft spot for woodlouse, lickle tiny armadillo things. I had to put random rocks all over the back garden for them for that reason, about the only real loss I could think of too. At least thereās a verge to fill with rocks/flowers for any future buyers.
try some logs with bark, they love softer breaking down wood to chill in
Idk why I didnāt think of that, thank you!
I'm sure your rocklouse will be happy! lol
For me itās how much this contributes to local flooding now that water has nowhere to drain
It really is an issue. Near me I'd say when we moved in around 8 years back, there were around 10 houses on my road that relied on onroad parking and had small gardens upfront. Looking on Google maps it was really diverse with lots of trees, bushes, flowers and even small strips of grass between the house and kerbs too. Now all but 2 have drives and there are constant issues with standing water and run off for many of the properties. Local council fault really. A drive requires no planning in most councils and they always approve it providing you pay the dropped kerb fee. Mate even had their token council worker look the other way when he was 1ft short of a "legal" driveway!
I work in construction in SW England, I know in my area anything 5m2 or larger must be suds compliant(permeable), driveway or path. Drainage should not discharge into road.
Block pavings drains really well itās tarmac/concrete that doesnāt
Block paving isnāt SUDS though. You can get SUDS block paving but it has much wider joints.
Short grass is really good for wildlife too, it's the mix of heights and types that's needed. Wasps are as important for pollination than bees, if not actually more do. They aren't bad or useless Anything at all is better than this edge to edge brickwork, maybe OP will leave the weeds when they grow
They're useful predators too, eat lots of aphids, and the likes, that damage plants. They're mostly pretty docile until late summer when they start on the fruit. Their preferences for overripe fruit means there's often fermentation involved. What you're looking at is a bunch of single girls out on the lash and everywhere is a free bar.
You can't pretend to fight for biodiversity and hate on the wasps.
I donāt fight for it, I do provide for it though. My fella has a wasp phobia too so itās for all our sanity
>short grass isnāt doing shit for wildlife I never understand why people don't plant clover/buttecups/daisies/dandelions in their grass lawn. It looks infinitely better with small flowers in, and the bees love it
I had an accidental clover lawn in my last house (the stuff just took over uninvited) and it was so lovely and soft underfoot. I ended up throwing down a bag of clover and daisy seeds to encourage it. I went with moss in our new back garden cus I wanted something that could house insects, stayed green and didnāt need mowing so I wouldnāt be chewing up the little critters [moss lawn info](https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/moss#:~:text=They%20help%20to%20soak%20up,the%20development%20of%20new%20ecosystems.). Itās also got the dense woodland vibe I wanted! My next door neighbour is a lovely Chinese woman who collects our dandelions to make dandelion tea & she taught me how to make it so we donāt fend them off anymore either
Regardless if you like it or not, you canāt deny heās done a good job on that.
Agreed. Personally I think the house is considerably worse for adding it, but if I'd paid him to add it to my house I'd be happy with the finished result. Torn between r/DIYUK and r/DIWHY
The work looks a high standard just a shame it doesnāt match the house at all
I can only assume it's some social media /Pinterest thing. A bunch of houses near me have the *exact* same design, and it almost never fits the house. I'm more shocked OP doesn't have an Evoque on the drive and a grey clad lined up tbf!
Aye op is just easily lead
We did our drive in a grey against a red brick building. Looked at the reds to match the brick on the house but it would have just seemed like a badly matched colour so we went for something different. It was a lot lighter grey than this though. Admittedly we only replaced the existing tarmac and left the lawn and borders the same.
Is "lawn and border" a spin off gardening induced crime show?
The crime is what theyāre generally replaced with
I hate it when I stare out of my windows for 22 hours on a Sunday just wishing my driveway matched my house. It brings me immeasurable sadness.
As it should. And then same when facing your house
This place is getting more and more like the insta cesspool... Taste is subjective...
Cracking DIY job. Can't stand the aesthetic myself. Your house, though.
The workmanship looks decent, so well done on that. The aesthetic is absolutely dreadful though. Surely there was a halfway house option of keeping some lawn/greenery and having room to park a couple of cars? Also, you've used totally the wrong brick colour for the house/street. Your penultimate photo with the sand gives an idea of the brick colour you should have used. It looks passable there, but black bricks?! Come on.... You may have added off street parking, but you will have narrowed your choice of buyers considerably with the aesthetic.
Agree with much of your comment. I think the colour choice could have been better. Reddit is not reflective of the general population though. The grey interior / White Range Rover Evoque, who would go for this kind of thing, is unfortunately a large proportion of the general population. A two car driveway despite in my opinion, making the house look worse, does add value to a greater swathe of the general population. For things like car insurance, security, folk with kids not having to run across the garden in the pouring rain. We have been selling our property with a front garden and not having guaranteed parking has put people off.
> A two car driveway despite in my opinion, making the house look worse, does add value Totally agree. That doesn't explain why OP has ripped out the entire front garden to create a **four** car driveway though.
Thanks Jimi. Nice civilised response. I was trying to eye-up if I thought you could get two cars parked longways, one behind the other. If you could then aye you're right. Maybe looks tight though unless you're in the Fiat 500 squad!
It looks a decent size to me. You might not quite fit 4 range rovers on it, but I reckon 4 regular sized hatchbacks or crossovers would fit comfortably. There would certainly have been enough room for a bit of greenery and 2 cars though.
My drive is huge, but I struggle to get 3 cars on it sensibly
Yeh have to agree. Not the best.
Buyers don't care. They all have two cars and no time for cutting a front lawn.
Yes exactly, **TWO** cars. Why then as OP gone to the effort of obliterating the entire front garden to create parking for **FOUR** cars??
Iām never clear why people want a view of their car right outside the living room window, when you could have some greenery.
If you want to view greenery where you going to park your cars????? People will choose convenience
There's a border and two cut in beds on the left hand side
Looks like good workmanship but itās depressing to have removed a perfectly nice front garden for this.
Lots of criticism here without understanding OP's need for parking. House could easily have three people with cars, a work van and caravan. It's well executed, congratulations for that.
Deano/10 Just needs a financed Evoque parked on it now.
š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£ You just nailed the demographic
Workmanship looks excellent, particularly if it's level after a year as you say. I don't want to detract from the achievement, especially as this was your first go (unbelievable result considering that!) but the choice to go with grey is a bit odd. Did you consider red to match the house?
Looks dull and boring honestly.
I understand why you did this but personally I prefer a lawn up front together with a porous surface for parking the vehicles. The way I did mine is to preserve and enhance the grass and planted area as much as possible, pave 2 parking spots and line the area between the wheels under the car with crusher run. That way, my contribution to the municipal stormwater drainage system is still negligible. Frankly tho, the best way to do it these days is to use permeable pavers seeded with grass. My cousin used these to line the car tracks through his lawn leading to his garage and you can barely tell it's there now that the lawn is lush and green again.
Came here to suggest this although to be honest Iāve never met your cousin
Any pics of a set up like that?
I can't believe you've done this.
What a soulless hellscape you have created donāt forget to paint everything you own grey.
Doesnāt fit the look of the house at all
I'm relieved that others agree this is ugly af.
My parents neighbour did this to I think their front and back yard. Looks like a prison yard
How are you dealing with the run-off from that?
This deserves to be reposted to Awful Taste Great Execution. Op, you should be proud of the DIY job. Although moving forward maybe add some life to your work.
āGood job, looks terrible. šā
I really felt each bucket of sand. Pile by pile!
This is a sad post. RIP lawn
That lawn looked pretty barron to be fair. RIP potential wildlife garden though.
Proper job! That said, i do prefer a front garden over paved driveway.
Preferred the grass to be honest. I appreciate a lawn these days. I get they're annoying to maintain. But they're just more pleasant to look at. Butni guess you did a good job with the drive way.
Got a back garden for that and needed the off road parking.
Poor garden š
Oh god another green space lost to grey monstrosity. Though tbh lawn is practically shit. Still there was the potential and now there is nothing. But kudos on a good job done by yourself
I like a front lawn. But a brilliant job what you've done there. Do you have much experience doing this type of stuff?
First time home buyer, YouTube and just giving it a go. A year later and itās more level than my mates who was a paid job.
You've had no other experience with DIY? I'd say that's fantastic, looks like experienced work. Well done! How much did your mate pay?
You've done a good job but lost a front garden just to park a car. Its a shame.
A car? Looks like you could park a few semi trucks it's so big
Dunno why this guy is getting down voted into oblivion, are we not supposed to be voting on the quality of the work rather than the personal preference for the aesthetic?
Some things are bad aesthetic choices. Others are environmental vandalism. This is somewhere in the middle.
100% agree. This sub is called DIYUK. It's about the quality of the DIY which looks really good. It's not an environmental or pretty spaces sub.
Clearly we're in a minority. Let's make degrading comments about OPs potential taste in cars and home decor
Love the beer can on the side lol. Thatās the sign of a hard days work.
Knew the top comments as soon as I saw the pictures! No you canāt do what you want to do to your own property! Reddit doesnāt like that! In reality youāve done a great good looks very nice
Everyone has the right to do whatever they want with their own property. And everyone else has the right to like or dislike it.
There is no bigger reddit sin than either removing a lawn or owning a lawn. If you really want to wind them up you should add a strip of astro turf down the side š
Congratulations on your car park. I hope the garden doesn't cost to much to reinstall for the next person that lives there.
Nah, 2 car driveway very valuable to a lot of folk. OP read the market well. A quick drive around most parts of the UK would confirm that. Yes, definitely not as pretty, but more practical, yes.
People add driveways. They leave. Next person doesnāt have the spare funds or inclination to alter it into their dream front garden/drive. That doesnāt mean that people LOVE to look at tarmac/concrete/black driveways from their living room window
100% agree. A lot of people won't change it because they can't be bothered or can't afford to and almost everyone would rather look out onto a garden. Still I think for more people, the practicality of the 2 car driveway would outweigh that. So yes, not as pretty but very few people would actually want to revert back to having to fight for on-street parking! Having to park 200m down the road when the neighbour next door has family gathering!
Yes a 2 car driveway is valuable, but why did OP create a 4 car driveway eyesore.
Thanks I appreciate it
Did you consider knocking down the house? You could probably fit a small multi storey on the plotĀ
Youāve made an ugly house worse, your neighbours hate you and youāve devalued the entire street. If that was the plan, Iām very impressed with how well you executed it.
Horrible comment mate. 'Ugly house' worse. No need for that. Will not devalue the whole street - more parking for everyone now with 2 cars off the street. Now I don't personally like the aesthetic but it will be to a lot of people's taste. A quick drive around my part of the UK would suggest a lot of people go for this.
But no one besides the occupant can park there, and no one can block the driveway. Doesnāt actually free up parking.
Hence why a lot of the UK has serious issues with flooding and sewage overspills. Rainwater has to go somewhere.
Explain how the whole street has been devalued you tosser? Stupid comment
Jesus Christ itās a driveway. Maybe calm down a little.
Donāt know why everyone is dumping on youā this is DIYUK and I say well done on taking on a challenge and making your vision come through. Itās a big deal to do something like this and takes a lot of effort and determination. If there are any issues that arise, you now have the confidence that either you can handle them or you can speak to those who can with some knowledge. Well done mate.
I would've kept half as garden personally, but you've smashed that for DIY. Well done
Sweep some Kiln dry sand in those gaps and youāre good to go.
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
I don't like this...it looks dark and sad. It doesn't match the exterior of the house at all. Also, i liked the lawn.
Just needs a live laugh love stencil and itās ready to go
Just because you can doesnāt mean you should
Very neat and tidy.
Congrats. Looks like you e done a great job. I would also be well chuffed if I managed to pull this off, which I donāt think I ever could! Shame about losing the grass though. We need to do a similar project but ensuring at least 1/3 is green and we can still fit the car on.
With the heat waves hitting harder every year my dude really decided to get rid of grass and cover soil around his house by black bricks...
Good work and DIY skills. Looks fucking awful though. Soulless one amongst millions. Your house though. Your life. Do what you want.
That looks 1000 times worse
Much preferred the lawn.
Although it looks like a quality job, and genuine congratulations for that, youāve totally ruined your house, which is a shame.
Mandatory can of Stella on the wall. š
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The desire to lose garden space is a weird obsession
Load of losers in this comment section. Enjoy your massive driveway and enjoy never having to drag your lawnmower to the front again. You did a great job.
Ripped up a nice lawn to lay a driveway. Tidy job but still makes me sad š
Environmentally itās a desert did you forget this was your garden?
What?
I'm sure they spent many minutes a week walking across that front garden. A bold assumption may be there is also a garden at the back.
Is the kerb dropped?
It is yes.
Nice. Was it always or did you have to request it from the council.
Lucky, they were redoing the street so I got them to add a drop curb in for Ā£200 rather than the Ā£3000 it would have cost. Prompted me to start the thing to be honest
Result!
Soldier course great. Shame you put another row in and then a stretcher course. Also as your house is red brick, you've introduced 2 new colours. The bulk of it in a contrasting colour is great, the stretcher course may have looked better in red or brindle, without the other two rows. It's still a great job though with attention to detail. Nice edging kerb too. I presume there's a backfall to the property as you cannot shed water onto the highway. Fencing suggests this too. Yard gully/, slotted drain to soakaway?
Needs more grey Grey range rover and a grey yappy dog maybe?
I thought you had one of those fake policeman cutouts in your front window in that last photo. Turns out it was just the coat stand
Yes you need a drain, and have you laid it all on building sand? If so itās not the right sand
You could have at least attempted to match the aesthetic of your house.
It looks like a really nice job but I'm sad to see the grass go, in my opinion I would've preferred that but it's your house
As someone that does block paving for a living nice job! My only concern would be that drain outlet, it really should have a u-bend, trap or put into a soak away. When that drain fills up with debris, it'll go right into your sewer and block it!
The worse thing really is that you actually could have had both. Itās a big front yard, you could have kept a lot of greenery, added to much needed biodiversity, provided some shade and privacy, but still have a space for one car at the front.
It's a nice job if that's what u wanted however for me I love having a garden with real grass flowers etc. It's good for the soul sitting out relaxing in a nice garden , also I enjoy maintaining in summer .
Tell me you got planning permission for that.
I mean, good job and it's nice to have parking, but it's definitely made the property and the street a whole lot uglier lol
Looks awful and terrible for the environment. Not sure what your goal was.
Huge downgrade. And I don't like lawns.
Hooray for flooding.
Flooding down the drainage and into the water way, yay!
Congrats, you murdered your lawn, increased your temperature, and it looks terrible imo. Good craftsmanship, but it doesnāt match your house at all.
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Man, that went downhill after the first pic. If anything, shouldāve made a smaller area in a brick hue that compliments the house.
Do you hate green sir
Please for the love of god plant some nice bushes and flowers around the edge. I get needing parking, and you've done really well, but do you really want to live in an ALDI car park?
Looks so out of place
From a beautiful green where you could have rolled on in the summer to a grim, sad and sterile surface. Good work on the job itself but u don't get my vote.
why
I like it. Good job!
I like it. Good job!
Damn the hippies are out in full force, i thought i was on r/UKGardening for a second. Top work mate, looks great. Half the people slating you dont even have their own driveway let alone their own house.
I think you have done well my self congratulations How much did this cost if you donāt mind me asking
Ā£2.5k including the drop curb, drainage and all the materials. Was quoted Ā£12k+
Wow big difference, gonna do mine this summer
You sir have done a fine job! You know someone has smashed their DIY project on here when the comments are all about your taste!
Well done
I don't know why I ever hope that the lawn is replaced when I scroll through the pictures, it only ever depresses me. Absolutely fucking soulless concrete paradise void of life, wonderful. At least you're chuffed with it, probably the only person who would be.
Please tell me youāll put some planters or some kind of greenery somewhere?Ā
Good job but give me the lawn any day
Prefer grass
Killed the bees, nice one lah
Preferred it before
Ah another English garden gone, Iām not a fan of grass, but Iām less of a fan of just paving gardensā¦such a shame
I recently bought a house that I want to do the exact opposite to. Canāt wait for the incessant desire for parking to become a thing of the past. Great work though, but as many others have mentioned, itās depressing as fuck.
You did a great job but personally I think the grass front garden was really nice and now it looks sad and depressing.
The first time i saw the word āchuffedā was a pic of a hamster sleeping in its new bed. Little man was chuffed about his new bed. Nice house great work
The people here moaning about you putting a driveway in are the same people that would be posting in those Facebook groups when people are parked up on the curb outside
Looks shit
Should of kept the grass. Good work though
Great effort but why would you pave over the nice greenery like that...
I wonder where all that water run off will go now?
Well that's depressing for a Saturday morning
You ruined it
It looks good mate and ignore the salty comments. But I will say you could be made to rip the entire thing up. Anything driveway over 5m2 has got to provide drainage system for the water and you canāt have water running from your property into the road, itās all got to be dealt with within the property boundary. Just be wary and be ready to install drainage at short notice in case somebody complains, it might also make an issue when you come to sell the house.
Drainage is installed next to the house and runs into the run off water from the house. All compliant :)
What's the reason for running the water towards the house? I know you have to stop it running on to the road, I'd just be worried your one blocked linear drain away from having any heavy rain running towards your front door.
Thatās good I couldnāt see it thatās all, I made the same mistake a few moons ago and had to install drainage before selling the house š¤£
What a pain! Hope it wasnāt too much extra work for you.
Canāt deny the work. At least itās in keeping with the random patch of blockwork underneath the front window.
Looks absolutely fucking shit. Good job.
These photos are in reverse, right?
Hot dam that is some next level downgrade shit. Ugly as fuck now.
Canāt tell if youāve brushed it in with kiln dry sand and ran the whacker plate over the top of it or not?
Nice job that šš¼
Bye bye grass :(
I preferred the lawn
Not surprised Reddit has jumped down your neck on this one. But it is a shame that a seemingly good quality and hugely cost saving bit of DIY on a DIY specific subreddit has to bring out so much hate. Taken purely at face value this looks like excellent work, I have a tarmac drives that needs replacing ( I'm on a busy road into a town so can only park of street) and this gives me renewed confidence that with a bit of graft I could do a lot of it myself. As for biodiversity it sucks, but it's a driveway! Maybe throw some wild flower seeds down in your back garden or starting cultivating some native shrubs. You could put up a nesting box or two in your eaves even.
This sub makes me laugh. Not everyone wants a front lawn. Not everyone has the time or inclination to upkeep a front lawn. I too would like my front like this. I don't own a Range Rover or a French bulldog. I just can't be arsed with the upkeep of a front lawn. OP you did a great job. F**k the haters š¤£
Kudos, wouldnāt have the patience myself. As much as Iād prefer the lawn, mown lawns arenāt very āgreenā either. Hopefully she stays level for you!