If you are constantly faced with flooding on your driveway, your garage, and your home, you are probably looking for various solutions to deal with this kind of problem, or you are at least looking for a way to temporarily prevent it. Fortunately, the resin-bound paving market has grown considerably these last couple of years which means that you can find several companies out there that will be able to provide you with this kind of solution for your driveway.
However, like any other market, when the need for certain problems arises too quickly, it can start being over-saturated with low standard companies that provide a low-quality product. If you do not do your research well about the company that you are hiring, you might be left with a product that can fail in just a couple of years which will leave you a bad impression on what resin bound pavement actually is.
To help you and everyone else faced with a similar issue understand what resin-bound actually is and what are the pros and cons of this driveway, we wrote this article.
Contents
What is resin bound paving?
To fully understand the advantages of using this kind of technology, you will first need to know what it actually means. It is basically a mix of two types of materials. One being aggregate stones and the other resin. The combination of these two is what makes it resistant to cracking which means that this kind of driveway could be a permanent solution for your problems.
An experienced company will do the mixture on-site with a binding substance that will ensure that the materials stay together. They would first start applying one thin layer of the resin at the bottom, apply the binder and then add in the stones. Once they add in a couple of layers and leave it to dry, you will finally have a permanent solution for your driveway.
The cracks between the stones is what allows water to pass through which is why this option is recommended for people who live in an area that is faced with floods frequently.
Pros
It simply looks great
No matter what kind of style or design your house or your backyard has if you decide to add resin it will look great. It can be combined with any other design you can think of and it will still look both modern and traditional at the same time. What’s even more interesting about resin is that you can actually choose from a variety of color combinations which means that you can decide whether you want your driveway to be blended with the environment around it or give it a jarring look to get the attention of people.
You should also be aware that this kind of paving will never be faced with any kind of change of color or de-coloration like you would see with tarmac or concrete.
So, if you want to make your home look even more attractive to your neighbors, you should definitely check out the idea of Resin Driveways.
Drainage
If you live in an area that is commonly flooded then you probably already know that concrete or tarmac do not have any kind of draining properties at all. So, if water gets up to your house, the time to dry or drain will be a lot longer than you would like it to.
But, if you decide to go with resin for your driveway, the water will drain through its surface which will either prevent the flood completely or at least speed up the process of it drying. The water will not spill over to the sides into your backyard, house or your garden. You won’t have to step in mud for the next several days just because it rained for a while.
You will be glad to know that this kind of paving meets the requirements of SUDS standards, also known as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems which reduces the chances of water runoff.
Durability
The blend of the materials is so perfect that the durability cannot be compared with anything else. Sure, tarmac might seem tough and strong at first, but after hail or day-long heavy rain, it might start chipping off at the side. A day with a mix of high and low temperatures can also cause tarmac to crack which reduces its structural integrity. A driveway is supposed to be a permanent solution, you shouldn’t have to worry about renovating it every three or four years.
Fortunately, a resin bound driveway is probably the most permanent option you can find out there. The flexibility of the resin is what prevents any scuffs or cracks to appear, no matter what the materials are faced with. Cold, hot, water, snow, hail or any other kind of extreme weather simply cannot damage this kind of paving.
This is why a lot of shopping malls and parking garages use it because they won’t ever have to worry about repairing potholes or cracks.
Cons
Nothing is perfect in this world which means that there have to be a couple of cons regarding this kind of paving. Here are some of them:
Cost
One of the biggest reasons why a lot of people like to use tarmac is because it is cheap. Sure, it might not be the most durable or pretty option, but hiring a contractor and buying the materials is cheap while resin-bound paving requires a specialist and expensive materials too.
So, if you have a smaller budget than you expected for your backyard project, maybe you should go for tarmac this time around.
Finding the right company
The truth is that resin-bound paving is not as simple as it sounds. Not everyone can make the perfect mix between the ingredients to ensure that it will stay durable and permeable at the same time. You will need to do a bit of research to ensure that the company you hire will have the right knowledge on this subject.