Is Summer The Best Time For A New Driveway?

Summer has arrived in a big way with lots of hot sunshine and long days, with Glastonbury, the Ashes and Wimbledon imminent. Before long, some will be gathering a Stonehenge for the solstice to mark the longest day.

All that may give people lots of things to look forward to from music to sport and lazy days on the beach. But it will also be a time when householders want to have work done outside the home. That may include gardening, painting and decorating, but it could also involve a new driveway.

However, it is important to check whether the kind of driveway you want is the sort that is best laid down in summer.

As Flexflooring notes, this can vary between materials. Asphalt is best laid down in summer because it can crack if it cools down too fast, so warm weather helps prevent this. Resin is less reliant on heat, but does need dry weather, making summer the most likely date. This is also why driveway sealing in Telford is most likely to be done in summer, as it is drier.

The situation is very different for other surfaces, such as concrete. Unlike asphalt, this requires cooler conditions to set smoothly, although it still needs to be done on a dry day. That means one of the best times of year to do it, late spring, has just passed. But September will bring favourable conditions again, so if this is your plan, start preparing over the summer.

Gravel driveways are also best laid in spring, with Ferkey Builders noting that this is the time when the dust that comes with the stones will bind best with it in the combination of sun and rain that spring provides.

Spring is also the best time to renew gravel driveways after the winter, when some of the stones can be embedded in snow and lost to the surface when the white stuff is cleared away.