Driveway and patio builders

Hiring a driveway or patio builder starts with two questions that have nothing to do with paving: does the surface need planning permission, and does your car need a dropped kerb to reach it? A good firm will raise both before it quotes. A poor one will not mention either, and the bill for that lands on you.

What does a driveway or patio builder actually do?

The visible work is simple to describe. The builder removes the existing surface or turf, digs out to a depth that suits the surface and the traffic, lays and compacts a sub-base, lays a bed, sets the surface (block paving, resin-bound gravel, tarmac, concrete, natural stone, porcelain or gravel) and finishes the edges. The invisible work decides how long it lasts: how deep the dig is, how well the sub-base is compacted, and where the water goes.

Driveways and patios are not the same job. A driveway carries cars, so it needs a stronger build and sits in the planning rules for front gardens. A patio is usually at the back and takes foot traffic and furniture. The Planning Portal puts it plainly: around the house, outside the front garden, there are no restrictions on the area of land you can cover with hard surfaces at or near ground level, although significant embanking or terracing to support a surface might need a planning application (Planning Portal, patio and driveway, read 12 October 2026).

If the job involves levels, retaining walls, new drains or excavation beyond a simple dig-out, you are into groundworks. See our page on groundworks builders for that side of the work.

Do you need planning permission for a driveway?

For a front garden in England, it depends on the material and the size. The Planning Portal says that if the surface to be covered is more than five square metres, planning permission is needed, unless the new or replacement driveway uses permeable or porous surfacing that lets water drain through (Planning Portal, paving your front garden, read 12 October 2026). The Government's own guidance, published in 2009 and covering the rules in force from 1 October 2008, says the same thing in different words: hard surfacing of more than five square metres of a domestic front garden is permitted development only where the surface is made permeable (GOV.UK, permeable surfacing of front gardens, read 12 October 2026).

In practice that gives you three routes:

1. Use permeable surfacing, such as gravel, permeable block paving or porous asphalt, so the water soaks through.
2. Use a traditional surface but direct the run-off to a lawn or border, not to the road or a drain.
3. Apply for planning permission for a traditional, non-draining surface over five square metres.

Several limits sit on top of this. The Planning Portal says the allowances apply to houses, not flats or maisonettes, and do not apply where an Article 4 Direction or other restriction limits permitted development rights. If your home is listed, speak to the council before any work, because listed building consent may also be needed. Your council can tell you whether any of this applies to your street.

What about Wales and Scotland?

The rules are not the same. The Welsh Government says that if you lay or replace a hard surface at the front of your house you must use permeable or porous materials, or direct the run-off from an impermeable surface to a permeable area. It allows repair or replacement of up to five square metres of existing hard surfacing without permeable materials, and says listed-building occupiers need to apply for planning permission to lay a hard surface (Welsh Government, patio and driveway, read 12 October 2026). We have not checked the Scottish position for this page. If you are in Scotland, ask your council's planning team before you accept a quote, and do not assume the English rule applies.

How does a dropped kerb work?

A dropped kerb is the lowered, sloping section of pavement that lets a vehicle cross it. It is not part of your driveway paving, and it is not decided by your builder. The Planning Portal says you will need to make a dropped kerb application to your local authority if you wish to drop a kerb, and says elsewhere on the same page that a dropped kerb may require planning permission. It adds that driving over a pavement onto your property without one is illegal (Planning Portal, paving your front garden, read 12 October 2026). GOV.UK says the service covers England and Wales and sends you to your council's website (GOV.UK, apply for a dropped kerb, read 12 October 2026).

Councils set their own fees, specifications and approved contractors, and the work to the kerb and pavement is often done by a contractor the council approves. Ask the council what applies to you. A sensible order of events is: check the planning position, apply for the dropped kerb, agree the quote and then start on the driveway. A driveway built first and a kerb applied for later can leave you with a surface you cannot legally drive onto.

How long does the work take?

We do not publish a standard duration, because a patio, a block-paved driveway and a driveway with drainage and a new kerb are different projects. Ask each firm for start and finish dates in writing, and ask what the weather does to the schedule. The longer waits are usually before the builder arrives: planning decisions and dropped kerb applications run on the council's timetable, not the builder's. Put those in your own plan first.

What should you check before hiring a driveway or patio builder?

Start with the general checks in our guide on how to hire a builder: who they are, their insurance and what a written quote should contain. For this job, add the following.

• Who deals with permissions? Ask whether they will confirm the planning position and the dropped kerb before the start date, or whether you must.
• Where does the water go? A good quote says what surface is being used, whether it is permeable, and where the run-off drains.
• What is under the surface? The quote should state the dig depth, the sub-base material and thickness, and whether the base is compacted in layers. A very cheap quote often skips this.
• Existing services. Ask how they will find and protect drains, cables and pipes, and what happens if they hit one.
• Edges and levels. Ask about edge restraints, falls away from the house and the height of the finished surface against your damp-proof course.
• Samples and finish. Ask to see a similar job, not a photograph.

Citizens Advice says to get written quotes from at least three traders, to be wary of anyone who will not put a quote in writing, and not to agree to more than a 25% deposit (Citizens Advice, before you get building work done, read 12 October 2026). The same page says you might be able to cancel within 14 days of agreeing a contract, though you may have to pay for work already done if you asked for it to start in that time.

What are the red flags with driveway callers?

Driveway work is one of the trades that councils' Trading Standards teams warn about most often. In July 2026, Monmouthshire County Council reported doorstep callers offering driveway and tarmac work, some using high-pressure tactics, refusing to leave or falsely claiming to work for the council. Its advice was to be cautious of anyone who arrives uninvited, never agree to work immediately, and check identification (Monmouthshire County Council, July 2026, read 12 October 2026).

An earlier Warwickshire County Council warning, from May 2020, described callers offering driveway washing and resurfacing with a bogus address and an untraceable mobile number. It said the resurfacing could be a very thin layer of tarmac and chippings that soon cracks (Warwickshire County Council, May 2020, read 12 October 2026). That is a local notice from some years ago, and we cite it for the pattern, not as a national statistic.

Treat these as warning signs:

• The caller found you, you did not find them.
• "Leftover tarmac from a job down the road" or a price that is only good today.
• No address you can verify, only a mobile number.
• A request for cash, or for most of the money before the work starts.
• No written quote, or a quote that does not say what the surface is.
• Any claim to be working for the council.

If a caller arrives, you can simply say no. Report persistent or aggressive callers to Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer service.

How does our ranking work?

You can search for a builder near you and compare the people it shows. Our ranked list is ordered by verified-review score over the last 12 months, then by distance. Nobody pays to move up it. A labelled Featured slot sits above the list, and it never changes the order of the list itself. An enquiry goes to one builder only, so it is not passed around a group of firms.

The directory is still being filled town by town, so the list below may be short for your area. Confirm any claim a firm makes about schemes or insurance with the scheme or the insurer, not with us.

What to do next

Look at your front garden and decide what you want: a driveway, a patio or both. Then check the planning position with your council, and the dropped kerb if you need one. With that settled, ask three firms for written quotes that state the surface, the base and the drainage. Compare the quotes against the questions above and not only on price. For the wider picture on permissions, see our guide to building regulations for home improvements.