Driveway Installation in Ringwood: Costs & What to Expect

Ringwood sits in a handy spot between the New Forest and the Dorset border, and we see the same thing time and again on jobs around Poulner and Hightown: a well-kept house let down by a cracked concrete drive that went down sometime in the eighties. Your driveway is the first thing visitors see and the hardest-working surface on the property. This guide covers what a proper installation involves, what it costs in 2026, and the drainage rule that catches plenty of homeowners out.

We install driveways across Ringwood, the Avon valley and the whole stretch between Bournemouth and Southampton as part of our exterior works and landscaping service. Block paving, resin bound, tarmac or gravel: the right answer depends on your plot, your budget and how much maintenance you're prepared to live with.

Which surface suits your plot?

The prices below are our current guide rates for the Ringwood area, supplied and fitted. Every plot is different, so we always survey before quoting.

• Block paving: £90 to £165 per square metre fitted. The classic choice for a reason. There's a huge range of colours and laying patterns, and individual blocks can be lifted and re-laid if you ever need access to services underneath.

• Resin bound: £75 to £110 per square metre laid over a sound existing base, or £145 to £180 with a full dig-out and new sub-base. Smooth underfoot, naturally permeable and very low maintenance.

• Tarmac: £55 to £90 per square metre. The workhorse option, and still the best value on long or sloping drives.

• Gravel: £40 to £65 per square metre including a proper sub-base and weed membrane. Cheap to extend later and free-draining, though it does wander onto the lawn.

What a proper installation involves

The surface you see is maybe a fifth of the job. On a standard car drive we excavate to around 250mm, lay and compact 150mm of MOT Type 1 sub-base, then screed a 50mm sand bed before a single block goes down. On the clay pockets near the Avon floodplain we'll often dig deeper; the gravelly ground on the Poulner side usually drains well and needs less.

That groundwork is why quotes vary so much. The sub-base and drainage typically account for 30 to 40% of the total cost, and it's the part you can't see once the job's finished. Skimp on it and the surface will rut and sink within a couple of winters. We'd rather explain that at survey stage than come back to re-lay a failed drive.

One more thing worth knowing: while the ground is open it's the cheapest possible time to run ducting for automated gates, outdoor lighting or an EV charger. Even if you're not ready to fit them yet, a length of buried duct now saves digging up a new drive later.

The drainage rule most people miss

Since 2008, paving more than five square metres of front garden with an impermeable surface has needed planning permission, unless the water drains to a permeable area inside your boundary. Plenty of owners only find out when they come to sell and the buyer's solicitor asks. The fix is straightforward: either a permeable surface such as resin bound or permeable block paving, or falls and channels that send water to a soakaway or lawn rather than the road.

We build the drainage in from the start. Falls of around 1 in 60 to 1 in 80 across the surface, a channel drain at the garage door where levels demand it, and a soakaway sized for the area being drained. Our drainage and civil works team digs the soakaways themselves, and can run a CCTV survey first if there are old land drains under the front garden, which we find often in older Ringwood properties.

Costs and timescales around Ringwood

For a typical 50 square metre double drive in block paving, budget £5,500 to £9,000 all-in, depending on the block you choose and how much breaking-out the old surface needs. A 40 square metre resin bound overlay on a sound base usually lands between £3,000 and £4,600.

Most of our driveway jobs run three to five days on site. Allow a couple of days more where there's a full dig-out, a soakaway to build or tight access. We give you a fixed programme with the quote, and you can normally park on block paving the day after the last cut block goes in. Resin needs 24 to 48 hours to cure before it takes a car.

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Thinking about a new drive?

If your driveway is on its last legs, or you're simply tired of the weeds, we'll come and take a look. Surveys are free, quotes are itemised so you can see exactly where the money goes, and the same team that digs the ground builds the drainage. Book a free driveway survey and we'll be in touch within a working day.