Resin driveways have been a popular choice for homeowners looking to upgrade their driveway space for quite a while.
Quite attractive and aesthetically pleasing, when installed correctly and properly maintained it’s tough to beat the look and feel of a resin driveway.
On top of that, resin driveways are fully SUDs compliant, too!
On the other hand, though, there are some significant disadvantages of resin driveways that homeowners will want to be aware of. We run through some of the biggest reasons homeowners in the UK will want to avoid using this material for their new driveway project.
Let’s get right into it, shall we?
Table of Contents
Complexity of Installation
Homeowners considering a resin driveway will really want to think about the complexity of the installation process before they jump right in.
Resin driveways are made from a resin pound surfacing material. The combination of aggregate and UV stable polyurethane resins can be quite resilient when it is installed properly – but there are a lot of things that can go wrong (even with experienced installers on the project).
Weather conditions, humidity issues, and even just simple mistakes that can be made during the resin mixing process can all lead to a disastrous poor and a poorly implemented resin driveway.
Worst of all, these kinds of mistakes usually have to be left alone to cure before the resin can be removed. And then homeowners have to start all over again, hoping that the problem (or a different one) won’t manifest next time, too.
Upfront and Ongoing Costs
Unlike traditional pavement and even concrete driveways resin driveway project are very expensive upfront.
Part of this has to do with the overall complexity of the installation, like we just mentioned a moment ago. These aren’t the kinds of projects that every driveway installer out there in the UK is comfortable attempting.
On top of that, the material necessary for a quality resin driveway is quite expensive. The resin itself and the aggregates used have to be very carefully selected. Not every manufacturer produces materials that can be used effectively.
High-quality aggregates – and especially decorative aggregates – are always going to add quite a bit to the overall price, too.
Wears Faster with Heavy Usage
Resin driveways look really spectacular, there’s no arguing that.
The problem, though, is that they lose their luster rather quickly under heavy usage.
Driveways (by their very nature) are going to get quite a workout. Vehicles coming and going, driving and turning on this surface are going to begin wearing down the resin material almost immediately.
Sure, the resin surface itself are pretty robust and quite durable. But it doesn’t take long for the outer, harden layers of resin to begin to show signs of wear and tear – and that leads to small cracks that spiderweb into larger cracks that eventually become unsustainable issues that need to be addressed.
The bad news there is that these cracks aren’t all that inexpensive to fix or seal backup.
Worse, these cracks are always going to be noticeable. Even if you are able to effectively seal and smooth over the surface (filling in the crack itself) it’s still going to be physically noticeable. You’ll have scarring all over your once beautiful driveway.
Surface Weeds and Moss Can Create Slick and Unsafe Conditions
Believe it or not, one of the biggest disadvantages to implementing a resin driveway is often overlooked (sometimes almost “invisible”).
We are talking about the way that resin naturally attracts different weeds, different grasses, and even different kinds of moss.
Traditionally this wouldn’t be much of a problem.
Concrete and pavement driveway surfaces are porous enough to be able to have this living material grow across its outermost layer without damaging the driveway all that much. On top of that, because of the porous nature of these materials there’s still plenty of traction to be had.
With resin – super smooth, impeccably level (because the material itself is self leveling) resin – that’s not the case.
Even just a little bit of moss or patches of weeds here and there can quickly create a slippery surface that is difficult to drive on and like ice to walk on.
This pretty quickly creates a whole host of accessibility issues that you simply wouldn’t have had to worry about with more traditional driveway materials.
If you decided to go with resin for your pathways and walkways as well (anything attached or adjacent to your driveway leading to the doors on your home) the odds are you’re going to be dealing with accessibility problems there as well.
Closing Thoughts
No, at the end of the day it’s really best to consider other types of driveway material when you are looking to tackle this project in the UK.
With so many different options out there (many of them just as durable but even more reliable than resin) it’s not hard to find something that looks fantastic, requires little maintenance, and will last and last.