Driveway maintenance: the yearly routine for every surface

Driveway maintenance is not glamorous, and most drives get none until something goes wrong. That is a shame, because the jobs that keep a drive going are short. A few hours a year catch the small faults, a lost joint, a blocked channel, a soft edge, before they become a repair bill. This is the routine my team and I would follow on our own drives, split by season and then by surface.

Driveway maintenance through the year

• Spring. Clear the winter grime and moss, check joints and edges, and pull weeds while they are small. Spring is when to re-sand any joints the winter washed out.
• Summer. Keep oil and fuel spills off the surface, and on tarmac avoid turning the wheel while parked on hot days. Summer is also the best time for sealing, in a dry spell.
• Autumn. Leaves are the main enemy. Wet leaf litter stains, holds moisture and grows moss. Clear channel drains and gullies before the heavy rain.
• Winter. Clear snow with a plastic shovel, not a metal edge. Use de-icer sparingly and check the label for the surface you have.

Block paving

Block paving lives or dies by its joints. Keep them full of kiln-dried sand and most of the common problems, weeds, rocking blocks, loose edges, never start. The weeds guide explains why the sand matters more than any spray.

• Sweep it regularly with a stiff brush. That alone removes most of what weeds grow in.
• Wash it once a year at most, and re-sand straight after any pressure washing. The cleaning guide covers how to do it without stripping the joints.
• Watch for a dip that holds water after rain. A dip that grows is a base problem, not a surface one.
• Consider a sealer once the drive has settled. The sealing guide covers when it is worth it.

Tarmac

• Deal with oil and fuel quickly. Both soften tarmac, and the oil stain guide covers what to use.
• Avoid dry steering on a hot day, which scuffs the surface.
• Watch the edges. An unsupported tarmac edge crumbles first, which is why the edging guide matters as much as the surface.
• Small cracks can be filled before water gets in and frost opens them up.

Resin bound

• Sweep it and rinse it. A gentle wash is enough. Check the installer's or manufacturer's guidance before using a pressure washer close to the surface.
• Clear moss and algae in shaded areas, because resin is porous and moss in the pores slows the drainage.
• Keep leaves off. Permeable resin only drains if the voids stay open.

Gravel

• Rake it back into place, especially at the entrance and where cars turn.
• Top it up every few years as stones are carried off and pressed in.
• If it keeps migrating, a stabilising grid usually solves it, as covered in the gravel driveway guide.

Concrete and imprinted concrete

• Plain concrete wants little more than a wash.
• Imprinted concrete needs resealing every few years to keep its colour and stain resistance. The imprinted concrete guide explains why that is not optional.
• Keep an eye on cracks that cross the cut joints. Hairline cracks in the joints are expected; cracks that wander across the slab are worth asking about.

The drainage check every drive needs

Whatever the surface, look at where the water goes during heavy rain. Channel drains fill with grit and leaves, gullies block, and a gravel margin can silt up until it no longer soaks anything away. On clay ground, standing water against the house or across the pavement is the first sign. A blocked channel is a ten minute job with a trowel and a hose. Water that has nowhere to go is a design problem, and the drainage guide covers what the rules expect.

What to avoid

• Heavy pressure washing up close. It strips joints, marks block faces and can damage resin and tarmac.
• Rock salt by the bucket. It can mark some surfaces and harms plants alongside the drive.
• Weedkiller instead of sand. It treats the symptom on block paving while the joints keep collecting dirt.
• Skips and heavy plant on a drive not built for them. Put boards down, or the drive will show it.

When maintenance is not enough

If blocks are rocking across a wide area, tarmac has broken up into a pattern of cracks, or the same dip comes back after every repair, the base has failed and no routine will save it. The guide to signs a driveway needs replacing covers how to tell. For a clean, re-sand and seal in MK, see driveway cleaning in Milton Keynes, and for anything bigger, the Milton Keynes driveways page.