Most resin jobs in North Birmingham are small. A single-car or tight two-car drive of 15 to 30m² replaces a front lawn, a cracked concrete strip or an old tarmac drive on a 1930s semi or an interwar estate house. At that size, resin is often a little cheaper than block paving and gives a smooth, permeable finish.
Two local things shape the job. Parts of this patch have flooded badly in recent storms, so how the drive handles rain matters. And three councils set different minimum sizes for a front parking space before they will lower the kerb.
Ground and Gate doesn't do the work. We pass your enquiry to one local driveway specialist who covers B6, B20, B23, B24, B42, B43 and B44, and they confirm a fixed price with you directly.
What a resin driveway costs in North Birmingham
| Job | Indicative price |
|---|---|
| Resin-bound on a new base, per m² | £75–£115 |
| Resin-bound over sound tarmac or concrete, per m² | £55–£80 |
| Digging out a lawn for a new base, per m² | £10–£18 |
| Edgings, per metre | £25–£45 |
| Two-car drive over sound tarmac (about 30m²) | £2,200–£3,390 |
| Two-car drive on grass, new base (about 30m²) | £3,100–£4,980 |
A one-car overlay here usually hits the £1,500 minimum. A single drive on a former lawn starts from about £1,660, the minimum for resin on a new base, with digging out and edging included. Many older drives in this patch were laid thin and have sunk where cars stand, and those cannot be overlaid. The block paving vs resin cost guide compares the two surfaces line by line.
What pushes the price up here
- A failed old drive. Resin shows every crack in the base beneath it. A sunken or broken drive has to be dug out and rebuilt, which costs more than an overlay.
- Heavy clay. Clay under much of the patch holds water, so a fully permeable base may need a channel or soakaway as well. See drainage and soakaways.
- Working to footway level. Sandwell and Walsall both say the drive must meet the existing pavement level, which can mean extra digging or a step at the house.
- Access. Terraces with no side access mean mixing in the road and barrowing through, which adds 15–20%.
- A dropped kerb. Priced separately and arranged through the council. See dropped kerbs.
Flood risk in Perry Barr, Witton and Perry Beeches
The River Tame runs through the south of this patch. The Environment Agency, with Birmingham City Council, built new flood walls and gates between Brookvale Road in Witton and Gravelly Park in Aston, plus extra flood storage upstream at Forge Mill in the Sandwell Valley. The Agency said about 1,400 properties were at risk from that stretch of river, including 950 homes, and that the improved Witton wall and gates stopped properties flooding in May 2018 and February 2020.
Surface water is the more common problem away from the river. Birmingham, as lead local flood authority, investigated the June 2016 storms. On 8 June, 44 incidents of internal flooding were reported in 10 roads around the Beeches Estate in Perry Beeches, including Beeches Road, Haddon Road and Hassop Road, where the Perry Brook runs in a culvert. In Perry Barr, Church Road flooded when the Perry Brook came out of its channel, and the council noted it had flooded on at least three earlier occasions. In May 2018, homes on Queslett Road in Oscott and Spring Lane in Erdington also flooded internally from surface water.
In streets like these, a permeable resin-bound drive on a permeable base keeps rain on your plot instead of adding to the peak in the road drains. It also keeps you within the 5m² rule without a planning application. Resin over old tarmac only drains as well as the tarmac underneath, so on a drive that falls towards the house, ask about a channel at the door. Our 5m² rule guide explains the options.
Sizing the drive for your council
A resin drive is only useful if the council will lower the kerb in front of it. Each council sets a minimum forecourt size, so build to it.
| Council | Minimum depth | Minimum width |
|---|---|---|
| Birmingham | 4.75m from back of footway | 2.75m (one car), 4.5m (two) |
| Sandwell (Hamstead, parts of Great Barr) | 4.2m to the building line | 2.75m |
| Walsall (Pheasey) | 4.8m from the house to the boundary | 2.8m |
Birmingham also says it is likely to refuse a crossing that needs a grass verge removing, which matters on the Kingstanding and Perry Common estates. Sandwell wants your drive finished before it builds the kerb. On the Walsall side of Great Barr, the 1991 Article 4 direction removes the right to make a new access onto a minor road without planning permission for homes it covers. The North Birmingham driveways page covers fees and the kerb process.
What the job involves
- Survey. The specialist measures the forecourt against your council's minimum, checks the old surface and looks at where water goes now.
- Base and edges. The old drive is repaired and primed, or dug out for a new permeable base laid to fall away from the house, then edged.
- Laying. Resin and dried stone are mixed in batches and trowelled to an even depth in one go.
- Curing. Walkable within hours, drivable after a day or two. Resin can't go down in rain, so dates may move.
Questions about resin driveways in North Birmingham
My Kingstanding front garden has a grass verge outside. Can I still get a resin drive?
You can lay the drive, but using it needs a dropped kerb, and Birmingham's policy says a crossing that needs a grass verge removing is likely to be refused. Check with the council before you spend money on the drive.
Is my Hamstead front garden deep enough for resin parking?
Sandwell asks for at least 4.2 metres from the back of the footpath to your building line, and 2.75 metres of width. A parallel parking space is likely to be refused. Measure first, then size the resin to match.
Would resin have helped in the Perry Beeches flooding?
Not against river or sewer flooding, which played a part in 2016. But a permeable drive keeps rain from your own frontage out of the road drains, which helps in the short, intense storms that cause surface water flooding here.
Does Birmingham need a 0.5m solid strip if my drive is resin?
That rule is for loose surfaces such as gravel, which must have a 0.5 metre solid strip at the boundary. Resin-bound is a bound surface, so stones don't wash onto the pavement. Ask the specialist to finish the edge neatly against the footway.