Is Resin Bound Stone any good for drainage?

How good is Resin Bound Stone drainage?

Ever looked out of your window and noticed the puddles all over your driveway?  Or wondered how you are going to get to your car without the need for a boat? Maybe in the Winter where all that water has frozen and you have to “Torvill and Dean” your way to the front gate. Not all concrete and tarmac surfaces are porous.  Instead of the water draining away, it just sits annoyingly on the top where the surface dips and bottoms out.

There is a really easy solution to this problem…Resin Bound Stone.

It is achieved by mixing stones of different sizes with resin. They are then thoroughly coated and bound together into a strong but flexible blend. As the stones are angular, this will leave small gaps for any surface water to drain right through.

Resin Bound Stone is a more attractive alternative to these other surfaces.  It also has the added advantage of being porous, making it SuDS compliant. SuDS stands for Sustainable Drainage Systems. It is how the Environment Agency monitors the successful runoff of rainwater in both urban and rural areas.

What do SuDS Systems actually do?

• They reduce down the level of surface water build up 
• Increase the infiltration of water into the ground mimicking natural drainage
• Reduces the risk of “flash-flooding”, when rainwater rapidly flows into the public sewerage and drainage systems.

The Environment Agency guidance of October 2008 states the following: (a little lengthy but quite interesting!)

If the surface to be covered is more than five square metres planning permission will be

needed for laying traditional, impermeable driveways that do not provide for the water to run to a permeable area.

Applying for planning permission will require you to fill in an application form, draw plans

(which have to be to scale) and pay a fee of £150. Planning applications for this type of

householder development should normally be decided within 8 weeks after submission.

So, if you don’t want to fall foul of the regulations, it’s going to cost you a lot of time and money here. The report also looks at the Environmental concerns of poor drainage.

The drains in most urban areas were built many years ago and were not designed to cope with increased rainfall. Paving front gardens further adds to the problem. Although paving over one or two gardens may not seem to make a difference, the combined effect of lots of people in a street or area doing this can increase the risk of flooding.

The harm caused by paving gardens is not limited to just flooding. Hard surfaces such as concrete and asphalt collect pollution (oil, petrol, brake dust etc) that is washed off into the drains. Many drains carry rainwater directly to streams or rivers where the pollution damages wildlife and the wider environment. In older areas, the rainwater may go into the foul water sewer which normally takes household waste from bathrooms and kitchens to the sewage treatment works. These overflow into streams and rivers in heavy rainfall. As more water runs into foul sewers from paved areas there are more frequent overflows, passing untreated sewage into watercourses.

So, it also looks like paving, concrete and tarmac can be pretty bad for the environment?

So why choose Resin Bound Stone over concrete and tarmac?

• Well, you will have no more puddles
• A reduced risk of slipping on ice
• No planning permission needed
• It is more visually beautiful than concrete and tarmac
• This surface is extremely low maintenance and virtually weed resistant
• Will have minimal fade and discolour during its lifetime
• Will not crack in adverse weather conditions, is durable and will probably last more than twice as long as tar, concrete and paving/slabs with pointing joints.

Resin Bound Stone comes in a massive variety of colours, which we at Erinstone look forward to showing you.

The question shouldn’t be why would you use Resin Bound Stone, it’s more likely why wouldn’t you?

Contact our friendly staff now for more information.