About
Carl spent ten years on highways groundwork before starting Stonebridge in 2008. A road is built to carry lorries for forty years; he saw no reason a drive carrying a hatchback should be built to carry it for five.
How we work
Every job starts with the digger and ends with a photograph of what is underneath before it disappears. The sub-base is 150 mm of crushed limestone in two compacted layers on a geotextile membrane, the edges are haunched in concrete, and the water is given a channel and a soakaway sized for the area. It takes a day longer than scraping the top off and laying on sand, and it is the difference between the drives we see sinking around Bridgend and ours.
The crew
Three of us, a digger, a tipper and a wacker plate. Nobody is subcontracted.
Owner and groundworker
Carl spent ten years on highways groundworks before starting Stonebridge in 2008, which is why our sub-bases look like road foundations. He still drives the digger on every excavation and photographs every base before it is covered.
Surveyor and office
Nia measures and draws every job, works out the drainage and the planning position, and prices it per square metre with nothing left out. She joined in 2014 and runs the dropped-kerb applications with three councils.
Paver
Liam started as our labourer in 2017 and now lays most of the block paving and all of the patio circles. He runs the cleaning and sealing van in the quieter months and is the one who tells people their drive does not need replacing.
Promises
Excavation to 250 mm, a geotextile membrane, 150 mm of compacted crushed stone in two layers, then the surface. It is why ours do not sink where the car sits.
A fall to a linear channel at the garage or a soakaway in the garden, sized for the area. No puddles, no planning application, no flooded neighbour.
Measured, drawn and priced with the base, edging, drainage, skips and VAT included. Changes are priced before they happen.
Sinking, rutting, cracking and loose edges, covered in writing for ten years. We have never had a claim that was not a tree root.
Nia visits, measures, works out the drainage and draws it. The price per square metre arrives within two days with the base, the edging, the drains and the skips in it.