The basic difference in how they are built
Block paving is a laid surface. Individual concrete or clay blocks, usually 50mm deep for domestic use, sit on a sharp sand or grit laying course over a compacted MOT Type 1 sub-base of around 100mm to 150mm. The blocks are held in place by edge restraints and kiln dried sand brushed into the joints. Nothing is glued down, which is both its strength and its weakness.
Resin bound gravel is a mixed and trowelled surface. Natural aggregate, typically 6mm or a 2 to 5mm blend, is mixed with a two part polyurethane resin in a forced action mixer and laid to about 15mm to 18mm on a driveway. It cures into one continuous, porous slab. Crucially, it needs a sound base underneath, normally existing tarmac or concrete in good condition, or a new one laid first.
- Block paving: many small units, sand joints, can be lifted and relaid
- Resin bound: one seamless porous layer bonded to a solid base
- Resin bonded is a different product entirely: loose stone scattered onto resin, not permeable, and not what most people mean
Drainage and planning permission in Shropshire
Since 2008, laying more than five square metres of impermeable surface in a front garden needs planning permission unless the water drains to a permeable area or soakaway within your own boundary. Shropshire Council applies this like any other authority, and it matters more than people expect on the older streets near the town centre where front gardens are small and there is nowhere obvious for run off to go.
Correctly specified resin bound over a permeable base is porous, so water passes straight through rather than sheeting towards the pavement. Block paving can be permeable too, but only if you use permeable blocks with wider joints filled with clean grit and a properly designed open graded sub-base. A standard block driveway on sand with a bound base is not permeable, whatever the brochure implies. If your property sits low near the Severn or Rea Brook, get the drainage design right before you worry about colour.
Cost, lifespan and what goes wrong
As a realistic guide for Shropshire in 2026, resin bound over a sound existing tarmac or concrete base tends to land somewhere around £55 to £100 per square metre. If the old surface has to come up and a new base be laid, expect the total closer to £110 to £160 per square metre. Block paving typically runs from about £70 to £120 per square metre installed, though premium clay blocks and intricate borders push that higher. Access, spoil removal, edgings and drainage all move the figure, so treat any price quoted without a site visit with suspicion.
Both should give you fifteen to twenty five years with reasonable care. They deteriorate differently. Block paving sinks and rocks where the sub-base was skimped, sand washes out of the joints, and weeds and ants take hold in those joints within a few seasons. Resin bound does not have joints, so it does not sink locally, but it will crack if the base beneath it cracks or moves, and a poor resin to stone ratio or laying in the wrong conditions causes loose stone and patchy colour.
Living with each one through a Shropshire winter
Our damp, shaded, clay heavy plots are hard on driveways. North facing frontages under mature trees green over quickly with algae on either surface, though the smooth resin finish rinses clean more easily and does not need re-sanding afterwards. Realistically, resin bound wants a brush over, an occasional wash and a moss treatment once or twice a year. Block paving needs the same plus weeding, joint sand topping up and, every few years, a proper clean and re-sand.
Frost is fine for both when built correctly. Where resin bound has the edge is that being porous, water does not pool and freeze on the surface. Where block paving has the edge is repairs. If a utility company digs up your drive or a section sinks, blocks lift and go back and you would struggle to spot it. A resin repair is a patch, and matching an aged stone colour exactly is not always possible.
So which should you choose?
Choose resin bound if you already have a sound tarmac or concrete drive, you want a seamless finish with no weeds through the joints, you need permeability for planning, or you use a wheelchair, pram or bicycle regularly on it. Choose block paving if there is no usable base and budget is tight, if you want a traditional look that suits a period Shrewsbury property, if the drive takes heavy vehicles such as a horsebox or works van, or if you value being able to lift and relay sections later.
If you are undecided, the deciding question is usually what is under your feet now. A cracked, patched old concrete drive changes the sums considerably, and any installer worth using will tell you so before quoting.
