Hillside driveways and patios for Sheffield

Sheffield is known as the city of seven hills, and you feel every one of them when you’re carrying paving slabs. Victorian terraces step up the slopes in Walkley and Crookes, large stone villas line the roads of Nether Edge, Ranmoor and Fulwood, and suburbs like Dore, Totley and Woodseats mix interwar semis with newer homes. To the west, the city runs straight into the Peak District.

A common Sheffield problem is a drive that slopes down towards the house, or to a garage below road level. Every drop of rain on the drive, and often some from the road, runs straight to the lowest point. We put a properly sized channel drain across the bottom, connected to a soakaway or a suitable drain, and shape the surface so the water reaches it. Where the dropped kerb allows, we also form a slight rise at the entrance, which stops road water pouring in.

On slopes like these, block paving in Sheffield gives good grip, follows changes in level well and is easy to repair a few blocks at a time. A tarmac driveway is a strong choice for longer, steep drives, while resin works on gentler gradients. Edging set in concrete is essential on any slope, otherwise the surface slowly creeps downhill. In terraced back gardens, a patio on two or three levels linked by steps is usually more useful than one big flat area.

Sheffield City Council approves dropped kerbs across the city, from Stocksbridge and Chapeltown to Mosborough. On the western edge, around Dore, Totley and Fulwood, some homes border or fall inside the Peak District National Park, and inside that boundary it’s the park authority, not the city council, that decides planning matters. We’ll check which rules apply when we visit. Our side-by-side guide to block paving, resin and tarmac is worth a look before the survey, and Sheffield is part of our South Yorkshire coverage.