It depends on the work, because different surfaces fail in different ways and on different timescales.
These are our own workmanship guarantees, and they sit alongside any product warranty from the manufacturer. We’ll confirm exactly what’s covered for your project in writing before work starts.
Yes. We carry public liability insurance, we’re certified in resin-bound driveway installation, and we’re a registered Tobermore paving installer for the Brighton area. Tobermore only approves installers who meet their standards, and it means we can offer their products with the manufacturer’s backing behind our own guarantee.
Our lead time is typically two to three months. It’s often shorter over the winter, so if your project is flexible on timing, that’s usually the quickest way to get a date. If you have a deadline in mind, tell us early and we’ll be straight with you about whether it’s achievable.
No. Site visits and quotes are free. We’ll come and look at the space, talk through what you want, and put a written quote together.
Quotes are valid for one month. That isn’t a sales tactic — material prices have been genuinely volatile, and we’d rather hold a price we can actually honour for a month than quote a number that’s out of date by the time you accept it.
We use stage payments rather than asking for large sums upfront.
We take a 10% deposit once you’ve confirmed the job and we’ve agreed a start date. After that, we produce a payment schedule for your project setting out exactly when you’ll receive an invoice and for how much, so there are no surprises. The schedule is kept up to date as the work progresses.
Only if you’d like to. We have structural engineers, garden designers and electricians we work with regularly and can bring in as your project needs them. If you already have trades you know and trust, we’re equally happy to work alongside them.
Usually not — but it depends on drainage. Since 2008, a front-garden driveway over five square metres needs planning permission if it uses an impermeable surface draining straight onto the road. Use a permeable surface, or drain the run-off to a soakaway or border inside your boundary, and it stays within permitted development. We design every driveway to be compliant and we'll tell you at quote stage which category yours falls into. Conservation areas can be tighter, so we'd check with the council first.
If you're creating a new access from the road, yes — and it's a separate application to the council's highways department, not part of planning permission. It has to be carried out by an approved contractor. We can advise on what's involved and coordinate the timing, so your driveway isn't finished before you can actually drive onto it.
Expect the area to be unusable for the duration of the works — excavation, sub-base, then surfacing. How long depends on the size, the surface you choose and how much the ground needs preparing, and some surfaces need curing time before you can park on them. We'll give you a realistic day-by-day plan with your quote so you can arrange parking in advance.
Locating utilities is the property owner's responsibility under our terms and conditions — that's standard across the trade, because you're the one with the deeds, the searches and the history of the property. If you'd rather not deal with it, we can carry out the utility location for you for a small fee. Either way, it gets done properly before a spade goes in the ground. Nobody wants to find a gas main the hard way.
It happens more often than people expect, particularly on older Sussex properties. We stop, tell you what we've found, and explain the options and the cost implication before we carry on. You won't get a surprise invoice at the end. Where there's a known risk of surprises, we'll flag it in the quote so you can budget for it.
Usually. Terraced houses, narrow side returns and rear gardens with no vehicle access are common across Brighton and Hove, and we're set up for them — smaller plant, and hand-barrowing where machinery genuinely can't get in. It affects the labour cost and the programme rather than whether the job is possible. Send us photos of the access and we'll tell you honestly what's involved.
Yes. We can design and build the whole project ourselves, and we work with garden designers we can bring in for larger or more planting-led schemes. Most clients come to us somewhere in between — with a rough idea and a folder of photos — and we work it up into something buildable that fits the budget.
There will be mess — landscaping involves excavation, deliveries and waste removal, and there's no getting around that. What we can control is how contained it is. We protect access routes, keep materials tidy, and clear the site properly at the end. Waste removal is included in the quote, so you won't be left with a skip and a pile of spoil.
We work year-round. Hard landscaping — paving, walls, groundworks — can be done in most weather, though prolonged frost or heavy rain will slow things down. Soft landscaping is more seasonal: planting and turfing establish best in autumn and spring. If your project involves both, we can often build the hard structure over winter and plant in spring. Winter also tends to be when our lead times are shortest.
It depends on height and position. As a general rule, a wall over one metre next to a road or footpath, or over two metres elsewhere, will need permission. A retaining wall within roughly 3.7 metres of a street also needs approval under the Highways Act. Building regulations come into it too — anything retaining a significant amount of soil, or supporting a building, driveway or path, needs proper structural design. We'll tell you which of these apply to your garden before you commit to anything.
If it's holding back roughly a metre of soil or more, or supporting anything — a driveway, a path, a building — then yes, it should be engineer-designed. That isn't caution for its own sake: retaining walls fail, and they fail suddenly, usually after heavy rain when water pressure builds up behind them. We work with structural engineers we can bring in, or we're happy to work with one you appoint.
It's the single most common reason retaining walls collapse. Water builds up in the soil behind the wall and the pressure increases dramatically — far beyond what the wall was ever designed to hold. That's why we build in weep holes, drainage pipe and free-draining backfill behind every wall. It's the part you can't see, and it's the part that determines whether the wall is still standing in twenty years. It's also why we guarantee our walls against structural failure for seven years.
It depends on how you'll use the space and the look you're after. Sandstone is warm-toned, widely used and good value. Limestone gives a more uniform, contemporary finish. Granite and slate are the hardest-wearing. Some stones are more porous than others, which affects staining and how much maintenance you'll want to do. We'll bring samples and show you how each one looks wet as well as dry — British patios spend a lot of their life wet.
Any paving will grow algae in a shaded, damp spot — that's the climate, not the stone. Textured and riven finishes give more grip than smooth honed ones. A yearly clean keeps it under control, and sealing helps with staining and makes cleaning easier. If the patio is somewhere permanently shaded, we'll steer you towards a finish that copes with it.
It's optional, and it depends on the stone. Sealing helps porous stones like some sandstones resist staining from wine, barbecue grease and leaf tannins, and it makes cleaning easier. It doesn't make the stone bulletproof and it needs redoing periodically. We'll tell you honestly whether your chosen stone benefits from it, rather than selling you a treatment you don't need.
With good-quality treated timber, proper ventilation underneath and a bit of maintenance, a well-built deck should give you many years of use. The things that shorten a deck's life are poor drainage, no airflow under the boards, and never re-treating it. Build quality matters more than the timber grade — most decks that fail early do so at the frame, not the surface.
Realistically: a proper clean once a year, and re-oiling or re-treating every year or two depending on how exposed it is. Left alone, timber greys off, and in a damp shaded spot it will get slippery. If that sounds like more upkeep than you want, composite decking is worth considering instead.
Usually not, if it's low-level. Raised platforms, balconies and verandas can need permission, and decking that lifts the platform significantly can also raise overlooking and privacy issues with neighbours. If your garden slopes and the deck needs to sit high at one end, that's worth checking before we start. We'll flag it if we think it applies to your project.
Resin-bound is the one most people want: the aggregate is mixed with the resin and laid as a smooth, seamless, permeable surface. Resin-bonded is loose aggregate scattered onto a resin layer — rougher underfoot, and not permeable. Bound costs more and is better in almost every respect. When we quote for resin, we mean resin-bound unless you specifically ask otherwise.
Resin-bound laid on a properly permeable sub-base lets water drain straight through, which generally keeps it within permitted development, with no planning application needed. The critical word is “properly”: a permeable surface is no use if the base underneath it isn't. That's why the build-up matters as much as the finish, and it's where cheap resin installations cut corners.
Done correctly, resin resists cracking, weeds and puddling — those are its main advantages over block paving. It can lighten slightly over years of UV exposure, which is normal. The failures you read about online — resin lifting, going brittle, cracking within a couple of years — are nearly always base failures or resin laid in the wrong conditions, not a problem with the material. We're certified resin-bound installers and we guarantee our resin driveways for ten years, which should tell you how confident we are in the way we build them.
You can usually walk on it within a day or two, but it needs considerably longer before it takes vehicle weight — concrete keeps gaining strength for weeks after it's poured. We'll tell you exactly when it's safe for your specific pour, and it's worth respecting: driving on green concrete is one of the few ways to permanently ruin a slab that was laid perfectly well.
Some fine surface cracking is normal in any concrete and isn't a structural problem. What prevents the serious cracking is what goes in underneath — a properly compacted sub-base, the right thickness, reinforcement where it's needed, and movement joints in the right places. We design for it rather than hoping.
Yes, within limits. Concrete doesn't cure properly in freezing conditions, so hard frost will stop us. In cold-but-not-freezing weather we can use protection and adjust the mix. Sustained heavy rain during or just after a pour is the other problem. We'd rather delay a day than pour into bad conditions and hand you a slab that's compromised from the start.
It costs more upfront and less over its life. You don't oil it, treat it or stain it — you wash it. It won't rot, warp or splinter, and it holds its colour far better than timber. If you want a deck you can largely ignore, composite is the answer. If you want the look and feel of real wood and you don't mind maintaining it, timber still wins on character.
Composite can get warm underfoot in direct summer sun, more so in darker colours — worth thinking about if you're barefoot or have a dog. Most modern boards have a textured or grooved surface that grips well in the wet, and composite is generally less prone to going green than untreated timber. We'll show you samples so you can judge the texture for yourself.
Modern capped composite boards hold their colour well, though most lighten slightly in the first few months of UV exposure and then settle. That's normal, and it happens evenly. Cheaper uncapped boards fade and stain far more. We'll tell you which range we're quoting for and what the manufacturer's own warranty covers.
Usually not, if it stays within permitted development. In broad terms: single storey, not in front of the house, and no more than half the land around the original house covered by buildings. Height is the one that catches people out — if any part of it sits within two metres of a boundary, the whole structure must be no more than 2.5 metres tall. Further from the boundary you can go higher. Listed buildings and conservation areas are treated differently. We'll check your specific site before designing anything.
Separately from planning, sometimes yes. As a rough guide, small outbuildings under 15 square metres internally with no sleeping accommodation are usually exempt; between 15 and 30 square metres they can still be exempt, depending on how close they are to a boundary and what they're built from. Anything with sleeping accommodation needs approval regardless of size. All electrical work must comply with Part P whatever the size of the building — we have electricians we work with who handle that side.
Yes to all of it. Home offices, gyms, studios and workshops are exactly what permitted development is designed for — the rules describe it as use “incidental to the enjoyment of the dwelling”. What you can't do without full planning permission is use it as self-contained living accommodation or as separate commercial premises. Insulation, power, lighting and heating are all straightforward to build in, and worth doing properly if you'll use it year-round.
Not through the blocks — through the joints, from seed landing on top. Modern polymeric jointing compounds resist this far better than plain kiln-dried sand, and a properly compacted build-up with a weed membrane stops anything growing from below. Some maintenance is still sensible, but you shouldn't be weeding a block driveway every fortnight.
That's block paving's biggest practical advantage: it's repairable. Individual blocks can be lifted and relaid, or swapped out entirely, without touching the rest of the surface. Oil stains, a sunken patch by a drain, damage from a delivery lorry — all fixable locally. It's worth keeping a few spare blocks from the original batch, and we'll leave you some. We also guarantee our block paving for six years.
Standard block paving isn't, but permeable block paving is — it uses wider joints filled with clean grit over an open-graded sub-base, so water drains straight through. For a front driveway over five square metres, that difference determines whether you need planning permission. If you want the block paving look without a planning application, permeable is the way to do it. We're a registered Tobermore installer for the Brighton area, so we can supply and lay their full range, permeable included.
It's usually usable within a day, but it stays soft for a while and keeps hardening for several weeks. During that period, avoid turning your steering wheel while stationary, don't park a jack or a trailer leg on it, and keep motorbike stands and other heavy point loads off it. Most early tarmac damage comes from point pressure in the first few weeks, not from driving.
Standard tarmac isn't permeable — but porous asphalt is, and you can also lay standard tarmac and drain the run-off to a soakaway or border within your property. Either route keeps you within permitted development. Laying impermeable tarmac over five square metres in a front garden and letting it drain onto the road is the one thing that triggers a planning application.
A properly laid tarmac drive on a good sub-base will give you many years of service with very little upkeep. The main enemies are tree roots, standing water and fuel spills, which soften the bitumen. Keeping the edges properly restrained and the drainage working does most of the work. It can be sealed to refresh the colour, though that's cosmetic rather than structural.
Because it's harder to work with. Porcelain is dense and non-porous, which is exactly why it's so durable — but it means it won't bond with standard mortar. It needs a slurry primer on the back of every slab and a proper porcelain-grade adhesive, and cutting it needs the right blades. The material cost is only part of the picture. A cheap porcelain installation is usually one where the priming has been skipped, and those slabs come loose.
External-grade porcelain is manufactured with a textured surface and rated for outdoor slip resistance — it's typically better in the wet than a smooth honed natural stone. What you must not do is use indoor porcelain tiles outside. They look similar in a showroom and they are not the same product. We only lay external-grade slabs.
Largely, no. Porcelain is non-porous, so it doesn't absorb wine, grease or leaf tannins the way sandstone can, and it doesn't need sealing. It's frost-resistant and it won't fade. Maintenance is essentially washing it. That low-maintenance quality is what people are really paying the premium for.
Autumn and spring are ideal — the ground is warm enough for roots to establish and there's usually enough natural rainfall. Turf can be laid at other times, including summer, but summer turf needs a serious watering commitment from you, and mid-winter frost will stop us. If your timeline is flexible, autumn is the easiest time to get a lawn away.
More than most people expect. New turf needs consistent, generous watering for the first few weeks while it roots into the soil beneath — daily in warm weather, and a proper soaking rather than a light sprinkle. This is the single biggest factor in whether a new lawn succeeds. We'll leave you clear instructions, but the honest answer is that a new lawn is a commitment for its first month.
Keep off it as much as possible for the first two to three weeks while it roots. You can usually tell it has rooted when you can't lift a corner. Light foot traffic after that. Dogs are the harder question: they'll want to run on it immediately, and paws on unrooted turf will tear the seams. If you've got an enthusiastic dog, it's worth planning a temporary route around the lawn for the first few weeks.
Often not — but in a conservation area, or where an Article 4 direction applies, cladding or rendering an exterior wall does need permission, and there are plenty of both across Brighton and Hove. Listed buildings need listed building consent. Given how much of the city is covered, this is always worth checking before you commit to a colour. We'll tell you if we think your property is affected.
Traditional sand-and-cement is the most economical, but it's rigid and prone to hairline cracking as a building moves. Modern silicone and acrylic renders are more flexible, come through-coloured so they don't need painting, and shed dirt better — they cost more upfront and less over time. On older solid-wall properties, breathability matters: trapping moisture in a wall that was built to breathe causes damp problems, and lime render is often the right answer. The building should determine the render, not the other way round.
Not on its own, and this is important. Render is a weather coating, not a damp-proofing system. If you've got penetrating damp from a failed gutter, a cracked wall, bridged cavities or a defective damp-proof course, rendering over it can trap the moisture and make things worse. We'll want to understand why the wall is wet before we cover it up. If the underlying problem needs fixing first, we'll tell you.
Usually, closely — and where an exact match isn't available, we'll be straight with you about it. Older bricks in particular are often no longer made, and colour varies even within a batch. Reclaimed bricks are frequently the best answer for period properties. Mortar matters as much as the brick: getting the colour and joint profile right does more for a seamless match than the brick alone.
Repointing is right when the mortar is receding, crumbling or letting water in — not simply because it looks tired. The big risk is using the wrong mortar. Hard cement mortar on a soft old brick forces moisture to escape through the brick face instead of the joint, and the bricks spall and crumble. Older Sussex properties often need lime mortar. Repointing done wrong causes more damage than leaving it alone.
Within limits. Mortar doesn't cure in frost, so we don't lay bricks in freezing conditions or when frost is forecast overnight — the mortar will fail and the work will have to come down. In cold-but-clear weather we can protect new work with hessian and sheeting. Sustained rain is the other constraint. We'd rather lose a day than build something that fails in its first month.
Usually, yes, once we understand where the water is actually going. It might be a blocked or collapsed drain, a soakaway that's silted up or was never big enough, ground that's been compacted or built up, or a hard surface laid with falls in the wrong direction. The fix depends entirely on the cause, so we'll come and investigate rather than guess. Our building background helps here — we're used to tracing water problems back to their source rather than treating the symptom.
There's an order of preference set out in the building regulations: a soakaway first, then a watercourse, then a surface water sewer, and only as a last resort a combined sewer. Connecting clean rainwater into the foul sewer isn't permitted on new work — it overloads the system and causes sewage overflows in heavy rain. So the first question on any drainage job is whether your ground will take a soakaway, which needs a percolation test to establish.
It depends on the soil and on space. Clay drains slowly and can make a soakaway impractical, or require a much larger one; a high water table can rule it out entirely. There are also siting rules — a soakaway needs to sit a safe distance from buildings and boundaries, which is a real constraint on a small town garden. A percolation test tells us for certain before anyone starts digging.
The Glodowski Family BrightonMore than happy with the work James and his team completed in our garden (new fencing and patio). No question was ever a problem and he happily sent through multiple quotes whilst we tried to make up our minds on what type of fencing and patio to go for. James and his team worked hard to ensure the project was completed on time and within budget. Will gladly use Core Construction again in the future.
