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.
