Rock Crete · Permeable Base System
Resin bound surfaces rarely fail. The base underneath them does. Rock Crete is a fully permeable, monolithic base that bonds to the surface above it — laid straight over sound concrete or asphalt, with no excavation, no dumpster on the driveway, and the whole job finished in a day.
The problem
Ask any installer who has been called back to a failed driveway and the story is nearly always the same. The surface did what it was supposed to. The ground under it moved.
A compacted aggregate base is thousands of separate stones held together by nothing but friction. Under a car, over a wet winter, they migrate. The surface above has nothing to span the void, so it dishes — and then it splits.
Poured concrete does not flex. When it cracks — and slabs crack — the crack travels straight up through anything bonded to it. A perfect resin bound job over a cracking slab will show that crack within two seasons.
Water passes through the resin bound surface exactly as designed, hits a sealed asphalt layer, and stops. In a freeze–thaw climate it expands, breaks the bond, and the surface begins to lift at the edges.
Rock Crete removes all three failure modes at once. It is bound, so nothing migrates. It is flexible, so it absorbs movement instead of transmitting it. It is fully permeable, so water keeps travelling down and out.
What Rock Crete is
Rock Crete is graded aggregate bound in a polyurethane resin and laid in two courses — Rock Crete Base for structure and Rock Crete Top as the bonding layer — over a structural reinforcement mesh.
Laid within the intercoat window, the base and the resin bound surface above it cure into one bonded structure rather than two layers sitting on each other. That is the word doing all the work here: monolithic. Loads spread across the whole slab instead of concentrating where the wheel sits, and the surface and base flex together, so movement in the ground below never becomes a crack you can see.
Because the aggregate is bound rather than compacted, the voids between the stones stay open permanently. Water drains through the wearing course, through the base, and into the ground beneath — the full SuDS path, with no separate drainage run, no channel drain and no soakaway.
Rock Crete laid over an existing surface
The system
Scroll to build the system up layer by layer, then drag to rotate it. Read from the ground up.
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The full Rock Crete build-up, ground up
The part nobody else offers
Most driveways being resurfaced in America do not need excavating. They need covering.
If the existing concrete or asphalt is sound — no heave, no significant settlement, no active subsidence — Rock Crete goes straight over the top of it.
That removes the demolition, the dumpster, the disposal fee, the sub-base regrade and the week of a torn-up driveway. It is the difference between a job that takes a day and a job that takes a fortnight, and it is usually the difference between a homeowner saying yes and saying “let me think about it”.
The honest caveat: if the existing surface is heaving, sinking or breaking up, that has to be dealt with first — covering a moving slab only hides the problem for a season. Send us a photo and we will tell you which one you have.
Compared
The four things a resin bound surface actually gets built on, side by side.
| Rock Crete | Poured concrete | Asphalt | Compacted crushed stone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fully permeable | Yes | No | No, unless open-graded | Yes, until it silts up |
| Bond to the resin surface | Monolithic | Mechanical only | Mechanical only | No bond |
| Under ground movement | Flexes with it | Cracks, telegraphs up | Deforms and ruts | Settles |
| Excavation required | None over a sound surface | Full dig-out | Full dig-out | Full dig-out |
| Install time, typical drive | One day | 2–3 days plus cure | 1–2 days plus cooling | 1–2 days |
| Wait before the surface goes on | Same day, within the intercoat window | 21–28 days | Up to 30 days off-gassing | Immediate |
| Flexural strength | FLEXURAL FIGURE + ASTM STANDARD | High but brittle | Baseline | Not applicable |
| Load rating | LOAD FIGURE | High, rigid | Moderate | Depends on compaction |
| Freeze–thaw | Water drains — nothing to expand | Trapped water spalls the slab | Trapped water lifts the bond | Frost heave |
| Stormwater / SuDS compliant | Yes | No | No | Initially |
| Recycled content | Yes | No | Some | Varies |
| Material cost per sq ft | $ FIGURE | $ FIGURE | $ FIGURE | Cheapest |
Crushed stone is cheaper per square foot and always will be. It is the right answer under a shed and the wrong answer under a bonded surface you want to look the same in ten years.
Specification
Everything a specifier, a building inspector or a careful contractor will ask for. The same figures appear on the downloadable datasheet.
Build-ups
One page each: layer stack, thickness, mesh spec, coverage, load rating and the full materials list.
Garden paths, side returns, walkways and anything that will never see a wheel.
Download PDF →Foot traffic with standing water and bare feet. Anti-slip glass specified as standard.
Download PDF →Cars, light trucks and daily turning loads on a domestic drive.
Download PDF →Delivery access, forecourts, parking and municipal work.
Download PDF →If a crack appears in a Rock Crete base within five years of a certified installation, we repair it. In writing, on the datasheet, no argument. TERMS TO BE SET — certified installers, registered installations, sound-substrate conditions
Questions
Yes, if the concrete is sound. That means no active heave, no significant settlement and no sections breaking up. Hairline cracking and surface wear are fine — that is exactly what Rock Crete is designed to cover and bridge. Send us a photo and we will tell you honestly which category yours falls into.
Three checks. Stand on any cracked section and see whether it rocks or moves — movement means it needs addressing first. Look for level differences of more than about a quarter inch across a crack, which suggests settlement rather than shrinkage. And check whether water pools in the same spot after every storm, which usually means the slab has dropped. Any of the three and an installer should look at it before quoting.
Fully. Water passes through the bound stone structure and into the ground below, which is what makes the finished system SuDS compliant without a separate drainage run, channel drain or soakaway.
ANSWER PENDING THE AGREED FIGURE AND TEST STANDARD. Rock Crete is designed to flex rather than fracture, spreading load across the whole bonded slab instead of concentrating it under the wheel.
Not over a sound existing surface. Rock Crete is laid directly onto sound concrete or asphalt, which removes the demolition, the disposal and most of the timeline. Over bare ground you will need a properly compacted sub-base beneath it.
1.5 inches for foot traffic and 2 inches for vehicular areas, with heavy vehicle and commercial build-ups specified separately. The four downloadable build-up guides give the full layer stack for each traffic class.
A typical residential driveway is a single day for base and surface together, because the resin bound wearing course is laid within the intercoat window rather than waiting for a separate cure.
Yes on both counts. Because the system drains rather than holding water, there is nothing trapped in it to freeze and expand — which is the mechanism that destroys sealed bases in cold climates. The finished surface takes snowplowing and routine winter maintenance.
Yes. Laid within the recommended intercoat period, Rock Crete Top and the resin bound wearing course cure into a single monolithic structure, so every layer moves as one.
RANGE TO BE ADDED. Cost is driven by laid thickness, the condition of the existing surface, site access and the aggregate blend chosen for the wearing course. Use the coverage calculator for a material figure on your own square footage.
Small paths and patios are within reach of a confident DIYer working from the build-up guide. Driveways are not a first project — pot life is short, the intercoat window is unforgiving, and a base laid badly is expensive to put right. For anything vehicular, use a certified installer.
Next step
Send a photo of your driveway or patio. We will tell you whether it can be laid over what you already have, and match you with a certified installer near you.
Run the coverage calculator, download the build-up for your traffic class, and order base, top and stone in one place.
