Breaking Ground Ltd
Groundworks team building a compacted sub base for a large driveway

Our services

Everything below the surface, and everything above it

Five disciplines that overlap on almost every job we take on. Running them under one contractor is what keeps the levels, the drainage and the finished surfaces working together instead of against each other.

Choose a discipline

What we can build for you

Every project starts with the same question: what is happening underneath? Answer that honestly and the rest of the specification writes itself.

Excavator carrying out controlled demolition of an outbuilding with a muck away lorry alongside

01

Demolition and Site Clearance

Controlled demolition and full clearance that hands over a plot ready for setting out, not a mess for someone else to sort.

Most of the plots we take on start with something that has to come down: a tired garage, an old workshop, a run of concrete hardstanding, or a garden that has been left to its own devices for twenty years. We remove it under a written method statement, with the services traced and isolated first and the neighbours told what to expect.

  • Method statements
  • Licensed muck away
  • Plot handed over level
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Reinforced concrete foundations with steel rebar and timber shuttering on a residential building plot

02

Foundations and Groundworks

Dig, drainage and concrete set out to the engineer's drawings and signed off by building control without argument.

Groundworks is where a project is quietly won or lost. Trench depths, reinforcement cover, falls on drainage runs and the compaction of a sub base are either right or they are a problem that surfaces in year three. We work from the structural engineer's drawings, we record what we pour, and we invite building control in at every stage rather than hoping the inspection is missed.

  • Engineer led design
  • Building control sign off
  • Drainage and ducting
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New build detached house under construction with blockwork walls, timber roof trusses and scaffolding

03

Extensions and New Builds

Full build packages from footings to finished shell and beyond, backed by our ten year structural guarantee.

New build contracts are the work we are built around. We take a plot from clearance and footings through to a watertight, finished building, managing the trades ourselves so you are not left coordinating a bricklayer, a roofer and a groundworker who have never met.

  • Ten year guarantee
  • Single point of contact
  • Trades managed by us
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Gardener planting a colourful flower bed as part of a professional landscaping project

04

Hard and Soft Landscaping

Complete garden schemes with a full design service: levels, terraces, walls, lighting, planting and lawns.

Large gardens rarely need one thing doing. They need levels resolved, drainage sorted, a terrace that relates to the house, retaining that will not lean in five years, and planting that looks deliberate in February as well as June. We offer a full design service so the whole garden is thought through before the first sod is cut.

  • Full design service
  • Levels and retaining
  • Planting and lawns
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Large charcoal block paved driveway with pale contrasting border and circular feature at a detached house

05

Block Paving

Traditional and contemporary block paved driveways on a properly built sub base, with edging that stays put.

Block paving fails for predictable reasons: not enough excavation, a thin sub base, edge courses laid without haunching, and joints never topped up. Fix those four things and a block driveway will still look sharp in twenty years, which is why we build them the way we do.

  • Deep excavation
  • Haunched edgings
  • Kiln dried jointing
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Completed resin bound paving with contrasting aggregate tree surrounds and neat metal edging

06

Resin Driveways

Resin bound surfacing over a correctly specified base, laid to a seamless finish with crisp detailing.

Resin bound gravel gives you the cleanest driveway finish available: smooth, quiet underfoot, permeable, and free of the weeds and ruts that plague loose gravel. It is also the surface most often laid badly, because it can be spread over an unsuitable base and still look convincing for a season.

  • UV stable resin
  • Permeable finish
  • Seamless hand trowelled
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Before you commit

Costs, planning rules and honest comparisons

We publish the figures we actually work to, so you can budget before anyone visits.

How much does a resin driveway cost in Essex?

Honest square metre figures for resin bound surfacing, and why two quotes for the same drive can differ by thousands.

Block paving cost per square metre, explained properly

What a block paved driveway costs, broken down by the parts of the job most quotes leave vague.

Resin or block paving? An installer's honest comparison

We fit both, so we have no reason to sell you one. Here is how they actually differ on the things that matter after year five.

Groundworks cost per square metre, and what moves it

Excavation, muck away, sub base, drainage and slab work, priced the way we price them on real plots.

Extension foundations: what they cost and how deep they go

Depths, concrete volumes and the two things that most often push an extension foundation budget upwards.

Do you need planning permission for a driveway?

The permeable surfacing rule, front garden hardstanding, and the cases where an application really is needed.

All guides

Breaking Ground. Building Trust.

Not sure which parts of the job you need?

Most of our clients start with one idea and finish with a joined up scheme. Tell us the problem and we will tell you what actually needs doing.

Call 07770 880587Get Free Quote

Ten year guarantee / 30 miles of Colchester / New builds and substantial projects