You may have heard stories recently – in the news, from friends and family, or from other contractors about shortages. Shortages of food and of raw materials. And you’ll definitely have seen the fallout around the shortage of petrol and diesel.
Those shortages are affecting us too.
While we always strive hard to deliver the most professional, most cost effective and most efficient driveway installation possible, sometimes we’re hampered by external factors.
There are some things we can’t control when it comes to your new driveway
There are just some parts of the installation process that are out of hands. Some factors we can’t control.
Like the rising cost of timber.
You might have heard how that’s affecting everyone from joiners to food manufactures (who transport food on wooden pallets), but it also impacts the work we do.
We use timber for fences and framework, to complement your new driveway and ensure it looks absolutely perfect when installed.
Sand and cement are also getting harder to get hold of, with production falling and demand increasing. There’s less of it available, and there’s lots of competition among the trades to get their hands on it.
And of course, sand and cement are used to make concrete – the best type of material for your new driveway.
Prices are rising and availability is limited
As the supply of sand, cement and concrete is lower than usual, prices are increasing. At the moment, they’re manageable and we’re able to contain those price rises, but we don’t know when things will return to normal – or even if they could get worse.
One area where we have been affected is with concrete deliveries, as the number of available slots for deliveries from our suppliers has dropped.
It means we have to wait longer to get the cement to site – to your home – to pour it onto your driveway, so some of our installations may be delayed.
Be Wary
With wholesale prices increasing, be wary of any labourer or business that says they can do you a driveway ‘on the cheap’. You have to ask yourself where are they sourcing their materials? And what quality must the concrete be to be so cheap?
It doesn’t take a rocket science to figure out that poor quality concrete and other imitation materials will result in a poor quality driveway – not just one that looks patchy and unappealing, but one that’s structurally unsound.
But we’ll do whatever we can to keep delivering cost effective, high value driveways.
There are always challenges with driveway installations, but as a professional driveway company with over 15 years’ experience – we know we can handle them.
We know how to adapt and how to make sure we continue to deliver the highest quality driveways – ones that look amazing and are guaranteed to be long lasting – for the most cost-effective prices.
We just wanted to let you know about the industry shortages and challenges so you are aware. There may be small delays to your driveway installation due to those factors we cannot control, but at the moment, we’re hoping price increases will not affect you.
If you have any questions at all, please just get in touch with our team.