Cambridge & South Cambridgeshire
A Village Designed on Paper: Imprinted Concrete for Bar Hill's Repeating Frontages
A village designed on paper in the 1960s and built around a central green. Bar Hill frontages repeat, which makes the design decision unusually clear.
Family run since 1990
Over 30 years installing decorative surfacing
Based in Sawtry
Local team, Cambridgeshire properties
Five star rated
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Imprinted Concrete in Bar Hill
When every frontage on the close is the same
Bar Hill is a planned village. It was laid out from scratch in the 1960s around a central green, with the housing arranged in loops and cul de sacs off a ring road rather than along a historic street, and a lot of it built in phases to a small number of house types. That is genuinely useful when you are choosing a driveway, because your frontage is very likely to be one of a run of near identical frontages up and down the close, and you can see immediately what a change would look like.
The layout also produces two features we deal with regularly. First, garage courts and shared parking areas, which are common in estates of this generation and which raise ownership questions before design questions. Second, open plan front gardens with no wall, fence or hedge, where the boundary between your parking and the grass is defined by nothing at all. On those frontages the border pattern is not decoration, it is the only thing that tells the eye where your driveway ends.
The ground is the west Cambridgeshire clay plateau, slow draining and seasonally active, sitting above the A14 corridor. Clay plus an open frontage with nowhere obvious for water to go is exactly the combination where the drainage design matters, since imprinted concrete is a sealed surface. We settle where the run off goes before deciding what the surface looks like.
Driveways, patios and paths are the three things we install. Read what each one involves or why people choose imprinted concrete.
Make It Your Own
Colours and patterns for Bar Hill properties
Bar Hill housing is largely plain and light in tone, which leaves the range open. Mid grey and sandstone are the quiet options; charcoal with a lighter border makes more of a statement on a street of similar frontages. Because the houses repeat, it is worth looking at what your neighbours have done and deciding deliberately whether you want to sit with it or stand apart from it.
- SandstoneNatural stone tone
- Brick RedClassic heritage
- Slate GreyModern charcoal
- Autumn BrownRich amber
See the full colour and pattern section for photographs of the finishes, or ask us to bring samples when we visit.
Before Anything Is Poured
Ground, access and drainage in Bar Hill
Ownership first on any shared court or parking area, then levels and drainage. Clay ground holds water, so the falls are designed and a channel drain is often the right answer rather than an optional one. On open plan frontages the setting out has to be accurate, because there is no boundary to disguise a line that is slightly out of square with the house.
Recent Projects
Finished work worth comparing against your Bar Hill property
The mid grey ashlar driveway with a stamped cobble border and a channel drain along the pavement line is the most directly relevant published example, because it shows both the border defining an open edge and the drainage handled at the boundary with the highway.
A rear patio in buff ashlar imprinted concrete, shaped with a curved terracotta border against the lawn. 
A patio in grey wood plank imprinted concrete: the look of decking boards in a single poured, jointless surface. 
A narrow side access path in charcoal riven stone imprinted concrete, with galvanised channel drains along the run.
Five-Star Rated
What customers say
EXCELLENT Based on 12 reviews on Google. These are the company's own Google reviews and are not attributed to any particular town.
Rated 5 out of 5.
Made a lovely job of our driveway. Very professional company. James and George worked very hard and it was a pleasure to have them here. Would definitely recommend them without hesitation
Questions
Bar Hill imprinted concrete questions
- Do you install driveways in Bar Hill?
- Yes, Bar Hill is in the service area Driveway & Decking Co. publish. Send the postcode through the quote form on this page or call 07949 078999 and we will arrange to look at the frontage.
- My parking is in a shared garage court. Can it be resurfaced?
- Only with the agreement of whoever owns and is responsible for it, which on an estate of this type is often not the individual householder. Establishing that comes before any design conversation, and it is worth checking your deeds or with the management arrangement for the court.
- There is no fence at the front. How do you stop the drive spreading into the grass?
- With the border. On an open plan frontage the contrasting border pattern is the only visual boundary the driveway has, so it is doing a real job. A well set out border in a second colour reads clearly from the road and makes the whole frontage look deliberate.
- Everyone's frontage looks the same here. Will mine stand out?
- That is your choice to make, and it is worth making it deliberately. A mid grey surface will read as an upgrade without changing the character of the street; a charcoal field with a strong border will be noticed. We will show you both against your own house.
- Does the clay here need special treatment?
- It needs respect rather than anything exotic. Clay drains slowly and moves with moisture, so the compacted sub base and the drainage design carry more weight than they would on gravel. The depth is set from what we find under your frontage.
- Where does the water go on a flat open frontage?
- It has to be given a route, which is part of the design. We set the finished levels to fall towards a chosen point, and where there is no natural outfall we build a channel drain into the layout. On flat ground and a sealed surface, leaving that to chance is how you end up with a puddle by the front door.
- Can you widen a drive up to the boundary with next door?
- Up to your boundary, yes, provided it is clear where that boundary is. On an open plan estate the line is often not marked physically, so it needs establishing and agreeing before the surface is set out, because a poured edge is permanent.
- Do you do rear gardens in Bar Hill?
- Yes. Patios and paths are two of the three applications we install, and on this kind of estate the rear gardens are usually straightforward rectangles where a shaped border or a curved edge does a lot to lift the space.
- What if I want to keep some grass at the front?
- Then keep it. Paving the entire frontage is rarely the best looking option, and a poured surface can be set out to curve past a retained lawn or planting bed. It also reduces the area of impermeable surface, which is relevant to the planning rules on front gardens.
- Do you install for the shops and businesses on the village centre?
- We install for suitable commercial properties. Whether a particular area is suitable depends on the traffic over it and how it is used, so describe the use when you enquire.
- How much notice do you need?
- Ask when you get in touch and we will tell you where things stand at that point. We do not publish availability here because it changes, and a stale figure on a web page is worse than no figure.
- How do I get a quote for Bar Hill?
- Use the quote form on this page with your postcode and an approximate size, call or WhatsApp 07949 078999. If your parking is in a shared court, mention that up front.
Areas We Cover
Near Bar Hill
Each of these has its own page, written for that place rather than this one.
Get a Free Quote
Request a quote for your Bar Hill project
Tell the team whether you are planning a driveway, patio, path or another suitable imprinted concrete project. Include the postcode and an approximate size or a short description, and Driveway & Decking Co. can talk through the next step and arrange a quote or a site visit where that makes sense.
Prefer to talk it through?
- Telephone
- 07949 078999
- Message us on WhatsApp
- Address
- 23 Glatton Road, Sawtry, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE28 5SY