Huntingdonshire
From Eaton Socon to Wintringham: One Imprinted Concrete Surface for St Neots
Four old settlements, two new estates and a river through the middle. St Neots frontages vary more than almost anywhere else we work.
Family run since 1990
Over 30 years installing decorative surfacing
Based in Sawtry
Local team, Cambridgeshire properties
Five star rated
Verified Google reviews
Imprinted Concrete in St Neots
Big frontages, small bays, and why the pattern scale decides it
St Neots grew by absorbing its neighbours, and the driveways still show where the seams are. The market square and the streets behind it are the old town; across the Great Ouse, Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon were separate places entirely and still feel it, with long plots and generous frontages on the older roads. Eynesbury to the south has its own centre and a tight grain of older cottages. Then there are the estates on the east side, Loves Farm and more recently Wintringham, where the plots are narrow, the parking is often a short block paved bay or a shared drive, and every frontage on the street was built to the same detail at the same time.
Those two extremes need different answers. On the older Eaton Socon and Eynesbury frontages there is usually room to do something with a shape, so a bordered layout or a European fan centred on the entrance has space to work. On Loves Farm and Wintringham the area is small and rectangular, which means the pattern scale is the decision that matters: get it wrong and a big slab pattern reads as two and a half stones on the whole drive.
The ground follows the river. Through the Ouse valley and out towards the Paxtons there are gravel terraces, the same deposits that were dug commercially just upstream; on the higher ground east of the railway it is heavier and holds water for longer. What is under an existing driveway also varies enormously here, because a 1930s frontage, a 1970s estate drive and a house handed over in the last few years have almost nothing in common below the surface. We look before we commit to a depth.
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 St Neots properties
St Neots has a lot of soft red brick in the old town and a lot of buff and grey brick with dark window frames on the newest estates, so the two ends of town pull in opposite directions. Brick red and autumn brown flatter the older stock; slate grey and charcoal suit the current estate palette and pick up the grey frames and slate effect roofs. On a new build in particular, a border in a contrasting colour stops a small rectangle looking like a plain slab.
- 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 St Neots
On the newer estates the practical questions are the service covers, the shared boundary with next door and the fact that the frontage often drains straight towards the street. Imprinted concrete does not let water through, so we design the falls and any channel drain around that. In the older parts of town, especially towards Eynesbury, the constraint is more often the depth of made ground under an existing surface, which decides how much comes out before the sub base goes in.
Recent Projects
Finished work worth comparing against your St Neots property
For an older Eaton Socon or Eynesbury frontage with room to play with, the buff European fan driveway with its stamped brick soldier course is the useful reference. For a compact new build plot, look at the charcoal ashlar driveway with the red border, which shows how a contrasting edge gives a small area a defined shape.
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.
We had our driveway done this year and they did a fantastic job. I'm really happy with the outcome. I would recommend this company.
Questions
St Neots imprinted concrete questions
- Do you install imprinted concrete driveways in St Neots?
- Yes. St Neots is named in Driveway & Decking Co.'s service area, along with Eaton Ford, Eaton Socon and Eynesbury as part of the town. Send your postcode through the quote form or call 07949 078999.
- I live on Loves Farm or Wintringham. Is my driveway big enough to be worth doing?
- Small frontages are worth doing, but the pattern scale matters much more than it does on a big drive. A large slab pattern can look wrong across a short area because only a few stones fit, whereas a cobble, brick or smaller random stone pattern keeps the right rhythm. A contrasting border also gives a compact rectangle a defined edge instead of leaving it as a plain panel.
- Can you take out an existing block paved parking bay?
- Yes. The blocks and the bedding layer are lifted, the ground underneath is assessed and prepared, and the new surface is poured over the whole area. Whether any of the existing base can stay depends entirely on what it turns out to be, which is why we look rather than quote from a photograph.
- We are on the Eaton Socon side. Do you cross the river for jobs?
- Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon are part of St Neots as far as we are concerned, and we quote for them the same way as the rest of the town. Give us the postcode with your enquiry and we will confirm.
- Is the ground in the Ouse valley suitable for imprinted concrete?
- Gravel terraces along the river are generally workable ground, but that is a starting point rather than a conclusion. What matters is what is actually under your frontage, how deep any made ground goes, and how the finished levels relate to the house and to the road. That is settled at the site visit.
- Can the same pattern run from the driveway round to the back garden?
- Yes, and where there is a side access it is often the neatest way to do it. A path in the same colour and a matching or complementary pattern ties the front and the back together, and doing it in one go means the preparation happens once rather than twice.
- What is the difference between imprinted concrete and block paving?
- Block paving is many individual units laid on a bedding layer, so it has a joint around every block. Imprinted concrete is one continuous slab that is coloured and then stamped with a texture and pattern while it is still workable. Fewer joints means fewer of the gaps where weeds commonly take hold, and there are no loose units that can work their way out of position.
- Will a new driveway affect where rainwater goes on my street?
- It can, which is why it is part of the design. In England, paving more than five square metres of a front garden with a surface that does not let water through needs planning permission unless the run off goes to a permeable area within your own boundary. We will talk through the options for your frontage, and Huntingdonshire District Council is the authority to confirm anything that affects consent.
- Do you install patios as well as driveways in St Neots?
- Yes. Decorative patios are one of the three applications we install, alongside driveways and paths. Rear gardens on the newer estates are often small and overlooked, and a stamped finish with a shaped border can make a compact space read as deliberate rather than left over.
- Can you give me a price over the phone?
- We would rather not, because a figure given without seeing the site is a guess, and the things that move it are exactly the things you cannot see in a photograph: what is under the existing surface, how the levels sit, where the water goes and how the access works. We do not publish prices for that reason.
- Do you bring samples?
- Yes. Colour and pattern samples come to the site visit, so you can hold them against your own brick, render and roof rather than judging a colour on a screen. Ranges change from time to time, so we confirm what is available at the point of quoting.
- How do I get a quote for St Neots?
- Use the form on this page with your postcode and an approximate size, call or WhatsApp 07949 078999. Mentioning which part of town you are in helps, because a Wintringham frontage and an Eynesbury one are very different jobs.
Areas We Cover
Near St Neots
Each of these has its own page, written for that place rather than this one.
Get a Free Quote
Request a quote for your St Neots 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