Driveway cleaning in Cheltenham — restored sympathetically, not blasted.

Yes — and it's one of the most common jobs we get in Montpellier, Lansdown and Pittville. We don't point a pressure lance at loose gravel, because that just scatters it into the borders and the gutter. On a shingle carriage drive the work is mostly about the weeds growing up through the stone and the green silt that's settled between the pebbles. We hand-treat the weeds, rake and lift any compacted areas, and where there's a sub-base or edging strip showing through we clean that gently. If your gravel has thinned over the years, we'll tell you how many bags it needs topping up rather than pretending a wash will fix it.

It can, which is exactly why we don't blast it. Natural stone — Cotswold limestone, York stone, the old setts you find around Bayshill and The Suffolks — is porous, and a high-pressure lance held too close pits the surface and opens it up to soak in more dirt next time. We use low pressure and let a soft biological treatment do the lifting, so the tide-marking and greening comes off without scarring the stone. On a period drive the whole point is to restore the surface sympathetically, not to leave it looking power-washed and raw.

Yes, on every block-paving drive — it's included, not an add-on. Cleaning block paving with a rotary surface cleaner inevitably lifts the kiln-dried sand out of the joints, and a drive with empty joints starts shifting and weeding within weeks. We sweep fresh kiln-dried sand back into the joints once the surface has dried and brush off the excess, so the paving is locked up again before we leave. The suburban estates around Up Hatherley and Warden Hill are mostly block paving, and re-sanding is what makes the difference between a clean that lasts and one that doesn't.

Usually, yes. A lot of the imprinted (pattern) concrete on the Up Hatherley and Warden Hill estates was laid fifteen or twenty years ago, and the colour-hardener and sealer on top has worn off — so it looks grey, blotchy and lifeless. A clean alone brings off the dirt and algae, but it won't replace lost colour. For that we deep-clean first, then re-colour with a tinted resin sealer broomed in, which restores the pattern and the shade and seals it in one. We'll be honest at the quote about whether yours just needs a clean or a full re-colour.

Cheltenham has a lot of mature tree cover — the wooded plots below Cleeve Hill, the leafy roads through Prestbury and Lansdown — and a drive that sits in shade under a canopy barely dries out between rains. That permanent damp is what algae and moss love, so shaded affluent plots green up far faster than an open, south-facing drive. Cleaning lifts the growth; if you want it to stay clear longer, sealing the surface afterwards stops the algae getting a grip and roughly doubles how long the clean lasts.

On the right surface, often yes. We see a lot of previously-sealed drives in the smarter parts of town where the old sealer has broken down — gone patchy, milky or flaky — and those benefit from a strip-and-reseal. Sealing blocks weeds out of the joints, keeps algae off, makes oil and tyre marks easy to wipe, and brings the colour back richer than cleaning alone. It adds two to three years before the next clean. It's a finishing service for a drive you care about, not a price-race extra — we'll give you an honest view of whether your surface takes it well.

Roughly two to three years on an unsealed drive that gets reasonable sun and drains well. Shaded plots under the tree canopy in Prestbury or below Cleeve Hill go green sooner — sometimes within twelve to eighteen months — because they stay damp. Sealing roughly doubles the interval, and a quick wash-off once a year keeps a drive looking sharp without needing the full deep clean again.

You don't have to be home as long as we can get to the drive and there's an outside tap or we've agreed water access beforehand — handy for the busier professional households around Montpellier and Tivoli. We don't take deposits. You see the finished drive and pay on completion, once you're happy with it.

All of it — Montpellier, Lansdown, Pittville, Bayshill, The Suffolks, Tivoli and Park in the centre; Prestbury and the plots below Cleeve Hill; Charlton Kings, Battledown and Leckhampton to the south and east; Up Hatherley, Warden Hill, Hatherley and Benhall to the west; plus Bishop's Cleeve just north. Same pricing across the GL50–GL53 footprint, no extra travel charge. Send your postcode if you're not sure we reach you.