How to choose the right car park surface

Know your car park surface options

The starting condition of your car park will influence your options, determining whether you can refresh the surface with new material or if a full reconstruction will be required. A responsible contractor will assess the current car park surface in order to decide on the best approach for the customer’s requirements and budget. If the existing car park surface has failed, it is important to identify and address the root cause of the issue. Otherwise, there is every chance that a new surface will fail in the same manner.

When a project involves the creation of a brand-new car park, your surfacing contractor will have the widest possible scope when it comes to material choice. This provides the ideal opportunity to assess your options and make sure that the material sourced for your new car park surface has been completely tailored to your requirements. Considerable value can be added to a project by choosing the best possible surface material or ensuring that the programme is as efficient as possible.

Tailor your car park surface to your requirements

Innovation within the surfacing industry ensures that technical developments are always taking place and are available to be applied within new projects. Since car parks are a typical feature within projects across a wide range of sectors, they present ideal opportunities to innovate. Working closely with your surfacing contractor will allow you to take full advantage of their knowledge and experience, tailoring the car park surface to your specific requirements and delivering the best possible results.

Our previous car park surfacing projects demonstrate this approach in action:

East Midlands Designer Outlet

By expanding the size of their existing car park, the East Midlands Designer Outlet was able to create the capacity for more than 500 additional spaces. Not only did this encourage additional business, but it also managed to address an issue with overspill parking that had impacted the surrounding area. As part of their investment, the Outlet chose to install eight charging points for electric vehicles, demonstrating their commitment to offering state-of-the-art facilities for their customers. We delivered this project ahead of schedule, laying 5,500 tonnes of material whilst adapting our approach to overcome adverse weather. The close relationship between Toppesfield, the East Midlands Designer Outlet, and the supply chain ensured we delivered a high-quality car park surface that met the customer’s requirements and flawlessly incorporated the new vehicle charging points.

Silvertown Tunnel Coach Park

In order to reduce congestion within the Blackwall Tunnel, the Silvertown Tunnel project aims to connect the area to the Greenwich peninsula and improve the resilience of the surrounding road network. As part of the management of this project, a car park was required to prevent construction from negatively impacting the O2 Events Arena nearby. More than 6,500 tonnes of asphalt were laid across the car park, access roads, and footpaths. Understanding that the car park surface would need to cope with high volumes of traffic from large vehicles, we partnered with FM Conway to use a fuel-resistant SMA PMB surface material. This produced a less permeable car park surface that would resist erosion when in contact with fuel, offering increased asset resilience for the customer.

Eddie Stobart Distribution Centre

Eddie Stobart required a durable car park surfacing solution that would withstand traffic from heavy vehicles at its Dagenham distribution centre. Additional maintenance and vehicle bays had been added as part of an expansion and these areas were due to receive constant, slow-moving heavy traffic. Taking advantage of our supplier independence, we laid more than 1,100 tonnes of 10mm SurePave HD Binder PMB, a material that had been specifically designed to withstand cracking and excel within these circumstances. Once again, by increasing asset resilience, we were able to demonstrate to the customer that material choice could add significant value to their car park surfacing project.

M23 Smart Motorway Compound

As part of a smart motorway project on the M23, we were contracted to deliver a car park surface that could be used by surrounding offices, welfare, and storage areas. Working closely with the customer, we identified that our recycled product, ToppBase, could be used to improve the aesthetic and performance of the finished surface, whilst also repurposing 3,200 tonnes of road planings from the Highways England network. A traditional solution would utilise AC 20 Dense binder course as a running surface. However, the larger aggregate used within this material is vulnerable to fretting and would affect performance over time. Our approach allowed 1,000 tonnes of AC 10 Close surface course to be used alongside the savings made through recycling, delivering superior value for money, reducing emissions, and eliminating the need for Highways England to dispose of their asphalt road planings through other means.

Choosing the right car park surface

As these examples illustrate, choosing the best possible material for a car park surface is highly dependent on project-specific requirements. Innovation and the development of new materials within the surfacing industry provide greater product choice and allow customers to find and select an option that fully meets their needs. As an independent surfacing contractor, we have access to the entire market when sourcing materials. This ensures that our customers have the widest possible choice and can find the best car park surface material for their requirements. Whether you want to reduce emissions, increase durability, enhance performance, or ensure SuDs compliance, the right material choice will add value to your car park surfacing project and deliver the results you require.