A home’s facade has a lot to tell about the entire property. Homeowners tend to prioritise their indoor living space since this is where they usually spend time at home. As a result, their outdoor space is often neglected, and this is a big no-no for a property’s kerb appeal and value. Achieving an appealing home both on the inside and outside is what homeowners should aim for during their ownership.
Looking at your exterior property, the look of your driveway has a crucial role in your home’s kerb appeal. Sprucing up your driveway can make the outside of your house ten times better, despite other elements aren’t looking attractive enough. If you’re planning to sell your property in the future, an inviting and well-maintained driveway contributes to its face value.
You don’t need to spend tremendously on your driveway to improve it, so here are different ways you can enhance your driveway’s kerb appeal:
Check the Quality of Your Drainage
Drainages are often overlooked and poorly maintained, and many homeowners don’t realize their importance during rainy seasons, cleaning sessions, and activities that involve the disposal of dirty water. If you want to enhance your driveway’s curb appeal, you need to improve its durability than how it looks.
The pooling of water on your driveway is triggered by a problematic drainage system, which can subsequently impact your driveway’s surfaces, leading to discolouration, damage, and excess wear. When left unsolved, water can flow into other areas such as your outdoor recreational space or your neighbour’s yard. If you don’t have a suitable drainage system for your driveway, you can get quality supplies from EasyMerchant, and you can hire professionals to install or repair the drainage in your driveway.
Consider Pressure Washing
Driveways serve as the path from your neighbourhood’s road into your home. Thus, it’s inevitable to accumulate dirt, stains, and mold on your driveway surfaces, especially tight spaces. To improve the kerb appeal of your driveway, keeping it clean is essential as it will have both short- and long-term advantages.
Cleaning the surfaces of your driveway by yourself is a good option; utilising cleaning equipment such as a pressure washer will allow you to save more time. However, if you’re not experienced in handling pressure washers, they can be dangerous to you and your driveway’s surfaces, so the safest option is to look for pressure washing service providers around your area.
Aside from removing typical dirt, pressure washing can eliminate cigarette butts, cobwebs, chewing gum, paint stains, oil stains, and other deep-seated and hard-to-remove grime. Furthermore, it can prevent acidic algae from eroding your driveway pavement.
Achieve Clean Finishes Through Different Materials
After focusing on necessary aspects for boosting the curb appeal of your driveway, it’s time to work on how your driveway will look. By using various materials, you can create exciting layouts on your driveway while still keeping everything simple. You can achieve this concept if you choose the right surfaces, which can help you attain a clean and polished finish.
Some of the best materials that can pave the way to a better driveway are exposed aggregate, stamped concrete, or pavers like clay and bluestone pavers, timber sleepers, and more. Your main goal is to blend these materials while creating contrast and highlighting each material’s best features.
Surround It With Plants
Once you have smoothed out your driveway surfaces with your chosen materials, surround the pathway with some plants to soften the edges of your driveway, which is generally known as driveway edging. By enhancing the pavement with plants, you will achieve a pleasing contrast to the eye.
Keep in mind that driveway landscaping has a set of specific requirements, compared to other aspects of general landscaping. Here are some tips that you can take note of:
- Prioritise visibility and avoid tall plants, especially where it connects with the road.
- Opt for plants that stay precisely where you place them.
- Choose plants with steady irrigation and root systems to absorb water well during rainy seasons.
If you are wondering about which plants to incorporate along the driveway, why not try fragrant Rosemary, which is a small herbaceous shrub. You could also add compact shrub roses and boxwood as these can be useful plants to border a driveway.
Light Up The Path
Your efforts in designing your driveway will all be for nothing when the sun comes down, if the pathway is enveloped in darkness. So don’t forget to light up your driveway and garage by installing landscape lighting, such as lamp posts and strategically placed lights in the ground. By sufficiently illuminating your driveway, it will be a safe entrance to your home. Also, good lighting can contribute to deterring theft and robbery from your home.
Conclusion
Driveways don’t always warrant much attention to homeowners since they’re simply a pathway for entering on foot on in your car. However, with the tips discussed above, it’s clear you can boost your entire property’s kerb appeal by focusing on this important area within your outdoor space.
Joshua Cook
Joshua Cook works as a home remodeler and helps his clients make the most out of their real estate investments. As a home remodeler, Joshua is responsible for performing carpentry work, replacing plumbing fixtures, installing flooring and laying tiles. Joshua has years of experience working as a home remodeler and has adept knowledge of what building codes to comply with before, during, and after any home remodeling project.
When Joshua is not busy working with clients, he loves to write articles about home improvement.
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