Driveway gradient problem - Any Civil Engineers out there ?

[Shadowman]

Hi,

Looking at buying a property in the Malvern Hills to set up a Bed & Breakfast business, and we have found a great house but there is a problem.

As you might expect in an area on the Malvern Hills, the house is built on the side of a hill, which gives amazing views but means that the driveway from the front of the house to the rear parking area is approx. 100ft long but drops a good 50ft, making the resulting angle pretty daunting for potential guests !

Does anyone know of a way of reducing the slope of a driveway like this ? I can imagine possibly going down in stages or building up the bottom of the garden ( where the driveway ends and cars are parked ) to reduce the angle but I have no idea about these things ?

Any help or links or ideas greatly appreciated.

 

[StateOfPlay]

Just posting to keep you near the top of the pages in case a civil engineer does happen to drop by.

My personal view is that anything you do will cost a small fortune and I doubt you will get the money back. You could offer Valet parking?

 

[205man]

shadowman , where abouts in malvern you looking at? ive designed/installed alot of drives around there, although i dont tend to get involved in the contruction side, i still have friends/ colleges than do.

if you want me or a friend to have a look and possible come up with some ideas then send me a pm, im not promising to have all the solutions but living/working the area helps.

Also your biggest problem wont be the contruction, it will be getting malvern hills district council to agree the ****** planning application if needed, they are dreadfully slow and dont like change lol

 

[sidibear]

Forget it and buy something else. The Disabled Discrimination Act (DDA) don't like anything over 12 degrees, and it will cost you a small fortune.
From the dims you give it sounds the best you could probably achieve is around 22 degrees without completely levelling the car park.

A local Asda installed a travelator at 14 degrees so they could gain a meter or two extra sales space. Once it was noticed they had to change it. The travelator and associated works cost £30k and they had to close the store for nearly a day to do it, and the lost revenue was estimated at £425K an hour.
This doesn't really have a lot to do with your issue, but it shows how strict they are on a few degrees.

 

[Shadowman]

Thanks for the replies guys...........I actually have a couple of engineers taking a look for me over this week, so i'll see what they have to say and go from there.....and thanks for the heads-up on Malvern council !!

I'll feed back on how it goes.