Concrete vs Tarmac Driveway: Which Should You Choose?

Pick tarmac for a cheaper, quicker, easier-to-repair drive, and concrete, especially pattern imprinted concrete, for a longer life and far more choice of look at a little more cost. On a plain drive the price gap is small: published 2026 guides put most tarmac drives at £50-£90 per m² and plain concrete at about £60-£90 per m². The real differences are in finish, curing time, maintenance and how each one fails.

The short version

• Choose tarmac if you want a plain, hard-wearing drive at the lowest cost, laid quickly, that is easy to patch and copes with steep slopes and heavy use.

• Choose concrete if you want a decorative finish (cobbles, slate, brick or stone effects in many colours) and a longer life, and you are happy to reseal it every few years.

We lay both, so the comparison below is about which suits your house, not which we would rather sell.

Cost: tarmac vs concrete

Typical UK market figures (materials and labour, 2026 cost guides):

• Tarmac: about £45-£100 per m² installed, with most quotes at £50-£90 (MyJobQuote, BestBuilders). At £50-£90, that is roughly £1,000-£1,800 for a 20m² drive and £2,500-£4,500 for 50m².

• Plain concrete: about £60-£90 per m² (MyJobQuote), or roughly £1,200-£1,800 for 20m² and £3,000-£4,500 for 50m².

• Pattern imprinted concrete: about £100-£130 per m² (MyJobQuote), or roughly £5,000-£6,500 for 50m².

Colour, a pattern, a border and sealer are what lift imprinted concrete above plain concrete. Our guides to tarmac driveway cost and imprinted concrete driveway cost break each one down by drive size. On both materials, groundwork moves the price far more than the surface: dig-out depth, sub-base, drainage, edging and access. These are national averages, not our prices, and a real figure needs someone to see the drive, which is what our free site visit is for.

Lifespan

Properly built tarmac driveways typically last 15 to 20 years before they need resurfacing. A properly laid and resealed concrete drive lasts 20 to 25 years or more. Both figures depend almost entirely on what is underneath: a thin or poorly compacted base shortens either one dramatically.

Laying and curing time

• Tarmac. Most domestic drives are laid in one or two days. You can walk on it after a few hours and drive on it after three to five days, though it keeps hardening for months.

• Concrete. Laying and imprinting take a similar time, but concrete cures more slowly. UK ready-mix suppliers advise at least 7 days before driving a car on new concrete and 28 days before heavy vehicles such as skips and vans.

If you need the car back on the drive within the week, tarmac is the easier choice.

Cracking and how each one fails

Tarmac is flexible. It moves slightly with the ground and fails gradually: fraying edges, potholes where water gets in, ruts in the wheel tracks if the base is weak. Concrete is rigid. It does not rut, but it can crack if the slab is too thin, the sub-base was not compacted, reinforcement mesh was left out or expansion joints were not cut. Those are installation shortcuts, which is why we lay concrete to full depth over a compacted base with mesh throughout.

Heat affects them differently too. Tarmac softens on very hot days and can mark under point loads such as motorbike stands. Concrete is unaffected by heat but its sealer wears and needs renewing.

Repairs

Tarmac is the easier surface to repair. Small potholes can be filled with cold lay tarmac, larger areas can be cut out and patched hot, and a sound drive can be resurfaced with a new top layer. Patches show at first but fade as the new tarmac weathers.

Concrete repairs are harder to hide. A crack can be filled and the drive resealed, but matching the colour and pattern of an imprinted slab exactly is difficult, so a badly damaged section usually means cutting out and relaying a whole bay.

Maintenance

• Tarmac: sweep, clear weeds from edges, seal cracks before winter, and clean up fuel or oil spills quickly, because they soften bitumen.

• Concrete: wash down once or twice a year and reseal every three to five years. The sealer holds the colour and keeps water, oil and frost out of the surface.

Looks

This is where concrete pulls ahead. Our pattern imprinted concrete driveways come in ashlar slate, cobble, sett, herringbone brick and natural stone effects, in colours from charcoal and slate grey to buff and terracotta, with contrasting borders. Tarmac is black (or red, at a premium), and its look comes from the edging around it. A good block border makes a big difference to a tarmac drive.

Drainage and planning

Neither standard tarmac nor imprinted concrete is permeable. In England, a new or replacement front drive over 5m² that is not permeable needs to drain onto your own land, such as a lawn, border or soakaway, or it needs planning permission. That applies equally to both materials, so drainage should be designed into the quote whichever you choose. Porous asphalt is a permeable tarmac option, and resin bound on a permeable base is another.

Which is better for a slope?

Both work on slopes when properly built. Tarmac gives good grip and is commonly used on steep drives. Imprinted concrete has a textured pattern and an anti-slip additive in the sealer, which helps in the wet.

Concrete vs tarmac questions, answered

Is tarmac cheaper than concrete?

Usually, slightly, on a like-for-like plain drive. Once you add a decorative pattern, colour and border to the concrete, the gap widens. Block paving usually costs more than either, which is why is tarmac cheaper than block paving is a common follow-up question.

Is concrete stronger than tarmac?

They are strong in different ways. Concrete resists rutting and heat; tarmac flexes rather than cracking and is easier to repair. Either fails early on a poor base.

What is tarmac actually made of?

Crushed stone bound with bitumen, not tar: as what tarmac is made of explains, tar has not been used in asphalt production since the 1980s.

Still torn?

Pete and the team have laid both across Wolverhampton, the Black Country and south Staffordshire for over 25 years, and every drive carries our 10-year guarantee. We bring concrete samples when we quote, so you can see the options against your house before deciding. If resin bound or block paving is also on your list, our guide to the best driveway material for UK homes compares all of them. Book a free site visit.