Straight answers · Getting rid of weeds
Weeds gone.
Roots and all.
You’ve been fighting your own driveway for years. This site tells you what actually kills weeds, what’s a waste of a weekend, and what it should cost, from one bloke who’s qualified to spray the professional stuff.
- What works
- What doesn’t
- What it should cost
Pick the fight you’re in
34 in-depth guides, and counting
What actually kills weeds for good
What really kills driveway and patio weeds down to the root, why cheap sprays and home remedies fail, and when to get it sorted.
Read it →How to stop weeds in block paving and gravel
Why block paving and gravel are such weed magnets, and how to clear them and keep them out: re-sanding, sealing and gravel membranes.
Read it →How to get rid of horsetail and mare's tail
Why horsetail and mare's tail beat shop weedkiller and every home remedy, why they force up through paving, and what actually works.
Read it →Best weed killer UK: which one to buy, job by job
There is no best weed killer, only six jobs. The chemistry that does each one, the catch that comes with it, and where each answer is worked through properly.
Read it →Do weed membranes actually work?
Yes for a while, no forever: what a membrane genuinely stops, why it fails over time, and the research that says mulch alone can do the same job.
Read it →How to identify Japanese knotweed (and what to do next)
Zigzag stems and bamboo-like canes: telling Japanese knotweed apart from its lookalikes, the UK legal position, and why not to tackle it yourself.
Read it →How to Choose, Calibrate and Use a Knapsack Sprayer
Choosing the right tank size and type, calibrating it to the label rate rather than guesswork, the common faults and their real fixes, and the licence question answered straight.
Read it →Glyphosate Concentrate Strengths and Mixing Rates
Real named products at their published concentration, from consumer concentrates to Rosate 360 TF and Gallup Hi-Aktiv 490, with the actual mixing-rate maths for a 5 or 15 litre tank.
Read it →The Best Tool for Weeding Block Paving and Patios
Hand tools, long-handled weeders and named cordless electric brushes compared, plus the honest trade-off a powered brush makes with your jointing sand.
Read it →How to get rid of ivy
Whether ivy actually damages a wall, fence or driveway, why weedkiller barely touches it, and the straight answer on the neighbour's-ivy and house-value questions.
Read it →How to Get Rid of Bindweed
Why bindweed beats people for a different reason than horsetail, whether pulling it helps or backfires, and the straight answer on the legal and horse-safety questions.
Read it →Do Organic and Homemade Weed Killers Actually Work?
The honest, sourced verdict on vinegar, the 3-ingredient recipe, bleach and shop-bought organic sprays, and the one genuine exception worth knowing about.
Read it →How to identify giant hogweed (and why not to touch it)
Purple-blotched stems and huge jagged leaves: telling giant hogweed apart from common hogweed, why its sap burns skin, and why not to touch or strim it yourself.
Read it →Weed Killer for Brambles
Which chemistry reaches a bramble root crown, why the Roundup you grabbed may contain no glyphosate at all, and the cut-stump rate worth twenty sprays.
Read it →How to get rid of stinging nettles
Why cutting nettles back makes the patch worse, the shallow yellow rhizome mat underneath, and the one date in late June the whole job hangs on.
Read it →UK weed identification, and when not to trust an app
Written keys for thirteen weeds people cannot name, where the photo apps stop working, and the two UK plants where a wrong answer is a burn or a house sale.
Read it →How to get rid of ground elder
Why almost the whole plant is underground, why a fork makes the patch bigger, how many glyphosate passes to plan for, and how to tell it from the umbellifers you shouldn't touch.
Read it →Pet safe weed killer: what the phrase is worth, and which one to buy
There is no pet safe category in UK pesticide approval, and the keep-off sentence turns out to be word for word identical across glyphosate, vinegar and the natural acids.
Read it →Weed killer for driveways and patios: which one to buy
What the residual half of a path and drive weedkiller actually does in a paving joint, how long it really lasts, what it costs per square metre, and the surface it is not approved for.
Read it →Where to buy weed killer in the UK: what each shop actually sells
Screwfix, Toolstation, Wickes, B&Q, Tesco and Amazon decoded by active ingredient and grams per litre off the HSE register, then priced by the gram so two bottles can finally be compared.
Read it →SBK Brushwood Killer: what triclopyr is, and when it beats glyphosate
What triclopyr actually does that glyphosate cannot, the two SBK bottles and the label rates behind them, and how to treat a cut tree stump properly.
Read it →How to Get Rid of Dandelions
Why the taproot snaps at 5cm and hands you a cluster of new plants, how deep it really goes, the one month that more than triples your odds, and what to do about the one in a paving joint.
Read it →Weed killer concentrate vs ready to use: the buying decision
What "makes up to 100 litres" is really counting, and why a concentrate is often weaker in the tank than the trigger bottle it replaces.
Read it →Thistle identification: creeping, spear and Scotch thistle
Which thistle you have decides the job: a biennial you can finish with one cut before mid-July, or a creeping root system that regrows from a 3mm fragment.
Read it →How to identify ragwort, and what the law actually says
Telling common ragwort from groundsel, tansy and the other yellow impostors, why the belief that you must remove it by law is wrong, and the honest way to get one out of the ground.
Read it →Strongest weed killer UK: the legal ceiling on what you can buy
How strong UK weedkiller actually gets, why there is no such thing as an industrial weed killer, and who may legally spray the professional stuff.
Read it →Roundup weed killer: one brand name, five different chemistries
Twenty-one authorisations, five different chemistries and one brand name: which Roundup contains glyphosate, which contains none, and which reaches a root.
Read it →Resolva weed killer: which one have you actually bought?
One badge, four chemistries: three products called Path & Drive, two called 24h, and Xtra, Xtra Fast and Xtra Tough are entirely different chemicals.
Read it →Weedol weed killer: what is left in the range, and what is leaving it
Both Weedol bottles that killed a root have gone, and the maker's own redirects point at contact sprays. Every product by approval number.
Read it →Doff weed killer: what is in every bottle, and the number missing from all of them
Not one Doff concentrate publishes a millilitres-per-litre rate, so here is what their own coverage figures work out to, and where the real one lives.
Read it →Rosate weed killer: the label dilution rate, and who is allowed to use it
Rosate 360 TF's own knapsack rates, 16 and 24 ml per litre, why every Rosate ever registered is professional-only, and the amateur 360 g/L equivalent.
Read it →How to get rid of bamboo
Running or clumping decides whether this is an afternoon or a three-year campaign, why cutting it down multiplies it, and the sourced figures nobody else quotes.
Read it →How to get rid of couch grass
Why couch grass beats a rotavator and every lawn weedkiller, how to tell it from the grass it is hiding in, and what actually reaches the rhizome.
Read it →Gallup weed killer: which one is which, and what to mix
Five separate Gallup authorisations at 360 or 490 g/L glyphosate and only one you can legally use: which is which by MAPP number, the real rate per litre, and what a bottle actually covers.
Read it →Not that kind of weed guy.
I’m one bloke who’s qualified to spray professional weedkiller, and this site is where I put the answers I’d give you over the fence. I use the strongest sh*t that’s legal to spray. The stuff from B&Q won’t touch what I put down.
No brand pays for the verdicts
No lawn-care firm owns this site and nothing here is a paid-for opinion. When a product is a waste of money, the page says so. If a recommendation ever earns me anything, it’ll be disclosed right there on the page, plainly.
Root first, always
Every answer starts with the same question: does it kill the root? If it doesn’t, you’re tidying up, not getting rid, and you’ll be back out there in a fortnight.
No waffle
Short answers first, the why underneath. You should leave every page knowing exactly what to do next, not with ten tabs open.
The questions everyone asks
Because pulling, burning and jet-washing only deal with the green on top. The root stays down in the joint or the sub-base and pushes up fresh growth. Kill the root and they stop.
A proper systemic spray isn’t instant. You’ll see weeds yellow and wilt within a week or two, and die back fully in about three to four weeks, because it’s working down into the root.
They scorch the top and the weed looks dead for a fortnight, then it’s back. Salt and bleach can also wreck your paving and the ground around it. The root is the bit they never reach.
Once a sprayed area has dried it is fine to walk on. Every UK label sets that as a condition rather than a number of hours, and the manufacturers will not name a drying time because the weather and the temperature decide it.
No. Rain within a few hours washes the treatment off the leaf before it’s taken in, so you’ve wasted the spray and kept the weeds. Wait for a dry window.
While the weeds are actively growing, roughly late spring to early autumn. Spray a dormant weed and there’s nothing moving inside the plant to carry the treatment to the root.
Less than most people guess for a small area, and the size of the job drives the price more than anything else. The full answer covers what moves it up and down.
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