Another project we tackled this spring, was a new front walk way. The reasons were two fold – one, making it prettier and more welcoming, and the second, and probably more importantly, was for safety. You can see in the first photo that the front door can be reached via a wishbone shaped walkway. One is reached from the garage area, the other from the driveway.
This is the walk that goes to the garage side. The other goes off to the right, in photo below. See here the shrub in a pot is by the gutter downspout? That will have to be moved because the new walk will widen the entry. You can also see that the rise from the ground is higher than is comfortable to step up onto the porch.
Here the the side that goes to the driveway.
Here you can see the relationship of the two pathways. They both get used. The one to the garage area and gardens on the garage side, and the other to head out to the gardens on that far side of the house.
And for prospective, this photo was taken from the porch looking out towards the garden house. Some of these are older photos, so when I look at them, I realize all the changes over the years with new garden areas, changes to the landscape, etc.
You might have noticed that the pavers, which are 16″ x 16″ each, are laid onto mulch. Since I built the house, for the most part it worked fine, although it required at least twice yearly maintenance. Because the walkway is on a gradual slope, when we had heavy rains, or freeze-thaw cycles, the pavers would shift by sliding out of position, sinking a bit, and or twisting. Every year mulch needed to be added under the pavers as the mulch breaks down. Tedious. But more importantly, when the pavers sunk down right in front of the porch, it made it more difficult for my bad knees to make the step up. So I usually went in and out through the garage. Also the pavers could be slippery when wet, or covered with leaves or even snow/ice. And speaking of leaves, a pain to keep the path clear of leaves with pavers.
At first the plan was to have it done in bluestone. We called the mason we have used before that we really like, but the estimate ended up double what the stamped concrete would be, and that only was for one part of the path, the one to the garage area. The contractor, Adam, who did our deck installation recommended a concrete contractor he works with, and the estimate was great and included both pathways. It was a go after we picked the pattern and the color.
Here Charlie and his assistant started by removing the pavers and the mulch, and creating the proper grade so that we had good drainage.
Clear, graded, and ready to “frame”.
One half of the walks framed in.
Another view. In this Charlie had just finished drilling into the porch riser to place rebar so the connection to the concrete would be strong.
You can just get a glimpse of how much wider the entry will be compared to the 16 inches with a single width of paver. If you look to the right you can see the framing.
Yeah, concrete!
They really tried hard not to get concrete on my shrubs. It couldn’t have been easy to keep stepping carefully about the boxwoods while smoothing out the concrete.
Now that it is colored and after it is sealed and fully dry, which took a couple of days, we could bring new mulch in up to the level of the walk. The width along the two paths is 3 feet, the minimum for two people to walk side by side, and is gently curved. It widens as it come to the stoop, which ic now almost 7 feet wide.
It takes me just a couple of minutes now to blow leaves off with the cordless blower.You can see how it widens towards the end.
Nice and wide now with an easy step up to the porch landing. In the spring I will use concrete stain to stain the porch landing to a gray color. I also will have to really prune a few shrubs back as I don’t want them to hang over onto the walkway. Many are fine, but a few grew a lot over the summer and it is too late to prune and have them harden off before winter sets in.
We were really happy working with this contractor, Charlie. They got it done the want we wanted, he got the pattern just so, colored it beautifully, and was so very respectful of our property. After they sealed, he insisted on hosing down the shrubs. They also added a no slip surface, which is a relief after the slipperiness of the pavers. We have a couple other concrete projects we would like him to do when he has a break from his commercial work.
A few years ago this might have been a job KBJ and I would have tackled, but we have learned that some jobs a specialist can have done so much quicker, and requires experience that allows them to do it faster, and often better, and time is everything sometimes. So that is it for today. Have a couple of homes to share with you next. Thanks for stopping by. laters, charisse
DID YOU KNOW?
After a 108-year drought, the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 MLB World Series. The parade through the streets in the city of Chicago last Friday, brought out an estimated 5 million people to cheer the Cubbies, making it the 7th largest gathering in human history, and the biggest ever in the Western Hemisphere! If you want to know what the top 10 largest people gatherings were, here’s the link.
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Love it. It looks so natural.
Thanks, Margaret.