Paths and driveways around the house

Posted by Giedra, 6 April, 5:59 pm

The process for constructing paths, driveways and patios around the house is a little more complicated. For this purpose, a bedding layer of dry concrete mix instead of sand is used, and the gaps between pavers are jointed with sand or dry concrete. You will also need an edging either side of the paved area to hold the pavers in place. A vibrating plate compactor is often used to firm down the bedding layer and the paving blocks. While almost anyone can lay a garden path, construction of such areas is best left to the professionals.

All paved areas should be designed for practicality, to protect your feet from getting muddy and your flowerbeds from feet and car traffic. The most popular paving materials are concrete or clay blocks, paving slabs of natural stone, and kits of pre-formed blocks or slabs for driveways and patios. Plastic cellular paving has grown in popularity over the recent years. Interesting effects can be created using unusual paving materials, such as decorative pebbles, however, it might be best to consider having a professional craftsman, or even a landscape designer, hired for such an undertaking.

A straight-edged path or patio is relatively easy to pave using rectangular or square paving blocks or flags. The interlocking pavers are not too complicated to lay either, but they will have to be cut to size when laying a curved path. Obviously, the completed paved surface should be flat and even, which is almost impossible to achieve without using a spirit level and a roller (or a straight-edged length of timber) to compact the soil.

A driveway should be at least 2 metres wide, but 2.5 or 3 metres width is more common. Some driveways are constructed as two parallel tracks, slightly sloping to both sides to assist rapid drainage. The tracks should be 50 or 70 cm wide each, with a gap of 70 to 90 cm between them. The tracks should be as wide as possible with a very narrow gap in between them, so as to cause no inconvenience when parking a car. Still, add another half a metre on both sides of the tracks, since one needs to get out of the car, having parked it. So if you intend to build a comfortable parking space, the total width adds up to around 3 metres. An opening 2.5 metres wide is advisable for a gateway and a garage entrance. Ideally, the driveway should be constructed with a slope of 1 to 1.5 cm for every metre along itâ€™s length, preferably towards the south-east or south west.

When dry concrete mix is used as a bedding layer, it is spread to a thickness of 4 to 5 cm on the sub-base. Steel reinforcement mesh is sometimes used to stabilize the paving. When paving garden paths, the edgings are set to be flush with the paved surface, if they are used at all. For other paved areas, edgings should be installed to rise by a couple of centimeters above the paved surface. The finished paved area should be 1.5 to 3 cm higher than the soil level. When using concrete pavers or stones, they should be bedded by 2/3 into the sand or concrete.

When laying a timber paving, hardwood is the best choice – oak, larch, or cherry wood. However, softwood (pine, fir, maple) is a more popular choice due to its relative cheapness. When pressure treated, softwood paving will provide many years of service. Wooden paths blend in well in rustic surroundings, when constructed next to log houses or country estates.

© Mygarden.lt, 2009

8 responses to “Paths and driveways around the house”

Tim Jackson May 31st, 2009 at 13:14

Hi Giedra. Tim in Lancashire, UK. We talked a little while ago about dry-stone walling. I’ve just been re-laying the natural flag stones in my yard, and notice one important point you didn’t mention in your article – drainage.

If you want a paved area to last any length of time then you need to ensure that water runs off effectively. Civil engineers reckon to lay surfaces with a 1-in-100 gradient towards wherever the water will run off. If water pools in any area, then as well as making puddles it will undermine the foundation (unless it is on a thick concrete bed) which will subside, making the pooling worse.

Now 1:100 is quite difficult to see by eye, a spirit level helps with smooth pavers, but with my natural flags it is useless. So I made myself a hydraulic level. This consists of a 1-litre juice bottle with about 10 metres of PVC windscreen-washer hose inserted through the lid. The other end of the hose is taped along a ruler, with a weight attached to one end. Having filled the hose with water and carefully eliminated bubbles, if I stand the ruler up on its weight, the water level at the ruler matches that in the bottle.

I start by noting the reading with the ruler standing next to the bottle, then adjust the lay of the flag stones as I move across the paving so that the ruler reading increases (or decreases) by 1cm for every metre I move.

Picture at
http://www.tim-jackson.co.uk/gifs/levelling.jpg
The bottle is on a tripod on the left, the ruler on the brick on the right.

Tim
Bristol Driveways July 5th, 2011 at 14:05

A nice read. Being in the paving industry myself, it’s always great to read things from anothers perspective.
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This brief post is filled with great information for constructing paths and driveways, which is a project I’ve recently undertaken. Thanks!