hi, i'd like to redo my parking area and thinking about using the 'poor mans flagstone'- broken concrete but hoping to make it look good! has anyone done this and have photos? right now i have 2 strips of stoneturf( where the tires go on), concrete pavers with grass in the holes in addition to gravel and brick every other place. its a big mishmash and not really working well. i like the pavers but the grass is hard to keep growing esp when it gets hot. so i'm thinking about redoing the whole thing but flagstone is out of my budget. the area is about 50feet by 9 feet. i'd like to use broken concrete (stained terracota-ish) with grass or moss inbetween with a freeform/meandering border to have landscaping in front of the house and by the sidewalk. hopefully, the photo comes up so this will all make sense! also, i think i finally have colors selected to repaint. thinking about a lighter terracota for the body, burnished mahogany (btn brick/brown) for the trim and a ocher ish color for highlight (sunburst and decorative thing above entry) Here is a link that might be useful: msn groups

Neither picture shows the grade involved. We don't need a picture OF the left side, but taken FROM it. In other words, you'd need to walk over toward the left neighbor's house and take a picture looking back at your house ... from enough distance away that it shows the complete bottom and top of the grade and a bit more. A "heads up" ... depending on your municipality, the vast majority of them do not allow parking, or parking places, in the front yard, while most allow a circular driveway and don't prevent parking in it. Exceptions to straight-up parking might be if the proposed location is behind a building set-back line. If not, usually, a variance (which requires an application, a fee and hearing) is required. (Attorney's, or other professional, fees might be required if you don't feel like you could make a good case speaking on your own behalf at a hearing.) Whether the variance is granted depends on the personalities involved. In a small town where everyone knows everyone and there is not jubilation for imposing regulation, it might be easy. In a large community, there might be a lot of resistance as bureaucrats can be paranoid to death about creating a "precedence" and opening the floodgates for similar requests, Even if there is resistance, in my experience the variance will likely be granted if need is demonstrated (as I think it could be here on account of the grade change) and if the proposed improvement is attractive. They can say all they want that objections are based on safety, but the truth is that they don't want things built that look bad for the next 30 years. As Rev pointed out, it will cost a lot more for a circular driveway simply on account of the amount of material involved. IMO, if the configuration is well done and the details are nice, it can be a great addition to the home. A main consideration would be if you want to be able to drive to the lower level from the circular drive. This would likely require some reconfiguration of the existing drive. A parking pad off to the side of the drive would be less involved. (But how the grade changes needs to be shown so that the area can be understood.)

All materials weather and deteriorate over time, but concrete is one of the best at holding up over a lengthy period. It may get stains and blemishes, but people accept these as part of the material. Every so often, pressure washing spiffs it up some. Overall, if not abused (with salt or something) it holds up better than asphalt. I live in Florida. My mom has a property down here in a snowbird park where the huge majority of people paint their driveway. Most do it as some way to add a decorative detail. Some do it because it makes the driveway easier to clean. Some do faux effects of various sorts, which for the most part look terrible. The plain, painted driveways look better. If the driveway surface is prepared properly (mainly clean and not too new) the paint sticks and holds up very well, though it fades from the hot sun over time. We (cuz I have to do it) and the neighbors have to repaint the drive about every 5 years. But it is easy with a roller. The hardest part is getting around to pressure washing it first. Some paint does pull off but it is only where idiot people turn the car wheel while the car is parked, before they start moving (for god knows what reason ...??) So it ends up being just where the front tires are parked. Usually, it ends up exposing a better adhered under-layer of paint, so it it not too bad. If you paint, I would definitely recommend a darker color to minimize sun glare. One next door neighbor has very light grey drive. I can't even walk on it with sunglasses with my eyes open, it is so bright in the summer. It might as well be a mirror.

In our area there is a product called knit pack that is stone crushed in flat, angular pieces, as opposed to more rounded gravel, mixed with some stone dust. It knits together, stays in place and is much less dusty than pure stone dust. We have it on all the roads/paths on our farm. Unlike gravel, it is easy on the horses feet and good to ride on. I can’t say it doesn’t stick to tires or shoes, but it isn’t bad once it knits together. Not too bad with the snowplow either. It does need to be refreshed and dragged periodically. My father-in-law lived in the SE near the ocean and he had a very long and flat driveway of crushed oyster shells that was gorgeous. It didn’t stick or track badly and also had to be replenished and dragged periodically. I never asked, but I assume it was a re-cycled material from an oyster/shell fish processing plant.