Driveway appeal
armygirl1987
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
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glschisler
9 years agostudio10001
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Driveway and curb appeal. Needs Help!!
Comments (10)Dn, why don't you explain that driveway idea? It goes to a part of the house that is not a garage ... and there is no cover (carport) for the cars? It's for guest parking? It will be used how often? Notice that you don't see any segmented drives and very, very few walks. The practical reason for this is that it is difficult to grow the typical turf in the narrow spaces between slabs, and that all of it must be edged, probably tripling or quadrupling the total edging. (Notice how thick/tall St. Augustine becomes after a few years.) It would need to be drip irrigated. What a pain if you are already set up with spray and rotor heads. But if you do all that edging and never drive on the driveway, it will look pretty good....See Morecurb appeal...driveway?
Comments (44)DH and I were just talking about moving the driveway over, but I know our community has laws as to the set-back of driveways due to it being a corner lot. I Think we'd have to extend the driveway FAR into the fornt yard. I think the entrance needs to be at least 20 ft away from the corner and we'd end up losing lots of land. ALso..just FYI, we only have 1 tree on our property, the rest are in neighbors yards. I think I"m going to get in touch with some landscapers to map out the whole project. NOt that we'd be able to do it all at once though. As far as a garage, we've talked maybe building one where the deck is now so that we could also build a master bedroom suite above it, but I'm not seeing that kind of $$ for a LONG time. We don't intend on moving anytime soon, but may rethink that in about 3 years before our daughter starts school depending how the market is, and if we want to move to a different school system. The housing market is so bad here though, that we may have no choice but to stay. Just FYI, we bought this house at the peak of the market 2 1/2 years ago and were lucky to find something under 400k. IT has since lost it's value quite a bit. And the interior is a "fixer-upper" too. With 2 kids in daycare, our budget doens't allow for extravagent changes. PLus we have to kepe in mind how much $$ we wnat to add to the house when we probably would never get it back....See MoreFirst hand experience with concrete and grass pavers?
Comments (19)Thanks for all the great comments. What I've been leaning from my work in water quality, from you here, and from landscapers is that base prep; particularily with permeable, is the most important step. Design standards for a permeable surface require deep (15"+) of excavation. While the various permeable pavers, gravel etc are permeable, they will not truly function without a deep gravel reservoir below to fill and use to infiltrate with; i.e. gravel base prep. We'll connect the downspouts and I think install a dry river stone swale connected along side it to infiltrate and runoff move along it's existing course between yards. Plumbing it into the driveway base will provide additional infiltration. So, we'll likely choose aquastorm or similar (haven't decided between that and turfstone, but leanind towards turfstone) as it's durable, permeable and a good balance between convenience of concrete driveway, positive environmental qualities, and ease of maintenance rather than plain gravel. We have snow here, but not that much. I've been told by the landscaper that it stays warmer than concrete slab and will melt quicker. Not holding my breath on that claim, but one can hope. We'll be not be using salt as it's bad for the watershed. Due to the huge amount of run off on the sidewalk we've used salt in the past; it was a necessity for the dog walkers in the hood. My wife doesn't wear high heels! So, that's easy :)...See MoreHow can I fix this unappealing driveway?
Comments (2)It would not be a good idea, nor helpful, to plant along the drive edges, unless it is for a momentary bed ... but not along a lengthy portion. Doing so works against the positive qualities that most people are looking for in a landscape, such as making the approach to the home look welcoming. But healing the grass along the edge of the drive will improve the overall looks of it. First, find out if the blotchiness is going to be permanent, or wear off. Often concrete is coated with protectants that slow the drying, and these can cause blotchiness that will wear off in a few weeks or months. If it turns out that it's permanent feature, the only thing I can think of that will fix it is grinding. But that would be kind of a pain as it would take a while to cover a drive this size. A couple passes would need to be made with a diamond grinder. But these are aggressive and can cut score lines into the surface if one does not manipulate the machine with uniformity. After that, there'd need to be several passes with a carborundum grinder, which is a much less aggressive process, which mainly smooths out/fine tunes the diamond grinding. The end result, because it's like "slicing off" the top surface of the concrete, is actually very pretty and has a granite-like look. It is also not slick....See MoreAnn
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