What You Should Know About Block Paving
Block paving is the way to go for anyone considering getting a new driveway. If your old driveway is made out of cracked cement or asphalt, you may consider getting a new driveway made of block paving. Not only does block paving drives look better than asphalt or concrete, but they can last forever. If you take a look at an older city in the United States, you will see cobblestone streets. These streets are hundreds of years old and have withstood the test of time.
Advantages of block paving
Take a look at the roads on which you travel. They are made up of asphalt or cement, usually a mixture of both. Note how often they are being repaired as opposed to the cobblestone streets. Chances are that you have never seen the cobblestone street being repaired as it only takes an hour to remove a cracked brick and replace it with a new brick.
Block paving is the only driveway that you can actually install yourself, as opposed to an asphalt or concrete driveway. Both of those types of driveways need the expertise of a concrete or asphalt company as they both require the liquid mixture of tar or cement to be poured onto the driveway area.
Types of block paving
If you opt to go with block paving, you can therefore do it yourself. This may take you quite some time, but will be well worth it. There are several different types of block paving that you can consider. Cobblestone is one that is very popular. Other block paving consists of stone blocks made of sandstone or limestone, and bricks.
How to do your own driveway
To lay your own block driveway, you have to remove the old driveway. This is probably something for which you will need help as the old driveway must be broken down and taken up. You will have to order a dumpster so the old driveway can be hauled away. Then you are ready to begin.
You will have to frame out where you want to place the driveway. This can be done with wood or even string. This shows the general shape of the driveway. When you have completed this, you are ready to begin laying block paving. You will need a trough and cement as you lay each block one at a time, fixed together with cement.
Like laying bricks…
Laying a block driveway is like laying bricks, only you are doing it on the ground. The same concept is employed for block paving as for brick laying. You will have to follow the same type of pattern that a bricklayer does, making sure to position bricks so that they end up lining up at different angles. The design that you use will depend on the bricks. You should make sure that the design is consistent throughout the paving process.
While a simple cobblestone driveway may be easy to install yourself, you may have a difficult time forming an intricate design on your block paving driveway with just an average knowledge of this task. Either way, you will not be sorry for getting a driveway made out of block paving by the experts.
|
