This client reached out to us because they had a concrete front walkway that they wanted to replace and they looked at getting a front porch renovation done as well. They wanted to expand the walkway to make it more inviting and dress up their front porch to make it more aesthetically appealing. So we came in and demoed the entire concrete front walkway and prepared it for pavers. We also offered them the option of a natural stone cap around their front porch with pavers that match their front walkway in the interior of their front porch.
We excavated 8 inches and disposed of that excavated material. With the height of that concrete and that excavated material we had room for 8 inches of base material, 1 inch of bedding layer for leveling the pavers, and the height of our pavers. That gets us up to the grade of the top of asphalt for the driveway. In this case we chose to use a 3/4 inch down to fines aggregate which is called “A” Gravel or a Granular “A”. This would be called a traditional base. Typically we like to use an open graded base which is a 3/4 inch clear stone so there is no fines in that water is able to work its way down through that system and out. However whenever we are preparing our base next to an existing pavement, in this case the asphalt driveway, we match the base material with whatever that pavement is and in this case it is a traditional base for the asphalt driveway.
We then start to prepare the base and compact it while also adding in a layer of biaxial geogrid. This geogrid interlocks with the larger aggregate and stabilizes it. It is an inexpensive material to add stability to the project. We also added a woven geotextile to the bottom of our excavation to separate our subsoil from our base material so there is no mixing. This geotextile also add stability to the project by bridging over any minor settling in the future.
We then start with leveling our step. Our client opted for a 4 foot step though in this case we recommended them to have a 6 foot cover the entire open area of their porch. We measure the top of grade to top of porch after we add our 2 inch caps. In this case we have about 14 inches from top of pavers to top of porch. So we installed a 7 inch step and then the final step up is 7 inches to the top of the porch. We cut that difference in half to ensure a suitable and consistent step up. We level our step on top of a screed layer of HPB or High Performance Bedding. This is a 1/4 inch clean chip. Each block gets leveled side to side and front to back creating an outline for our next course to lay on top of. Our next course is laid on top which are 6 inch wall blocks in the ends get chiseled off to expose that rock face which matches the face of the wall blocks. We then add our 2 inch cap on top to dress it all up.
Once our step is set we can then start screening a leveling layer for our walkway. We set up our pipes two and three eighths of an inch lower than where we want to be on the steps which accounts for the height of our pavers. Then we slope those pipes to match the slope of the driveway to ensure our paver height is going to be matching the same height of the asphalt driveway. We then start to lay our pavers and in this case we added a little bit more of an intricate design with mixing and matching a Shale Grey and Onyx Black colors throughout it. In this case the client did not want any border stones so we drew a curved line to end our walkway and and cut that.
We then installed our plastic edge restraint along that outside edge. To curve the plastic edger strain the edges need to be clipped so that we can curve it and then we add our 10 inch spikes every 6 inches. We also add a concrete edge restraint along the side of the walkway where the asphalt will be paved to the Pavers. Whenever installing edge restraint, the bedding layer needs to be scrapped away and the edge restraint is then secured directly onto the base. We then install polymeric sand in the joints of our pavers. This sand is swept in, compacted using a vibratory plate compactor with a mat to protect the pavers, blown off, and activated with water. It is important to vibrate the sand down to the bottom of the joint to ensure the entire joint is filled with sand. Otherwise that sand will erode down into the joint and that sand will fail. We fill the joints to 1/8 inch below the bottom of the chamfer, blow off the residue and dust from the surface using a leaf blower, and spray the sand following the manufacturer’s guidelines.
The porch is then prepared first with natural stone caps. We cut the caps around the pillars to ensure the end product looks nice. Each cap is then adhered to the surface of the porch using a hardscape adhesive. This adhesive needs to be in perpendicular lines to the caps to ensure any water works its way under those caps and out rather than trapping it. With the caps adhered, we can then lay a non-woven geotextile in the inside and screed concrete sand on top of it for pavers to lay on.
These pavers are specifically for concrete overlays as they are slightly thinner than patio pavers. With our 2 inch natural stone caps, the pavers are 1 3/4 inch so we need to have 1/4 inch of concrete sand for the bedding material. Our pavers are then laid on top with a slight crown towards the caps so if any water gets on the surface it is able to drain off. We also matched the same pattern as the walkway with a Shale Grey and Onyx Black mixture throughout.
Finally, we install our polymeric sand which is made specifically for overlays in the joints of these pavers much like we did with our walkway. Our final result is a front walkway that is inviting and a front porch which is aesthetically appealing compared to a bare concrete porch.
Materials Used: