The Paving Blog

The modern – and necessary – urge to reclaim so much of what we build and package with has supplied us with many avenues to recycle.  Now, paving itself offers much the same process at an ever-widening rate.  Lets face it, the logic behind recycling has always been perfect.  It has just been easier to dig another gravel pit.

Nowadays, we have all seen those huge machines that scrape the top layers off asphalt and even concrete road ways and city streets.  These behemoths send all the “scrapings” behind itself in a neat row, easy for the machinery to pick up and transfer to a waiting truck.  What many don’t realize is that this material makes a fabulous base material. Many highways are now utilizing this recycled cement and asphalt by using them under the newer constructions, as their basic, compact able material.

In fact, there are now companies opening up everywhere reselling this “found” material which was oince relegated to landfills.  It is a great step in re usability and recycling.  The necessity for utilizing these materials goes without saying.  As we approach a finite end to the bountiful Nature we inherit, fewer local gravel pits will emerge and those that will, will open farther and farther from their intended place of use. These newer companies grind up the concrete and asphalt into separate areas, making it small enough to meet compaction specifications and producing the “fines” which allow these aggregates to bind together so tightly.

Look for these places when either shopping for base material for a driveway or look as well when you are dismantling one.  These guys are becoming important and they represent a great movement in conscientious recycling.

Going back to the same topic as the last post – I found a good shot of this product by Amazon, so thought I’d throw in a few more words about this fantastic kit. This one happens to be a box of 10 Kerr Lighting Cambridge Paver Lights sized 6″ x 9″.

This is an excellent article of lighting. A deep glass look of translucent beauty, even without the lights on, it provides a striking contrast to the solidity and opaque impermeability of the pavers alongside it. But its most important virtue, naturally, remains its nighttime properties.

Soft, muted lighting has the effect of providing an ambient lighting from the refraction from air particles and reflective surfaces of leaves, flowers and other surfaces nearby. The up lighting effect glows from underneath those higher elements, bringing them into more relief and highlighting effects like color and texture. Naturally, shadows are also included in the menagerie of cool effects brought on by lighting, as they shine on walls and up light adjoining plants and trees.

The security aspects of having a driveway which is navigable and clear ion even the darkest nights is an abundantly clear ‘plus’ in the addition of lights in a roadway. driveway or sidewalk. Aside from the muted beauty of the lighting and its effects, the very nature of well-lit byways provides a warm and very secure sensation. It is also a very welcoming and elegant presentation for visitors and neighbors. The value-added dimension of having this relatively inexpensive and easily-installed feature at one;s home not only causes increased value owing to its normal beautifying qualities, but also provides a rare and precious curb appeal.

Special effects in paving are a chance for someone to show off his slight bit of weird and wonderful genius in an interesting and designer-pleasing way. Bridges, curved effects, cantilevered pool edges all show a special bit of pizazz and out-of-the-ordinary imagination that translates magnificently to the landscape fancier’s eye. These features are an overall part of any exterior landscape and they can thereby enhance not just the experience of those who live there, but they can also simply delight the sense of any visitors. For pure curb appeal and value enhancement, few items in the exterior can produce as much intense interest in a home.

The suspended bridge shown here was poured concrete which was then stamped and colored to produce an arresting and most interesting entry to this once-model home. Indeed, bridges over water features are a sort of Holy Grail to many homeowners. We thought this one performed that function perfectly.

The other picture is of what is commonly referred to as an “Infinity Pool Edge”. Water consistently flows over the front edge, collected and dispersed below. What is most interesting here is that the pavers shown in the foreground are atop a cantilevered 3 foot ledge over the water. Not only does the cantilever aspect form an interesting shadow over the water mere inches below it, but at night a bright light underneath the suspended slab shines brightly and outstandingly, hidden well below the edge.

Addressing a question I received via email today, so here goes -

Pavement cracks come from a small variety of sources.  Typically, both in asphalt paving and concrete paving, the sub grade below the roadway itself determines pretty much everything dealing with the heaving and contraction issues which severe weather induces.  Asphalt is nowhere as rigid as cement, but it can also crack under stress.  Naturally, no crack ever improves, after that point.  It is a matter of widening and becoming yer more glaring and severe, separated more so by continuing the same stresses and now even factoring in the presence of pockets of trapped water which will further erode the integrity by freezing itself and causing flaking or absolute separation.

Concrete, as a rigid monolithic piece, will always crack.  Even the best professionals understand this.  What typical highway construction specifications insist on is the presence of re bar, or rods of connecting metal, imbedded inside the cement itself, which will take the cracking and do not allow it to separate in any gross manner. Naturally, severe cracking will need repairing, but re bar gives the surface a chance to last longer as a viable road or driveway surface.

Typically, expansion joints are placed in concrete literally “inviting” it to crack along predetermined lines.  Once this is done, if it happens, then the preset position has been accounted for and dealt with.  Further damage would necessitate replacement of the concrete however, if the cracks appear elsewhere.

It is not a comfortable or productive feeling seeing a crack form in concrete.  As I stated above, cracks don’t “get better”. But they can be filled, reducing if caught on time, further damage.  Once weather and water are allowed inside the cracks, a surface is not long for this productive world.  Improper placement of the expansion joints is a very common reason for cracking.

These little patio pavers are perfect for a small budget and a do-it-yourselfer with some know how about sub surfaces. The advertisement says these can be “pressed into a lawn”, as if that were easy to do. While they may have enough surface area to “float” on a purely soil surface, if you are interested in a more long-term solution, my recommendation would be to use at least a bed of sand underneath, if not compact able gravel base material. Their primary use is for patios which typically doi not bear a great deal of focused weight, so their is less need for the stringent prequalifications involving subgrade strength and durability of, say, a driveway.

Click to See Full Product Details at Amazon.com

Just the same, I would highly recommend just a bit of forethought and some base materials be applied to prevent a sinking of the corners and sides of each individual paving stone shown here. A result of a bad placement would be very unsatisfying and require reworking one more time – or repetitively during the years to come.The mud alone would make you no go back. Think permanent with this stuff. It pays of in the long run. A few hours more work once will save about 24 later.

So, ever wondered how they make those neat bricks used in paving?

A paving block making machine is a fascinating and very complex machine.  The best ones produce the pavers used in streets and on walkways, patios and driveways throughout the world, now, a modern paving alternative which is rapidly becoming a trade in itself. Inasmuch as paving blocks are now produced with PSI (Pounds Per Square Inch) ratings of up to 8,500 PSI, there is some magic in all this.

A standard city sidewalk minimum specification is about 3,500 PSI.  Curbs and gutters in standard city specifications are around 4,500 PSI.  Obviously, then, you can see that interlocking brick pavers rated at 8,500 PSI are a durable, very hard and, therefore, intriguing possibility. The fact is, many cities are now opting to pave city streets in these brick pavers. Their durable and modular basis means they will accept more abuse, for one thing, and the fact that they are applied as segments within a whole make them more flexible. thus lessening the impact of weather in terms of heaving and breaking.

The paving block making machine has the tendency to shake out all air pockets within the brick itself, one of the primary reasons for such a major step up in durability.  Using a finer sand and more cement, the products is also compressed at a high level inside the form of the machine itself.  As well, the best paving block making machine has an option for various patterns of construction, meaning a wide number of optional forms and products can be produced.  These machines are not for the light-hearted.  The deliver a fantastic product and are extremely pricey.

Circle paving has come full circle since the recent popularity has blown up the market for pre-cut stones and bricks. What once was an onerous chore of slicing and dicing bricks and stones by contractors, has now become a matter of ordering from producers of already-cut and already-formed pre-cut circles to match or to fit within an existing product.

Circle paving’s primary asset is purely aesthetic, although there is also a very distinct value-added aspect to modular paving in general. When you consider how almost all paving materials have historically been just huge slabs of cement or asphalt in modern times, the advent of landcaping’s increased popularity has led the movement towards and more aesthetically-pleasing exterior home environment in general. Another primary consideration has dealt with how a more interesting paving product measurably enhances the value of a home.

Circle paving adds a relatively easily installed alternative to monolithism. Instead of boring stretches of flat-colored and redundant lengths of driveways and patios, we now have the alternative of inserting these focal points of high interest, involving to the eye in their complexity and symmetry. So, along with the surprising and numerous choices now abounding with colors, we also now have an amazingly satisfying abundance of patterns and materials to please the eye and the sense. What was once an afterthought may now be included in the most intimate planning successfully and gorgeously.