The Paving Blog

An interesting new technology being developed and actually making a small splash is a process known as “Resin Bound Paving”.  It is primarily a surfacing technique, adapted to apply color, texture, depth and artistic applications on an existing hard surface. Crumbling or flaking driveways, sidewalks and patios suffering from too much sun or weather, or from the salts and chemicals used to get rid of snow and ice, can be freshened up and made to last longer with this resurfacing.  The fact is, it even offers a bit more longevity by providing a layer of protection.

This technique takes typically 4-6mm pieces of almost any natural gravel, crushed stone, imported marble and recycled materials and binds them in a mass, held together by the most durable adhesives now being developed, polymer resins. This clear adhesive is amazingly strong and works exceptionally well out doors.  It can stand up to weather and to traffic.

The epoxies and resins used act as the binding agent for the actual stones or pieces composing the overall surface look. The color comes with the materials themselves and they can be applied in any wild number of ways.  I have seen many of these last quite a while, still as pretty as ever, still composed of fascinating bits of gravel, glass or what have you.  The surfaces possible are absolutely mind-b;lowing in their wide variety and nearly unlimited imaginative scope.

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.

Paver adhesives have become a most important tool in any driveway and patio installer’s construction tool arsenal. These amazing glues are useful in an increasingly wide variety of ways, from making more durable walls and steps, to placing new stonework atop existing slabs of cement. Paver glues have incredible adhering strength any more, even more so than cement itself. In fact, these glues are replacing cement in a wide area of application.

I have installed many many new patios over pre-existing patios and side walks. The cement base becomes our sub base making preparation nearly moot. The only true preparation is in the perfection of cleaning the surface prior to the gluing. Once clean of all greases, soils or any other contaminant, we apply glue during the laying of pavers in their normal patterns. The durability is mind blowing. The glues tend to dry rapidly and adhere most strongly with a clean base.

We have also been able to apply glue and the pavers to pre-existing stairs rising from a patio or driveway into a home. The ability to carry the design pattern to another platform has designers more than pleased. The look is strong and congruent with the laying field beyond, lending an organic touch of continuity to the entire project.

Strong and durable, paver adhesives have become yet another avenue toward beauty in the design and installation of driveways, walks and patios.

Epoxy stone work is yet another interesting and gorgeous possibility in paving surfaces. Put atop existing surfaces, the small and delightfully gorgeous, multi-colored pebbles are mixed with an epoxy slurry then spread with a trowel. The finished look is of a glossy and amazingly colorful product, just beautiful and also permitting a non-slip surface.

There can also be a wide range of stone products used. Mixed with the clear epoxy glue, a solid black or solid red surface appearance can be seeded with a few other colored rocks to present an amazingly spectacular finish. In general, installers have a few looks which are predominant choices and which have stood the aesthetic test of time by staying as pretty as they were when first applied. Earthy-toned, often, these surfaces do not overwhelm but, rather, they add a point of interest to the entire look.

Surprisingly, perhaps, these products are substantially durable. The epoxies now developed all have a nearly indestructible property, allowing all sorts of abuse, from snow shovel scraping to the elements of all kinds. Needles to say, the rocks are their typical few billion years old, having endured much worse than a home owner’s talents at messing things up.

I have become quite the fan of this item in recent years. It is not some glaring and obtrusive element at all. Far from it, the epoxy stone installations I have seen have been uniformly gorgeous and contributing to a wonderfully pretty environment. When lit,. by the way, with some landscape night lighting, they are uncommonly attractive.

We talked about paving kits in the last post, so today I’d like to focus on one specific type.

A circle paving kit is a relatively common modular construction made of differing materials but with a similar design trait: all the blocks or pavers inside the circle conform to produce a complete circle. In a design sense, it is a marvelous and frankly easier way of producing circular lines and an interesting pattern alternative. Curved lines always seem so striking inside the hard edges and durable properties of a paving material. One naturally suspects all paving to be some monolithic slab of asphalt or concrete and, yet, these delightful patterns can provide such a refreshing change from the boredom of standard monolithic paving. With the astounding new technologies of value-enhancing products now available as paving materials, the use of eye-catching patterns has become a New Wave in paving in general.

The wide range of materials testifies to the demand and interest in this sort of artistic license in what was once the very boring field of paving. From standard interlocking brick pavers to Terracotta-like stone angular placements within a system, circular paving kits offer a rapidly-installed and aesthetically-satisfying paving design alternative. Softer lines and more visual interest make circular paving kits a very substantially beautiful paving addition. The kits themselves are a step up in productivity. Once, an installer had to cut and fit himself, all the various parts of circular paving materials. Now, one can readily order them to match the pavers used surrounding these gorgeous circles.

A block paving kit is a packaged product complete with all the paving necessities to complete a specific task.  People often speak of “kits” as if they were utterly uniform in size and scope, but obviously paving needs are a different animal altogether.  There are very, very few applications in paving blocks which resemble one another and there is some satisfaction to be taken from this. Nevertheless, calling a packaged amount of pavers a “Kit” is apt.

The “kit” referred to here presents a preset, pre-patterned modular system of paving materials ready to install in a predictable and preset pattern. Beginning at an edge, one merely follows the directions given relating to the pattern and periodicity of angles and any odd insertions, such as circles or artwork.  An entire driveway, no matter the size, therefore becomes a “kit”, recognizeable owing to its redundancy. The puzzling aspects of the modularity soon take on the normality of any other craft or project inasmuch as they become predictable, requiring little tho0ught other than following directions for installation.

Kits make life a lot easier.  Fortunately, nor does “paving block kit” have to take on some less-than-acceptable connotation.  It is what it is, a kit for assembling a complex and satisfying bit of paving or patio surfaces, complete with instructions!

After the last post, another low-cost option for driveways came to my mind. Low-cost enough to carry on the discussion with -

Asphalt is the least expensive of all the different surfaces offered applied above the base itself. It has all the benefits and detriments of monolithic surfaces, in that it is intact and total as a surface. It is one color and consistent in that. It can be applied in shapes without form material, leaving curved edges, indentations at a designer’s whim, and without the forming and handwork of cement.

Asphalt’s only real disadvantages are that is has a definite life span and that it is monolithic, a problem when dealing with heaving and contracting sub soils in severe cold. Blazing heat can also act to loosen the integrity until it flakes, chips or loses durability in general as well.
There are protecting sealers, such as Slurry Seal that can be applied over the top and which can act to extend the life of an asphalt driveway, but these are required pretty much every year in more severe climates.