sidewalk

kaiser715

kaiser715

Doing hard time
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Location
7, Pocket, NC
Fixing to finally get our old house on the market. The front sidewalk from driveway to front steps is busted up by roots and lifted. It is about 30' long, 4' wide, with a tight curved 90* turn.

Too short an order to call a mixer. Maybe only 1.5 yards. I can borrow my neighbors tub mixer, and it will take about 67 80# bags.

What are some other materials that would be fast, easy, and look good for the sale? Stepping stones would be a little hard with the turn, unless I square it up. Thought about curbing the area and dumping some white river rock or something, but don't know how great that would look or function.

Ideas?
 
I’ve had orders of about a yard delivered before. Have you checked with anybody about a minimum?

Mixing 67 bags will take a lot of time probably cost more than you can get the truck for.
 
Got a picture of what it looks like? Flagstone is cheap and easy around here but that would require you get rid of all the existing concrete. I've also got a mixer and have done the 60 80lb bag thing before and f that, never again. I don't know how nice your house is but unless it's on the upper wealthy class picky high end, I honestly don't see it being worth your time to fix...
 
Been a long time since i checked, but local place used to have a pretty hefty short load charge (under 5 cy or so). Pretty well paid for a load whether you used it or not.

67 80# bags would run me $213. Plus beer and pizza.
 
kaiser715 said:
Been a long time since i checked, but local place used to have a pretty hefty short load charge (under 5 cy or so). Pretty well paid for a load whether you used it or not.
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Got any friends that do concrete? I always get mine through my buddy that does concrete for a living. He buys enough that they'll deliver a yard for for him at a fairly reasonable price. They'd laugh at me if I called for little piddly shit like that.
 
But....I figure a cuyd of pea gravel or something, and some RR tie borders would cut the labor in half.
 
awheelterd said:
Got any friends that do concrete? I always get mine through my buddy that does concrete for a living. He buys enough that they'll deliver a yard for for him at a fairly reasonable price. They'd laugh at me if I called for little piddly shit like that.
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Got a buddy that drives a mixer. He can bring me a yard or two of "leftovers". But with only 15 or so minutes notice. Could be tomorrow, could be 2 weeks before it worked out.
 
Got any other areas that could use concrete? Maybe make and air conditioning pad and get 2-3 yds. Spend more that way with concrete at roughly $130/yd but you save a ton of time and labor that way.

Other than that, gravel and some type of border sounds pretty affordable.
 
There are some places around Charlotte that have sub-sized mixers that deliver small quantities, so it may be worth looking around a little in your area before giving up on a mixer..

Other than that, stepping stones with pea gravel or whatever you want to infill between them. I've seen some really cool walkways with smaller floating slabs (with pea gravel or whatever infill) but they won't save you more than 25% concrete over a solid walkway as they're mostly for a modern look and not to save materials.

Also, GrassStone (Grasstone?) pavers with either grass in the cavities or pea gravel, if you can find a precast supplier of one of those type of pavers in your area. Really any kind of paver would work for that, and you've only got 120 sqft so not a huge amount of work or cost really.

I've been thinking about the same things because our front walk is going to be relocated when we shift the driveway during our garage build. It sounds pretty similar to yours but just slightly longer.
 
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Post up a picture if possible. Gravel of any kind is gonna look rough. There are instant load mixers around Charlotte that will come and mix whatever amount that you need. They carry the supplies and then mix right there, or have a small truck with several small jobs lined up.
If it wouldn't affect drainage you lay 1" pavers right on top of it and it looks great when done. In this case I have poured out dry mortar mix (not concrete mix) directly on the existing sidewalk about 1/4" thick and trowel it smooth. If the heaving from roots is high then you just build up the mortar so it's not an abrupt hump. Lay pavers right on it. For edge retention it's best to overlap the existing sidewalk maybe an inch and when laying those edge pieces set them in wet mixed mortar and be sure to have the soil dug out a couple inches so that there is enough mortar to hold the pavers in place.
 
This is what I did. Front sidewalk was concrete and need to be replaced.

Used recycled bricks to edge the sidewalk and used 78 stone in the sidewalk. Used a tamp to consolidate the stone and it was good and hard and looked nice.

Pics are through the process but you get the idea.

Total cost was about $100 for the 78 stone and my time.

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When I had my post put in I had a local guy that mixed concrete onsite since I didn't need a full truck

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oscar80 said:
When I had my post put in I had a local guy that mixed concrete onsite since I didn't need a full truck

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With a batch mixer, or bags?

About 8 years ago, did help mix and pour a slab. In a backyard with no access. About 450 bags iirc.

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It was a truck that had the dry mix and he mixed it with water and came out the chute like a normal truck.

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