We live in a relatively newly built house where the driveway has so far consisted of a blissful mixture of gravel. This has inevitably led to a daily vacuuming of the hall. When the garage is now finally completed, it is now time to lay stone on the driveway, build a retaining wall towards the road and create a new patio at the front. In addition, we will build a wall around an elevation at the back although this will have the lowest priority in this project. Steppingstones will show the way to this elevation where in the future we will have planter boxes and a small gazebo.
The driveway that stretches behind the garage and the house is about 160 square meters and there we have chosen to put Benders Ocala, gray, which will be lined with cobblestone (antique graphite) to bring some natural stone into the otherwise rather strict driveway. The entrance stairs will consist of block steps in granite and the patio of granite holders, all in light antique. The patio will also be lined with cobblestones to make the whole thing hang together. The retaining wall chosen is Bender's Megawall graphite with associated Megacover in the same color. Elevation on the back will not have a Mega deck for the time being. From our wooden deck, Steppingstones (antique grey) will show the way to the elevation.
Before
End of May 2012. Before the paving began at all, it looked like this:
RED MARKED
The driveway itself was properly established with ground cloth and bearing layers already when the house was built, but after this we have realized that we want a patio at the front. This patio should already start at the same level as the entrance door and therefore this part must be raised. To keep the patio "in place", we will build a retaining wall that separates the driveway and the patio. Where the patio itself will take shape, there used to be grass, and therefore we dug out, laid a ground sheet and filled in with berry layers here. We hired an excavator for this, who also scraped the driveway to the right level so that we could fill in with less gravel. He then dug for a wall along the entire front, laid down a ground sheet and filled it with a bearing layer, approx. 20 cm. In the pictures below, we have marked in red where the digger should dig, and there are also some after pictures. Tip! After meeting with a garden architect, we were advised to always think about following lines in the garden. Consequently, we have chosen to lay the patio in front of the window as it creates a more harmonious impression with the house rather than just finishing the paving in a random place.
First load of gravel
July 2, 2012 When the digger left the driveway and the lot looked, if possible, even worse than before. Pretty soon that was no longer a problem when our first 18 tonne 0-18 rock crusher load of gravel arrived. All this had to be shoveled out with the help of a wheelbarrow and shovel, which turned out to be a real horse job.
The digger had shaved off so that there was about 15 cm left up to finished stone, so we would have room for 5 cm 0-18 crushed rock and about 5 cm 0-8 crushed rock and the stones 5 cm. Now an even layer of approx. 7 cm 0-18 crushed stone would be spread over the entire driveway. The reason why we spread 7 cm instead of 5 was that we expected the whole thing to sink about 2 cm when we toaded. Pretty soon we realized that it was almost completely impossible to spread an even layer of crushed rock with eye measurements. We therefore went and rented a rotation laser and this is something we have not regretted for a second despite a noticeable cost. Without this tool we probably would never have progressed, priceless!Tip!Don't skimp on necessary accessories/machines as this can affect both how long you have to spend and how good the result will be.
When finally the entire pile of gravel was evenly spread over the driveway, we went and rented a Swepac FB465 toad (465 kg heavy) and vibrated the entire driveway. The reason we chose such a large and heavy toad was that we wanted the pressure to go deep into the ground to reduce the risk of subsidence in the future. Again, this is a tool we couldn't do without. After the vibration, the entire driveway had sunk approx. 2 cm as calculated, but unwanted potholes had also formed. However, you don't have to worry about this because this was not the last layer of gravel. Tip!Don't forget to water before paddling! If you don't water properly, there is a risk that all the smallest components in the gravel will dust away instead of binding the surface together.
TWO LOADS OF 0-8 ROCK CRUSHERS
After we padded down the 0-18 rock crusher, two loads of 0-8 rock crusher arrived, totaling approx. 30 tons. We chose to lay the ground stone in 0-8 crushed rock instead of stone flour (0-4) because it will have a slightly better bearing capacity and the risk of subsidence is reduced. In addition, it is easier to work with in the rain, unlike stone flour, which can be perceived as sticky. The downside is that it was sometimes quite difficult to shave off (pictures of this will come later).
Then an intensive job began again with shovel, wheelbarrow, asphalt rake and sometimes rake. We asked the truck driver to spread the gravel over the driveway because we would have to run too much with the wheelbarrow.Tip!Before the gravel arrives, think about where and how you want it to be tipped, because you can easily panic once the old man is in place and he just wants to quickly tip and stitch. Then it's easy for everything to just end up in a pile.
Here again the rotation laser was invaluable as now it would be good if the levels matched up quite well. The whole thing was then padded down with the large toad that can be seen at the top right of the pictures.
Finally the stone arrived and we had time to clear the driveway so that parts of the stone could be placed there. In total, we had 34 pallets that were to be clamped onto the site. The driver was amazing to deal with and he moved the truck several times to get everything where we wanted it. We had a split delivery of our stone and all the granite and large street stone arrived about 10 days after the first load which contained wall and ground stone. Tip! If there are many pallets to arrive, it may be good to think carefully before where you want the pallets. We avoided a lot of work when the driver advised us where to put the pallets. At some point something went wrong and we had to move stones for an hour or so, which feels a bit unnecessary.
When the stone arrived, it was time to dive straight into starting the wall. The wall had to be finished before we could toad the patio with the big toad, otherwise we thought the bearing layer would just collapse. In retrospect, however, I'm not sure if that was true because very little material vibrated away. In any case, we had to keep renting the big toad until we could vibrate the patio.
All said and done, aunt came and babysat for three days while we completed the wall facing the patio and the road. We had previously prepared the foundation work for the wall. First we had about 20 cm of bearing layer if previously mentioned and then topped with 0-8 rock crusher. We vibrated the bearing bearing down with a round 80 kg toad that we had to borrow from the excavator. To get accurate levels, we laid two parallel iron pipes in the 0-8 gravel and measured its exact levels with the rotary laser. A plank was then used to shave off the remaining gravel. In the trench to the wall, the toad did not go down between the pipes and the gravel was therefore knocked down with a shovel.
The levels turned out to be fairly accurate, but we still had to readjust a bit for each stone. The wall we chose to lay is Bender's Megawall, graphite. Each stone was measured with the rotary laser in all four corners and sometimes we had to shave off some gravel with a garden spade and sometimes we pushed in some extra gravel. A rubber mallet was used to finally pound the stone into place. How we got the wall completely straight will be in the next post. We measured the bend on the wall from the road, but the road didn't bend perfectly either, and therefore it was a lot of eye measurement. There was a lot of finesse with the rubber mallet.
Tip!Benders Megawall:Foundation stones are placed in the bottom and these have a flat side and one with a recess, the flat side must be placed downwards and the recess upwards. We have driven past houses where we have seen that you can make a mistake here and place the top stones at the bottom. This leads to the wall being pushed outwards by the material lying against the wall. Not great for a retaining wall. So read beforehand which of the stones are bottom stones (this is stated on the pallets). If you get to the bottom layer, just click in the remaining layers, as easy as that!
HOW DO YOU GET THE WALL STRAIGHT?
To feel satisfied, we wanted a really straight wall and therefore used a few little tricks. We started by measuring the length from the facade of the house to the inner edge of the stone (we chose the inner edge because the outer edge is rough). We then tried to keep this distance along the entire wall. When the wall passed the house, it became more difficult and we had to measure a point down by the road. This point was measured with string. The first part of the string was attached to the starting point of the wall and the string was then pulled out to the road. We checked that the cord was parallel to the house by measuring the distance between the cord and the house facade at the beginning of the wall and at the house junction.
In order for this to be accurate, a device was built with three pins (see picture) where the string could easily be moved a few millimeters by unscrewing the screw the string was attached to. It was then easy to make sure that the inner edge of the stones was flush with the string. If it wasn't all straight, the stone was tapped into place with the rubber mallet.
INVALUABLE TOOLS
When the wall was built, we would have been helpless without certain tools:- Iron pipe- Rotary laser- Rubber mallet- Sticks and mason's string- Transport cart We bought a transport trolley that can take up to 250 kg. Guess if it has been used during this paving. We loaded up to 8 bricks and then dragged them to the right place. Extra nice when all the normal stones were in place.
The wall almost completed
In the corners of the wall we have cornerstones that have been wrapped and the corners have then been glued with PL400. Otherwise, nothing has been glued except that the Mega cover will be glued on. The wall is largely completed here, except for the Mega cover, which will have to wait until there is time. A disadvantage of the earstones is that they are flat, and because they overlap, the normal stone that must fit together with the corner stone must be modified. We knocked off half the heel of the normal stone to make it fit in the corner. To remove the heel, we first sawed small notches down to the flat surface a few centimeters apart with an angle grinder and diamond blade, and then the pieces were knocked off with a hammer and chisel. See below for picture of the stone. The normal stones were just to click into the underlying stone. We then went and tapped the stones a little with the rubber mallet so that they would lie perfectly. Since we were a little unsure of how long we would have 4 stones at the height when we ordered, we bought normal stones for the top as well. This will still not be visible when we glue the Mega cover.
When the wall was finally in place, we padded down the bearing layer properly. We then topped up with 0-8 rock crusher and tried to gauge approximate levels with the rotation laser. The patio will slope by approx. 0.5 cm/m towards the road. It all ended with another toading with the big toad before it could be returned to the rental company. We padded the edges with the round 80 kg pad. Once the patio was paved, it became rock hard and we chose to place some of the granite and paving stone that came with the second load of stone here. Unfortunately, we then had to move a lot of this stone because we wanted to start with the patio so it turned out to be a mistake in the end.
GROUND WORK GARAGE DRIVEWAY
Time to speed up the garage driveway. As it looked now, the levels were fairly correct in terms of the slope of the driveway, but in order to get exact levels and that everything would be completely straight, we buried iron pipes in the gravel. A long tape measure was drawn along the entire driveway so we could know exactly how far we were from the garage. The pipes were then measured in with the rotary laser. The level of the pipe was measured at the two ends as well as in the middle. When the pipe lay perfectly, gravel was trampled down around the pipe so that it would not be able to move. A long board was then used to shave off the remaining gravel. After this, the gravel was stuffed between the pipes ( NOTE: Not on the pipes) . This means that the gravel sinks slightly and therefore a little more gravel was added and shaved off with the board. The procedure was repeated about 3-4 times for each area. After the last shaving, the gravel was not toad down. The pipes are removed and gravel is pressed down where the pipes have been to make it straight. This turned out to be a critical point so make sure to really press the gravel down into the furrows and try to get it all as straight as possible.
At this point in the project, we had realized that we will need a small toad quite frequently and over a long period of time and therefore we went and bought one for a fairly affordable SEK 3000. This toad weighs 65 kg which means that the vibrations do not reach down more than a few dm but at this point we only need something to push down the very top layer.
The foundation work is carried out for a few square meters at a time and then the ground stone is laid immediately so that the substrate is not destroyed. Laying the stone was easy once the foundation work was done. However, it was quite a heavy job. So we put Benders Ocala, a hammered ground stone with three different sizes (comes mixed) and the color of our stone is grey. Since we started laying slabs on the back and all the stone was on the driveway or the front of the house, we carved together a carrier plate where you could load half a layer of stone that could be carried to the back and then laid out immediately.
When a girl lays a foundation stone
It may be worth mentioning that the ground stone wears a lot on the gloves. Having been around to quite a few hardware stores, I can state that heavy duty gloves seem to be reserved for men or women with large hands. When you're a size 7 like me, you have to make do with sewing your gloves together with silver tape. Tip!Silver tape proved to be absolutely excellent for reinforcing gloves in various places. Where they need to be reinforced varies with the work. Otherwise, you can buy a lot of gloves because it really costs!
PICTURES DURING THE LAYING OF FLOOR STONES
Here are some pictures of how the work progressed:
GETTING IT RIGHT
There is a risk that the entire paving will pull away in one direction, at least when you lay as much as we did. To check that the lines stayed straight, we used a mason's string. Two people held each end of the string and then they fitted the string along a straight joint and checked that the joint remained straight over the entire driveway. If it deviated in any direction, it was just a matter of hitting (hard!) the sides of the stones with the rubber mallet until the whole joint was straight. If you have laid a very long distance before you discover that it is crooked, it is not possible to hit everything at once, but you have to remove a row and hit about 6-7 rows with stone at a time.
Is it crooked? Tap with the mallet
When it goes wrong
In some places, despite all the efforts, the sub-work was a little substandard. This especially happened in places where the pipes were, so spend some energy on this. Where we could sense small pits in the stonework, we had to completely sonically remove a number of stones, fill in with some gravel and knock all the stones down again. Since we were laying paving stones according to a pattern, it became important to keep track of the order in which all the stones should lie. Redoing small areas proved worthwhile as the entire paving became much smoother and neater. In some places, it was enough to go and knock down a few stones with the rubber mallet to make it look nice.
Storgatsten that lines the driveway
We have chosen to have cobblestones as an edge/demarcation on the driveway. Since the driveway is grey, we wanted to break it off with a slightly darker color and therefore chose graphite antique. Our large driveway becomes quite sterile and we are therefore happy to have lined it with natural stone so that there will be a little more life in the surface. In order for the paving stones to come down into the padded base, we had to dig away some gravel and then adjust the base separately for each stone because they are so uneven. You can try to get neater and more even rows by going through the stones and trying to get those that are roughly the same size in the same place. At the entrance, we made an extra effort to get it even and neat because you will see it so much. This job was not as difficult as laying all the paving stones, but it still takes time.
Cut paving stones
When the large street stone was in place, it was time to cut all the ground stones that would lie against it. We had drawn a string where the paving stone would be and then removed the nearest paving stones when we laid down the large paving stone. This turned out to be a big mistake.
Tip!If you are going to cut stones in a straight line, lay out all the stones and mark them where they are to be cut before they are removed. It is quite difficult to draw a perfect line when the ground stone has to be placed on top of the curb stone you have chosen.
We therefore marked each ground stone individually with a pencil and cut with an angle grinder and diamond blade (see above post). To prevent dust, we simultaneously watered the stone with the water hose. Since it was quite time-consuming, we only finished the driveway up to the beginning of the garage and saved a little on the back (for now).
Time for jointing
August 4, 2012 After a few weeks of grinding with gravel, toadstools, paving stones and cobblestones, it was finally time to join. We used Benders Flexifog, which is supposed to be a flexible hard joint. We started by pouring out two sacks at the bottom of the driveway and then worked down the joint diagonally with piasava broom. It took a few turns back and forth before the joint got down properly in the joints.Tip!Just slide the joint in front of the broom and don't sweep in its true sense because then the joint flies all over the place and who wants to waste expensive joint? The surface was then swept clean with a soft broom brush. Getting the surface completely free of joint was very difficult and in the end we had to give up and settle for doing the best we could. The instructions stated that you could use a leaf blower to remove the last bit, but since we didn't manage to find such a plus that the economy didn't really allow for unnecessary purchases, we ignored this. The result was still fully approved! When the joint was swept down and the stone was fairly free from joints, the surface was watered with a mist jet. It was hard to know how much to wear but we settled for making sure it got properly wet and it seems to have worked. Somewhere around here I got the smart idea to flush away some leftover grout with a stronger jet.Tip!DON'T do that :o) The joint started to foam and run away. We thought we had ruined everything and it felt really heavy. Now, despite this, it was still good. The white foam disappeared and you don't notice any of this, but still quite unnecessary. Rather spend extra energy on sweeping away the joint properly. Storgatsstenen's joints are very large, and therefore we chose not to lay down the Flexijoint here because it is, after all, relatively expensive, but here we joined with stone flour (0-4) instead. Against the entrance stairs, we spent a little Flexifog because we wanted it to look nice right here.
It must be admitted that we were a little worried about when the block steps were to be put in place. At the entrance, we have block steps that are 1.5 m long and weigh 177 kg. However, it all worked out very smoothly with the help of our beloved transport trolley and a wide conveyor belt. A sawed-off OSB board and then two wooden pegs were first placed on the flatbed of the wagon to create a space between the wagon and block steps. Two reasonably strong men then had to lift the block step onto the cart by wrapping around the conveyor belt and lifting it. Once on the wagon, it was just a matter of rolling away to the right place. The block step was then lifted down onto two wooden pegs and adjusted to the correct position before the block step was lifted straight up and someone (in this case me) pulled the pegs away. The conveyor belt was then easily pulled away.
The entrance stairs
The stairs to the entrance consist of two 1.5 m block steps in granite. The bottom step had to be buried very deep, but we couldn't find a better way to solve it. The foundation work was carried out in the same way as for the wall. However, here we used some sand at the top so that the step would have something to sink into. On with gravel, measure heights, vibrate, measure again, more gravel, check with a spirit level that everything was straight, vibrate, etc. This is almost becoming routine. Here, however, no iron pipes were used, but a spirit level and measuring stick had to suffice to ensure that the foundation work was perfect. The first block step was lifted into place according to the previous post. When the first block step was straight and fine (measured with a spirit level) and the step was in exactly the right place, the groundwork for the next block step was prepared. The same procedure with gravel, vibrate, measure, etc. was repeated once more. But then Voila! an entrance staircase!
The patio - part 1
August 5, 2012 When the wall was now up, the driveway almost ready and the entrance stairs in place, it was the patio's turn to take shape. Here we have chosen to lay granite slabs. In two places we broke off the surface with cobblestones. This was something we came up with during the course of the work, when we first thought of having a large area with only granite, but after a bit of thinking, it felt like the whole thing would have a bit more character if we broke off a bit and picked up the large street stone here as well. The entire patio is also lined with similar paving stones.
It's getting a bit run-of-the-mill at this point but again the ground work was done with iron pipe being measured in and gravel being laid on, shaved off and towed down. A bit of a surprise this time, however, was that we had stone flour (0-4) at the top because now slightly larger tiles were to be laid and the stones in the 0-8 gravel felt a bit large. One advantage was that it became much easier to shave off the surface, but as previously mentioned, the stone flour becomes sticky when it rains instead. Right at the entrance, however, we measured each stone individually with a spirit level, as this surface would be only slightly inclined towards the block steps. The granite holders were not always completely flat and therefore had to be readjusted somewhat in other places as well. Since the rotation laser was now returned, we had to adjust the slope of the patio (0.7 cm/m) in another way. Wires were strung up at the right level and with the right inclination and based on this the iron pipes could be placed at the right level. How high the wires should be was measured based on the wall. The patio has two different slopes with the missing large stone border marking a break in the slope. On the "corridor" that stretches from the entrance to the house node, the tiles lean towards the wall and on the large part (the patio itself) they also lean towards the wall, i.e. away from the house.
Storgatsten borders the patio
To mark the end of the patio, paving stones were laid in a rounded shape around the granite slabs. In the corner, a small rounded flower bed is created where a tree and some perennials will be planted. Hedges will later be planted along the wall, which will create a lovely sense of space on the patio. Because you want to dig away excess gravel and fill it with earth instead, while also wanting the stones to lie firmly in place, cement was mixed into the gravel before the paving stone was put in place. Each stone was then fitted to the correct level at the height of the raised string and the inclination (the stones should lie flat) was checked with a spirit level. When the cement gets moist (we didn't water but it got moist anyway) the stones are set firmly.
The patio - part 2
A few pictures of the patio and the driveway at the moment. Now a lot of tiles need to be sawn to complete the job.
The discount
Since we intended to have a flower bed along the driveway, we laid the paving stones over the flagstone here. In order for the whole thing to sit well, we cemented them with cement which we mixed with the 0-8 gravel. First, a channel was dug out along the cobblestone and this channel was then filled with cement. After it had all solidified properly, we dug out all the remaining gravel in the thought bed and filled it with soil.
The patio - part 3
We have been working on cutting granite slabs for the patio. It turned out that we measured a little wrong, which led to us having to have a small cut on every other slab away from the paving stones, but in the end it turned out well too.Tip!Make sure to always measure twice before you start to avoid some tricky solutions. Some things are not fun to redo! On the path of the patio that borders the driveway, we had intended to have decorative stone at the far end, but after much deliberation, we have come to the conclusion that there will be granite slabs there, and with this we can look forward to even more cutting. We have a cleaning hatch for the drain in the middle of the patio, and in order for it to look nice here, it was necessary to round holes in a granite slab (see picture). This was solved by cutting a plate at the center of the hole. Then a semicircle was cut out in each part by first notching the plate both on the front and the back in the right shape using a small angle grinder with a diamond blade. This was too small to be able to saw through the entire plate, but cutting a small piece worked fine. Then the large angle grinder was used to create notches through the half circle. The pieces that were then formed could be knocked off and by working with the small angle grinder, a neat semi-circle was formed. It took a lot of tiles before we came up with this solution as they tended to crack.
Progress
We have made some progress, even if the pace has slowed considerably since the work started. All Megacovers have been placed on the wall, although they have to be cut at 45 degrees in the corners to make it look good. We have realized that we will have a planter box under the oblong kitchen window (next to the front door) and therefore we will build on with bricks there as well. That's exactly where the project stands and stomps right now. We are also working our way backwards with the cobblestones that line the passage between the garage and the house. Some work remains mao, but I still offer some pictures from how it looks today.
Wall down kitchen window
One advantage of doing all the work yourself is that you discover new solutions while you're at it. After a while, we felt that the entire driveway would feel good with something that lightened the impression (more green) and that a little more wall in the form of a planter box under the kitchen window would be very good. All said and done, we did some digging and put down some extra wall and voila, a framed entrance and room for additional vegetation.
In the last month it has been cut stone to curse butnow we are there , there will be no more small gravel in the hall because all the gravel is gone. Enjoy!
More pictures for those interested
A few extra pictures.
In darkness
Yes, I'm aware that it gets spammy with pictures, but when you put your soul into something, why not show it off? :O)
Before and after
Now I'm going to remind you a little of what I can achieve in one summer. Before and after pictures are here.
Part project 2 - wall at the back
On our back side we will create an elevation with the help of a retaining wall (Benders Megawall graphite) and granite blocks will form a step up the elevation where next year a conservatory will be created with planter boxes and some type of seating. Since there was quite a bit to dig, we dug out by hand. About 30-40 cm deep. We then laid ground cloth in the entire gutter and filled it with 0-8 gravel which was tod down. In order for the gravel to be at a reasonably good level, we waited for darkness (something you don't have to wait for so long this fall) and used a regular laser to measure the correct levels with a stick. We marked the position of the laser on the stick at the start of the wall and then made sure that level was maintained along the entire extent of the wall.
Curved wall
Here we wanted to create a living shape on the wall and adapted the swing on the wall completely to eye measurements. It's actually really easy to make a curved wall and make it look good (much easier than a straight wall) so don't be afraid to try it. In the absence of a rotation laser, the stones were laid down here and adjusted with a spirit level so that they would lie completely flat at all points and level with the stone that had been placed before.
Build stairs
When all the stones were in place, it was time to lay the stairs. First, some Benders Ocala was placed at the bottom for the first step to support. This is to create an inviting entrance to the stairs and to make it easier to cut the grass further on. In the same way as before, ground cloth was laid at the bottom and 0-8 gravel was padded down to get a flat surface. When Ocalan was in place, gravel was pushed down behind Ocalan at the same level so that the block step would have a flat and even surface to lie on. When the first step was in place, the procedure was repeated with gravel that was padded to a flat surface at the correct level and then the block step was added. As before, we had an enormous benefit from our transport trolley, which made the work much easier and you didn't have to lift particularly far. Planks were used to move the block steps from the carriage to the right place (see pictures), which meant that a lift was avoided and the step could be pushed into the right place.
Wall and stairs ready
When the stairs were put in place, corner stones and a bit of wall were laid to get a nice rise. Since it is late in the fall, the ground is starting to freeze and the construction of the plateau itself with plants etc. will have to wait until spring when the light has returned. In the spring, there will also be lighting so that the wall can be seen even when it is dark outside, which will also be a boost for the entire garden.
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