Your driveway is cracked or catered. Maybe water is refusing to drain from the driveway and instead pooling in the center. The solution is obvious: pave your driveway. But can you that yourself? It is just concrete right… You need to call a contractor, right?
The Answer is …
If you’re a layperson, don’t even try to pave your own driveway. You may believe that the space between your garage and the street is a small area, but it isn’t.
It will easily take you a half a day just to plant the forms. Even the planning of a driveway is daunting as it requires figuring out grades, turnarounds, curves and turns and whether to install a crown center, a gutter center or a grate in front of the garage. Paving a driveway with concrete, brick or cobbles is a multi-person job and isn’t stress free even for a team of professionals. So, leave the paving of your driveway to a home contractor.
If you have plotted out what sort of driveway you want, you at least know where to start. A residential construction contractor can work with you and give you tips on how to make your driveway even more effective and how best to make it a working part of your landscape.
Despite the technology that now allows concrete to be stained, dyed, stamped and made to look like the most expensive marble, brick or even wood, the basic work of paving a driveway is as hard as it’s always been. Indeed, it may be harder.
For example, the techniques of stamping concrete must be done right the first time as there’s no chance of going back and correcting mistakes. Flagstones need to be cut, shaped and laid one at a time, and even mats of paving stones need to be placed on a surface that’s prepared, infilled with builders’ sand and hosed down.
On top of that, there’s the local building codes that need to be considered. Permits may also need to be obtained. Depending on where you live, your building authority might require a driveway to be built a certain way and with certain materials.
The best way to find a contractor for your driveway is to ask your neighbors who did their driveway or look up a contractor in your town’s Chamber of Commerce. The contractor needs to be licensed, insured and bonded to make sure that he doesn’t abscond with your money while the driveway is half finished. You should also learn how much experience he’s had paving driveways. A badly built driveway can damage your car or even allow your garage to flood when it rains. It’s also important that you sign a written contract that spells out how much the job will cost, the payment schedule and the material that will be used.
Again, when it comes to paving your driveway let the pros do it.
