Saturday, August 23, 2014

A driveway….finally!



We FINALLY have a driveway!!!! Not a dodgy ramp or a temporary crusher dust driveway but a proper, ridgy-didge exposed aggregate driveway! Oh..and a path to the front door.



The one thing I love about this (ongoing) house project is how much I learn with every new stage and it was the same with the driveway. I NEVER knew how much work was involved in what's really quite a small driveway.


The framing was done the day before. They had to take out a section of the kerb and because the house will be on a small lot eventually (once we subdivide) then the driveway at the boundary can only be four metres wide.

The garage is six metres wide so we had to taper it in by two metres. Originally I wanted it to taper in to the path side but the contractor said it would look better to be symmetrical so I took his advice and I'm happy with the outcome.


We started the path at the outside of the pillar and I didn't realise how wide it really was. The plan though is to put plants and landscaping on either side so I think it won't be as noticeable when that's done.


They started the pour REALLY early the next morning (sorry neighbours) and they seemed to have a cast of thousands. Of course it hasn't rained in months so the clouds looming as they poured but luckily the rain held off until later in the day.  We were all a bit nervous.

We left the footpath in because it's a main-ish road and we didn't want to block the path for the week it needed to dry.



It took the better part of the morning just the pour the concrete in and then whatever it is they are doing here took a few more hours.

Just after they'd started the pour, the concrete supplier rang to say that they'd forgotten to put the in the accelerator that would help the concrete dry faster, so they were in for an extra four hours waiting.

Watching paint dry and waiting for concrete to dry is as boring as each other.

Fun fact - did you know that to dissolve the top layer to expose the aggregate, they pour sugared water while it's still drying? Weirdness. He literally just had a bag of Coles sugar in a bucket.



Waiting for a week for the driveway to cure before I could drive on it was also painful…



But ta-dah! The day finally came and I could drive STRAIGHT into the driveway. It was awesome! And raining!

The concreter came back about five days after the pour to do an acid wash to fully expose the aggregate and cut the expansion lines into the concrete, that's why it looks so much darker than the earlier photos.

Now…just to recap on how things used to be…



…the original (no) driveway. The original cross over driveway was on the left side block so we would enter through there and just park at the front of the house or on the spare block, but couldn't even park a car in there for the first six months until…


...the temporary crusher dust driveway, which allowed us to get the car in the driveway, but we also seemed to drag half the crusher dust into the house as well.


Yep, this is definitely the best! The fence and landscaping is the next things on the agenda so watch this space. 


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