Front Garden and Pavement
Our place has a paved front area that is stepped up from the sidewalk by 8 or 10 inches – though I don’t know why. No other places on the block have it, except the sister house to ours. Anyway, our plans are to cut some openings and garden it up, before finally repairing whatever’s…
Our place has a paved front area that is stepped up from the sidewalk by 8 or 10 inches – though I don’t know why. No other places on the block have it, except the sister house to ours.
Anyway, our plans are to cut some openings and garden it up, before finally repairing whatever’s left, plus our stoop and gates. We are ready to start some gardening, but we don’t have the full repair funds ready this year. The winter was tough on the pavement, though, and now it is cracking and moving forward, like it’s going to spill out onto the sidewalk.
Three questions:
What is the step-up for?
Will opening some garden plots in the front help the situation by relieving strain, or make it worse?
Is there a way we can shore up this listing step on our own before we eventually need to replace all of it?
Thanks for the pointers. The step up has certainly helped preserve our basement, so perhaps drainage is the reason.
We’re concerned about the domino-effect of repairs we know is coming out here – what I’d like to know is whether we can do cement now and not get into the gates, fence, and stoop; because everything is going to need it eventually.
So far where there’s other cracking in the cement there doesn’t seem to be any rebar at all in there. When, historically, did rebar become standard? This is definitely some old work.
Other recommendations for place to get quotes from? We’ve got some funky, but trashed, fencing that we want to preserve/replicate, so we’d rather use people used to this kind of smashed historical aesthetic.
i might imagine the raised level was to prevent water from coming into the house from the street, or drainage of some sort for heavy flood days or if the sewer in your neighborhood tends to back up.
cutting it up isn’t going to do you any favors. there is a possibility there could be rebar or steel mesh inside the slab so keep that in mind.
Call Amin and get a quote.
Many brownstones have a raise surface like yours. If the paved area is a solid mass of concrete, it will be a more difficult job thanif it’s sectioned. Either way, removing the concrete from inside the edge will probably hasten the deterioration of that edge are that the fence sits on.
Once the cracks appear, it’s the freezing and thawing of the water that infiltrates that causes the damage. Best way it=s to remove what you want and build new forms around the edge and pour new concrete there. Make dure they use some rebar to reinforce the pouring. And, it should be deep.