Ask This Old House

Kevin

Picture the front of your house. It's the face of your home. If you close your eyes and think about what your house looks like, the front of it is usually the side that comes to mind. While curb-appeal projects can make a significant visual impact, nothing adds more value to the front of your house than a proper walkway. In this special episode, we'll weigh the pros and cons of new walkway materials. We'll show you all the ways a walkway job can go wrong. You got to be kidding me. And we'll share some of the best practices for replacing and installing it.

Mark

You just did your first walkway. Congratulations.

Kyle

Sounds good.

Kevin

That's all coming up next on "Ask This Old House." The shape, style, and size of a walkway helps define the space and design of the front of the house, and there are plenty of materials to choose from for the project. First, there's natural stone, which is great for natural landscapes that might mimic a small, woodland path.

Jenn

These are New England stepping stones.

Woman

I love it.

Jenn

So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna lay them out, and then we'll just them at the end, okay?

Woman

Okay.

Kevin

There's also bluestone, which is a popular material in New England. Its beauty and smooth, flat surface makes it a great option for front walkways, but it's a little more expensive than other materials. A more cost-effective solution comes in the form of pavers. Pavers come in a uniform size, which makes them easier to install. Brick pavers work well in more traditional landscaping, but concrete pavers are also an excellent option.

Mark

We're gonna lay this in an ashlar pattern.

Kevin

They come in different sizes and colors to match just about any landscape design.

Mark

I love this color. It's gonna work out perfectly.

Kevin

Recently, Jenn and local landscape contractor Rod Pappas helped the homeowner completely redesign her front landscape. One of the central features of the new landscape -- a front walkway that could safely transport the homeowners' wheelchair-bound mother.

Jenn

Alright. So, here are our pavers. These are all modular. But we picked the color to have earth tones in it.

Shoshana

I like the color, but are we gonna have any concern with my mom, the wheelchair getting through?

Tom

No. They're gonna fit together really close. There's not gonna be any mortar joints. So we're talking about maybe 1/16 inch

in between those joints. Jenn

They're gonna be tight.

Shoshana

Real tight?

Jenn

Yeah. So it's not gonna be any divots that you're gonna fall into.

Shoshana

Okay. This is going pretty fast.

Jenn

Well, there's modular bricks, and as long as you have the proper base that we put down, it's gonna fly.

I love these colors. Jenn

I know. You really could tell the color scheme when it's all laid out. That's why if you're ever getting samples for a job, get at least five so you could really get a sense of what the true palette is.

Tom

Okay. Jenn, we're gonna use this piece of pipe, measuring the distance from that border there

to the edge of this pipe. Jenn

Alright.

Tom

And after we get that, I'm gonna put this brick on there to hold it in place. Now we're ready to move on to the next spot. Okay, we're gonna trace this line of PVC with a pencil on top of the brick, and then come back with a wet saw and cut it after we remove the pipe.

Shoshana

The yard looks incredible. Thank you both for all your help.

Kevin

While most walkways will always look good immediately after installation, walkways are susceptible to failure over time as they are exposed to weather and natural causes. Sometimes landscaper's and hardscapers can anticipate these natural occurrences and build for them. Other times, it's a little out of their control. A few years ago, Roger helped the homeowner repair a section of his asphalt walkway after it had been lifted up by a tree root.

Roger

Let's see what we got. If I put the level across this hump, this is heaved up almost two inches. Now, I agree with you, I think there's definitely a root from this tree growing underneath the walkway.

Paul

Is there anything we can do to fix it?

Roger

Well, it's an asphalt walkway, and it's in real good condition, other than for this spot right here. So, asphalt is fairly easy to patch -- much easier than concrete would be. But the first thing we have to do is find out just how big that root is and get it out of this. The important thing is gonna be to cut the root off clean. If you took a grub hoe or something and just ripped it off, it could rot, and that rot could end up getting back into the tree. But we're gonna cut it off clean, just like you would a branch, and it will heal. Well, Paul, we were right. It's definitely this root that's causing the heaving of the walkway. Now, this root originates up at the flare or the tree, comes down underground, goes right underneath the walkway, then it travels out into the lawn, looking for food and water to bring back to the tree. Now, if you look here, this is about a three-inch-diameter root. That's not a major root for a tree this size. We cut it off clean, it'll heal properly, and this tree will be fine. I'm just gonna take my handsaw and start underneath.

Paul

How come you're cutting on the bottom?

Roger

Well, Paul, if I just cut from the top through, there's a chance when I finish that cut, I could rip the bark on the bottom. And I want to have a nice, clean cut. And by doing it this way, I will. Now, with that root cut on both sides, what I want to do is cut the asphalt. That way, we can dig that root out.

Kevin

Once Roger and the homeowner dug out the old asphalt, they dug the root out from underneath the walkway.

Roger

Alright. Let's see if it'll come out. Look at that. Alright. Now, what we need to do is start building up so we can get up to the level where we'll put in our asphalt. So if you grab that sledgehammer behind you and I'm gonna grab mine, we're gonna go right around this trench, making sure that everything's completely compact. Then we'll put a layer of gravel on top of that and keep building up. There we go. Keep packing that down. Paul, that looks pretty good. You've got it really compact, and the depth is just about where I want it for the new asphalt.

Kevin

Laying two 2x6 boards on either side of the walkway to act as a form for the asphalt, they fill in the hole with asphalt cold patch and compact everything down.

Roger

Now that it's fully compacted, you can walk across it.

Paul

Really?

Roger

I'm not kidding. Go for it.

Laughs

Paul

Look at that.

Whoa. Paul

That's great.

Roger

Now, what I want you to do is wait a couple of weeks and let this dry out and then seal-coat the whole walkway. No one will ever know you put a patch in there.

Paul

Roger, I can't thank you enough for coming out.

Roger

Thanks. It turned out really well.

Paul

It did. Thank you.

Kevin

Tree roots aren't the only thing that can disrupt the walkway, which Roger taught to his former apprentice, Corey, a few years ago.

Roger

Corey, I got an e-mail from this homeowner, and I thought you might be able to help me figure out what his problem is. Now, we've got a nice set of granite stairs, and we come up to a paver walkway. But look at these pavers. They've all moved and slid, and they're really dangerous the way they are now. What do you think caused it?

Could have been water. Roger

Well, if water did it, it would have to be a real strong, gushing current. And I don't think that's the case here.

Corey

What if the water froze and went up and down with a thaw?

Roger

Yeah, it would only move it a little bit if it did that, and it's opened it up quite a bit right now.

Corey

Yeah.

Roger

So what I think it is, chipmunks.

Corey

Oh, really?

Roger

Yeah. See this literally huge hole?

Corey

You think they're still in there?

Roger

I doubt it. Look at that trail, Corey. See where they bored right through underneath these pavers?

Corey

Oh,

yeah. Roger

No wonder they settled.

They make two types of burrows. Corey

Okay.

Roger

One of them's really shallow in an area like this with a lot of ground cover so they can come in and out, not get eaten by a hawk or a fox or something like that. But they also have another burrow, probably 15 to 30 feet away from here, that's one to three feet deep. And that's where they winter over and store their nuts and everything for the whole winter. So I think the first thing we should do is tie the shrubs back so we can actually see what we're working with and we'll go from there.

Kevin

To fix the walkway, Roger and Corey pulled up the sunken pavers and compacted the base with new pack material. The pavers could then be reset into the walkway, ensuring that the pavers remained level, both the granite step and the rest of the walkway. But in order to truly repair the walkway, they needed to prevent new chipmunks or other critters from burrowing under the walkway again.

Corey

Roger, this came out great.

Roger

Well, we're not done yet. We have to think about the problem we had caused by...

Those chipmunks. Roger

That's right. They bored underneath, and the whole thing settled.

Corey

Could we prune back some of the bushes, so that way they have no place to borrow under?

Roger

Well, these people have a very naturalistic landscape here, and I'm sure they want to keep it that way, so that's not gonna be a key answer here.

Corey

What else can we do?

Roger

Well, if I was building a vegetable garden and wanted to protect it from the Chipmunks, I'd use this hardware cloth. It's about a quarter of an inch mesh.

They can't chew through it. Corey

Okay.

Roger

But you want to dig down a foot and have a foot out, and that'll keep them from trying to come in through the bottom.

Corey

Okay.

Roger

But I can't get this hardware cloth to fit down in there, but I think if we mix up some concrete and pack it in there, that'll stop them.

Corey

They won't bite through that.

I don't think so. Corey

Alright. Front pat.

Roger

I'm just gonna cover the concrete with some of the stones that are on site. So, what do you think?

Corey

It looks great. It's like we were never here. More importantly, it looks like the chipmunks were never here. Exactly.

Roger

Thanks for your help. You did a great job.

Corey

Thanks for bringing me along and showing me what to do.

Roger

Got a little cleanup to do down here.

Kevin

While forces of nature are usually to blame for failures in walkways, oftentimes, the installation job itself can cause the walkway to fall apart over time. The ground beneath us moves slowly over time, leaving most hardscaping vulnerable to move with it. To keep them in place. walkways need a deep, firm, solid base. In most hardscaping installations, the ground has dug down to about six to eight inches, depending on the thickness of the material. The ground should be compacted flat to ensure the base is level. Then, some type of gravel or crushed stone is poured onto the base. The stone allows for drainage, which minimizes the amount of water that could be absorbed by the ground during a freeze/thaw cycle, which is the major culprit. for walkway damage And like with the ground base, it needs to be compacted tightly to ensure minimal movement between the stones. Finally, a mixture of stone dust, water, or pack material is placed on top of the crushed stone to secure the walkway material in place. Depending on the application, this can be substituted with mortar. A good, strong base takes time to build properly. Laying the base of any hardscaping is the most important part of the job, but it's also the part of a walkway installation most people are eager to rush through. Now, we want to dig down about three inches to accommodate the new bluestone I'm gonna put in. What the? What is that?

Rob

Hit something.

Kevin

You've got to be kidding me. There's concrete underneath this walkway.

Rob

What does that mean for us?

Kevin

It means for us that the mason who was here before, instead of laying this bluestone in a bed of mortar on top of the concrete, he cheaped out, put down sand, and put the bluestone in on top of it.

Rob

Is it fixable?

Kevin

It's fixable. Well, let me show you one thing. This is what I was originally gonna do. I brought this bluestone. It's 2 1/2 to 3 inches thick. See the difference?

Rob

So small.

Kevin

This is what I wanted to put in to keep everything from moving. So what we're gonna have to do now is we're gonna have to get some thin bluestone and lay it in a wet stone dust bed

so it doesn't move around. Rob

Got it.

Kevin

Alright, now put this one right up in the corner. Without a strong base, walkways are susceptible to movement, which can cause cracks and gaps that can be a challenge to fix. Alright. That looks better. Much better. First of all, the brick are in good shape. I really like the brick. What I don't like is places like this where they've heaved up, You can trip, and, again, another hole when they settle. Now, that's telling me that there's something wrong underneath the brick. So the first thing we need to do is go underneath the brick and take a look and see what we can find. I want to take one of these edge bricks out and take a look and see what's underneath here and get one more out. Okay, now... Look at that -- sand and loam, neither of which make a good base for a walkway.

So that's why it's sinking. Kevin

That's right. Now, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is the brick are in good shape,

and we can reuse those. Rob

What's the bad news?

Kevin

The bad news is we have to take up all the brick and dig out all that sand and install a proper base under your walkway.

Rob

That sounds like a lot of work.

Kevin

It is a lot of work, but the walkway is only as good as the base it sits on. Now we're ready for the pack material. And you have yourself a proper walkway.

Roger

I'll say.

Thanks for coming by. Mark

Yeah. Thanks for having me out.

Kyle

So, I got this front walkway here that's developed this crack over the last few years. It doesn't really look that good and also has this trip step, as well. When you come around here, it also has this really big crack in the middle of it. So I'm looking to get this up and put something in that looks a lot better.

Mark

Okay. Well, up here in New England, I think we all know that the concrete is moving a little bit with the freeze/thaw cycle. That's when the temperatures go low. We develop frost under the ground. That frost can pick up this pad and really wreak some havoc. So what we do to protect against that is put in control joints. You can see you have a control joint right here. The problem with this one is it's way too shallow, so there's not a full break in this pad. When we have that situation, we get a crack. So basically, the only thing we can do right now is bust this one out and put in a new walkway.

Sounds good. Mark

Alright.

Kevin

With some hard work and a proper base, any walkway can be repaired or replaced

to last for years to come. Mark

Alright. Ready? You just did your first walkway. Congratulations.

Kyle

Sounds good.

Kevin

But of course, the easiest way to maintain a front walkway is to install it properly in the first place.

Emily

Hi,

Mark. Mark

Hello, Emily.

Welcome. Mark

Thank you.

House looks great. Emily

Thank you very much. We've been here for about three years, and my husband and I did a lot of renovation. We added on our back deck and our stairway from our driveway over here.

Mark

It looks great. Looks great. So, I see a set of stairs.

Yes. Mark

A driveway. A big patch of dirt in between, so you're probably looking for a walkway.

We are. Mark

Alright.

Emily

We really like the look of our back walkway over here, but we weren't quite sure how to make that happen in this space.

Mark

That's a great-looking stone, natural stone. Randomly placed, which is what people like. It'll go perfectly over here, and I think we can do it. You up for it?

Emily

Definitely.

Mark

Alright. Let's get some tools, and we'll get going.

Emily

Great.

Mark

Alright. So, you can see we marked out the walkway. We have a nice curve in there. These are our stones.

Emily

Oh, so they're nice and big.

Mark

Yeah. That's exactly what we want. Because if you come off the step, you're gonna want to step on something solid. The most important thing we're gonna do is to make these fit tight. We're gonna end up cutting a little. There's no factory edges on these stones. So we're gonna kind of do them ourself. The first thing we have to do is excavate. So why don't we go do that? Before any digging can happen, we have to call utility-locating service to make sure we don't damage any underground utility lines. I've already done this, so we're good to go.

Emily

So, how deep are we gonna go?

Mark

Well, normally I go about six inches deep, but because we're using bigger stones, I want to go about eight. Now we're gonna use the plate compacter to compact the sub-base. We want to make it as strong as possible. Okay, so the next thing we're gonna do is we're gonna install this crusher in. All it is is gravel, stone dust mixed together. Some people call it pack. But what it's gonna do is give us that great base that we're looking for. So we're gonna bring in a couple inches, pack it down, bring in a couple more, pack that down, and then we're gonna be ready for the stone.

Emily

Okay.

Mark

Alright, Emily. So this is gonna be our first stone. You can see how uneven the bottom is. That's why we're using the stone dust mixed with water. You're gonna give me three or four shovelfuls of that. I'm gonna level it out a little bit. Great. Okay, Emily, I'm looking pretty good right now, but what I'm gonna want to do is take that

and go right in the middle. Emily

Alright.

Mark

And that's gonna be my high spot. Okay, that looks good. Why don't you come on over?

Emily

Okay.

Mark

Let's move this guy into place.

So tip it right down. Emily

Okay.

And walk it in. Emily

Mm-hmm.

Mark

There you go. This is when I talk about wiggling it down.

Yeah. Mark

Right now, all those voids are being filled with the stone dust.

Emily

Okay.

Mark

we're gonna give it a tap. You hear that?

That's solid. Emily

Mm-hmm.

Mark

Now we want to check for level.

A little high. Emily

Okay.

Mark

We want to do is just wiggle that down. See?

That took care of it. Emily

Okay.

So now let's go this way. Emily

Okay.

A little high that way. Emily

Mm-hmm.

Mark

All that is is a tap tap. One more check and we're good.

That looks good. Mark

Alright. Alright, well, we got our first stone down, so why don't you give me some more stone dust? We'll start our second.

Emily

Okay.

Mark

Great.

Emily

So, how do you select which rock goes with which one?

Mark

So we're basically just putting a puzzle together. So whatever looks like it fits, throw it in.

Emily

Mm-hmm.

Mark

I'm just gonna try to see what my best...

Yeah. Mark

...piece is. And that was it. Right. So, I'm just gonna lay it down to do a dry cut. I can see them. Too much, so I just want to nip this corner a little bit.

Emily

Alright.

Mark

I know I want to undermine the stone, so I'm gonna cut at an angle. See how much tighter we got?

Emily

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Mark

So, just taking material down a little bit, 'cause it's a thicker stone. Emily, right here. Yep. Alright, Emily, so, we have one more thing to do. It's one of the most important things. It's actually cheap insurance.

It's this plastic rail. Emily

Okay.

Mark

It's gonna tie in the walkway. So,

I'm gonna start up here. Emily

Okay.

Mark

Just get it down. Pick a spot in the middle.

Emily

Okay.

Great. Emily

Mm-hmm.

Mark

Let's move down.

Emily

Right there?

Mark

Yep. Great. Great. Alright, Emily. Here's the walkway. What do you think?

Emily

It looks wonderful, and it matches so well with what we have back here.

I love it. Mark

Great. The only thing you have to do when I leave is plant some grass seed on the edges and of course the old pathway that you used to use.

Sure. We can do that. Mark

Alright. But other than that, you're good to go.

Emily

Alright. Thank you so much.

Alright. You're welcome. Emily

Love it.

Kevin

The key to installing a good walkway is ensuring a firm, strong base, one that is safe from frost, pests, roots, and bad installation jobs. With the right materials and some hard work, your walkway can look great and last for a long time. Next time on "Ask This Old House"... America the Beautiful. From sea to shining sea, this country has more climates and ecosystems than some continents, and they're all filled with beautiful grasses, trees, and native plants. In this special episode, We'll walk you through some landscaping projects we've tackled in every corner of the country.

Woman

Thanks for coming to Brooklyn.

Jenn

Thanks for having me. Cheers.