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staceyneil

Paths for snowy climates... ideas? (and intro)

Stacey Collins
13 years ago

Hi all,

I don't frequent this forum too much, since I'm usually over at Kithens/Baths/Reno. We're doing a total remodel of a 1956 ranch in southern Maine. I'm an avid gardener, though, and the first thing I did when we moved in 2.5 years ago was clear a 1000 sf vegetable garden. The next spring I started some serious plantings: fruit, berries, and landscaping. We're doing a big push of exterior renovation this spring/summer, to include some major hardscaping and landscaping projects as well as house exterior stuff. I'm in the planning phase now and could use some help!

Today I am thinking about the path from the driveway to our most-used entrance. It's currently (old) blacktop, which was laid on top of what appears to be the original "stepping stone" style flagstone walkway. I need to re-do this for a number of reasons:

1) It's ugly!

2) The gutter downspout at the corner of the garage dumps onto the blacktop (which is continuous from the walkway to the driveway) and creates a dangerous ice patch right where everybody walks

3) The level of the blacktop is too high in relation to the garage door; grade needs to be lowered a bit (to the original level, more or less, just 2" or so...)

I would love to use something natural-looking, but it also needs to be DIY-able, inexpensive, low-maintenance and shovel-able. I would LOVE to hear ideas and see pictures if you have any!

Details;

The walkway is only about 10 feet long.

We need to leave the driveway blacktop intact. My idea is to cut through the blacktop at a logical intersection between the path and driveway (which will be right where the gutter comes down). A look I would love is to have a gravel path with flagstones set into it. Or, maybe some type of concrete with gravel/riverstone strips running through it. I thought of digging a sort of small drainage ditch, filled with gravel, to divert the downspout water across the path into the planting bed.

What do you think? Too high maintenance? Hard to keep shoveled?

These are looks I like- but I'm afraid they may not be practical. Weeds? Shoveling?

-Stacey

Comments (6)

  • mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
    13 years ago

    Dry-laid cut bluestone paths are definitely DIY, so long as the stones aren't too heavy. There is a dip between the stones that catches shovel blades, but it's the same with concrete.

    Can you run the downspout pipe under the path? Then either put it a drywell or daylight it further from the house. Anything else just sounds like a mess.

    Gravel, in pretty much any form, I'd avoid if at all possible.

  • Penelope
    13 years ago

    The idea of running the downspout under the path to a dry well is a good one, although this winter so many of us are finding our downspouts useless, with ice dams and icicles everywhere. Water dripping down the icicles makes ice patches that continually reform at my house. All we can do is throw out sand.

    I have a mortared bluestone walkway and front steps. It's pretty, and reasonably durable, apparently more so than the limestone we were considering. A neighbor who re-did their masonry a few years after us used granite, which is even more durable. I'm not sure why we didn't consider that, but somehow it wasn't on our radar screen.

    I like your idea of concrete with mortared-in riverstones, although those will catch the edge of a snow shovel a bit. But it's pretty and durable and shouldn't be too expensive.

    As you plan your landscaping think about what plants will be on either side of the path, where you'll need to dump the snow. You don't want anything too high or brittle that would break under snow load. We've got mostly tender perennials near our walk, but also some microbiota (Siberian Cypress), which is a great ground-hugging evergreen. We've currently got a snow mound 6' tall piled on top of ours, but I have every expectation it will look great come spring.

  • Stacey Collins
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks for your thoughts, everyone! My husband agrees that we should run a downspout extender pipe to a drywell in the adjacent plantings for the gutter issue, so that's that.

    Now, what for the path? I guess it seems like bluestone, either drylaid or mortared, is best (especially since I havea pile of it already). The thing is, I have soooo much to do this spring: I'm cutting timber steps into a pretty big hill area and laying an informal dry-laid flagstone path through the lawn in the front of the house. (Not to mention the big veg garden maintenance and landscaping around our new deck!) So I'm worried about taking on too much. Has anyone DIY-ed a mortared bluestone path? I have a large pile of salvaged bluestone and other paving stones (mostly irregular but some squared) that I will be using for the front path; may have enough for this path, too.

    I would assume drylaid is easier to DIY (dig 6", compact, fill with crusher run or similar, compact, lay stone, fill joints with stone dust?) than mortared, is that a correct assumption? I definitely have the skills to do mortared, it's just the time, energy, and $$! Maybe I am wrong about that though- can anyone compare cost, time, energy between the two methods?

    Also, I would assume that drylaid is a lot more maintenance as far as weeds and surrounding turf needing to be removed on a frequent basis. Can anyone comment on that?

    Landscaping on one side will be turf (snow goes there in winter); on the other side is mostly the garage, with a small, 36" stretch of planting bed.

  • NHBabs z4b-5a NH
    13 years ago

    "I would assume that drylaid is a lot more maintenance as far as weeds and surrounding turf needing to be removed on a frequent basis."

    If you look at your first photo, there is a steel edge that's holding the gravel in - that would work to hold grass out of an unmortared path. Steel edging and bender board are two choices that are more subtle than the common black plastic edging. I found some brown bender board made of trex-type material late last fall, though I haven't yet had a chance to use it. You'd still need to do some type of weed removal for seeds that sprout in whatever your bluestone is set into, but I think there are others here who can tell you how to set up the prep for the path to reduce the friendliness of your path to weed seeds. I have found that weeding our dry laid brick patio is a matter of a minute or two 3 or 4 times a year.

  • Stacey Collins
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks for your thoughts, folks. I've decided to do a basic bluestone path here. Now I need to decide whether it should be dry-laid or mortared... and what's this about some in-between method called "dry mortar"???

    What do you recommend?

    High-traffic path
    Desire to minimize ongoing maintenance
    Desire to minimize initial cost/effort expenditure (within the bounds of "doing it right" of course!)