CONSTRUCTION OF WALKS AND DRIVES 47 



CHAPTER IV 



CONSTRUCTION OF WALKS AND DRIVES 



Walks and driveways are features which should be built with 

 a view to permanency. The first cost of a properly constructed 

 walk or road should not be considered prohibitive unless equal 

 consideration be given to the expense of maintaining a poorly con- 

 structed one. 



Main walks should not be less than four feet six inches wide, 

 and where a great expanse of ground makes it consistent with a 

 proportionate entrance they may be five or six feet. 



CEMENT WALKS 



Cement makes a good, permanent material for walks (Figs. 40 

 and 41) and eliminates further upkeep, care and expense. It will 

 outlast any other walk material with the exception of North River 

 flagstone. For heavy soils a foundation of cinders eighteen inches 

 deep is recommended. This may be reduced to six inches or omitted 

 altogether on light and sandy soils. Three inches of concrete and 

 one inch of cement finish make a durable walk. A three-quarter 

 inch expansion joint should be provided every twenty to twenty-five 

 feet. This should extend through the concrete base as well as the 

 cement surface. The joint may be fiUed with asphalt or sand (Fig. 

 42). Cement walks have very little to recommend them from an 

 esthetic point of view. The surface is glaring in Summer and slip- 

 pery in Winter. If the top is roughened with a coarse broom when 

 put down the surface will be more pleasing than the customary 

 smooth finish with small and regular indentations made with a 

 roughened roller. A cement walk with roughened surface should 

 have a smooth margin two inches wide on each side. 



The glare from cement walks may be reduced by tinting the 

 surface coat with mortar stain. The stain should be used in 

 small quantities, and only the very best make, care being taken when 

 mixing to have the color thoroughly worked through the mass, other- 

 wise it injures the quality of the cement. On an inclined walk it 

 is advisable to have alternate lines of rough and smooth surface 



