How to install your own paver driveway: part 5 resuming the paver driveway

In my last blog about the paver driveway, I had ordered the pavers but Lowes told me they would take 6 to 10 weeks to get them.  So in the mean time I stuccoed my whole house.  They did arrive in about 8 weeks.   However, I had about a month left of stuccoing to finish the stucco work.  So the pavers just sat on the lawn being neglected.

Im happy to say that 3 months later, I am resuming the paver driveway.  To get this point I mostly worked 6 to 8 hours on  weekends to stucco my house.  That's right I have been dialing it back on the work effort because I can see the end of the work is near and I am confident that I can finish.   In fact once the paver driveway is done the permit work is done.

Instead of going at it full bore, I took the time to have a little fun and learn some dances.   I first started out with a private instructor and learned the basics of salsa, rhumba and meremgue.   The reason why I took lessons was because, girls would sometimes ask me to dance but I never really wanted to mainly because I didn't know how.  When I got up the nerve to actually go out on the dance floor, I was stiff and awkward and danced like Frankenstein.  Believe me when a girl sees this and says loosen up it doesn't help and makes me want to go hide behind my beer at the table.  This is pretty much what every guy experiences and is why so few of them dance.  I decided to change that.

I have taken about 12 lessons and now and feel pretty comfortable and enjoy going to group dance lessons where the norm is to dance with and meet 5 to 10 girls.  Of course we are all just expecting to learn dance in these lessons.

Back to the driveway.  Right now its been all about prepping the driveway for the pavers.  It is very important to get the base material flat with a grade.  No depressions or mounds is the goal   To do this I used 1" diameter 10' long galvanized pipes to act as screed rails.  The pipes are stiff and help smooth out the voids when material is placed between hem and screed-ed.

      

For this go around I underestimated the amount of fill and ran short.   But it did reveal that I had an issue at the curb in the culdesca.  It turns out that the curb was not level especially at the storm drain where it took a dip.  When it rained it would usually puddle on the driveway at that location.

The only was yo fix it was to make my own curb that was level.  This turned out to be a 6 hour task or one weekend.  The curb I made is about 22' and is five inches wide and 8 inches deep and it is curved to match the culdesac.   It was a pretty fun task and took 9 bags of concrete.  So glad I bought that cement mixer it made the job much easier.

The first step was to build the forms.  To do this I cut some strips of quarter inch plywood I had laying around with the table saw and made some 1.5" x 1.5" stakes out of scrap wood.  It is so nice to have a scrap wood pile so that I did not have to spend money making these forms.  I then hammered the stakes in the ground five inches from the existing culdesac curb and made them vertical with a level.  Next, I tacked the quarter inch plywood on the stakes with a the nail gun and then shoveled some of the base up against the form so that it would be supported from the non fresh cement side.   The other side of the form was the cement curb that was already in place.  Its called a Miami curb.  The challenge here was it was not level.  I extended the curb taller by fastening wood to the curb with tap cons.  However I did not worry about this side being level because the other side of the form was level and I could screed off that.  Instead I just made the curb side of the form taller than it needed to be so it would hold the cement.

The forms are shown below:

Once the forms were place, I set up shop and made some concrete.  But I realized there was kind of problem of getting the cement into the forms from the cement mixer since they were so narrow.  After discussing this with my dad on the phone we came up with the idea of building a shoot.  This shown in the next picture.

With this setup, I mixed 9 bags of cement and filled the form.   As I was working my way down the curb.  One end became ready to finish off.  So I ran a edger down both sides and then took out the middle lines in the cement with a trowel.  The whole cement poor took 3 hours.   The cement I used was ready mix and it  just doesn't set up to fast.  The amount of water I used per 80 lb cement bag was 4 inches in a five gallon bucket.  This made the cement mix and pour well.

Once the curb was finished, I kept it wet for  a couple of days to strengthen it and then took off the forms.  I then finished the fill off by getting another load of fines and then compacted the entire driveway.  The end result is shown below.

 

The driveway is nice and flat now and compacted.   The next step is to put another 1" layer on using the skreed poles.  Put some guide lines down and then place the pavers.

See you in the next blog.

Happy Building,

The Dr.

I'm so blue: Finishing off the house exterior with paint.

In the previous blogs I detailed stuccoing the house.  In this blog its time to discuss the painting of the exterior.

Lot of people ask me if I'm going to paint the stucco or assume it is a requirement and that I am going to paint it.  But I did not paint the stucco.   The reason why is that its unnecessary work especially if you like the color of the stucco.  To back me up I will refer to the Portland cement website (they make stucco)  which says the following about painting stucco:

"Stucco can be painted. Portland cement-based paints are very compatible with stucco because they are made of the same material. These paints should be scrubbed into the surface and fully cured. Alternatively, you could consider a colored stucco finish. These finish coats are often made with white cement and pigments, providing the widest range of colors. Premixed materials are color matched from batch to batch and are most consistent.

Additionally, the fact that you are placing a finish coat with a nominal thickness of 1/8 inch instead of a paint layer usually gives more assurance of complete coverage. It is possible to paint with other types of paint, though these are usually not as long lasting as cement-based paint. Acrylic paints are long lasting and durable but change the permeability of the stucco (make it non-breathable) which in some climates may have adverse effects on the long-term performance of the system."

So the color of my stucco comes from the white base finish coat I used (i didn't add any coloring) and I like it a lot.  To complement it though I decided to paint the trim blue.  

The sofit I painted white.  To get the right color of white, I brought in a piece of stucco into Lowes and asked them to match the paint to the stucco with there paint computer.  The technician immediately complained about the texture saying it casts shadows on the surface and that he may not be able to get the right color.  But then after a few minutes he declared success.

Long story short is the white paint is not a precise match to the white stucco and is a little darker.  No big deal.

For the drip edge, sofit and gable, I chose Manitou blue SW6501 Sherwin Williams weather shield paint which protects against mold, algae, peeling and cracking and this can be gotten at Lowes.  It comes in around $40 a gallon.

The reason why I titled this article, I'm so blue is because I have found that the 100 degree weather makes me sweat and soak my shirt which seems to transfer the blue paint on my shirt to my stomach.  Luckily the paint comes off with water otherwise I would be a real life smurf!

I wont go over the details of painting because most people know how to do it.  I will have to say that I did invest in a paint stirrer drill attachment.   And it was worth it because the blue paint really needed a lot of stirring to make it uniform in color.  Also, a good rule to follow is to cover everything you don't want paint om.

The house with all the stuccoing and painting done is shown below:

Because of my decision not to paint the stucco, I saved about $1700 on paint supplies.  I'm sure a paint contractor would insist that the stucco needed to be painted.  Even the stucco guys who did the garage seemed to think painting was necessary.  But it is not necessary and it was common not to paint colored stucco in the 70s.

I spent about  $195 for five gallons of paint and about $135 in paint supplies.  I used the drop clothes from the stucco work so that saved some money there.  Total cost then is $330.

I only spent 17 hours painting a total area of 450 square feet.

According to homewyse.com  the cost that a contractor would charge to do the job is about $600.  
That means a whopping $270 was saved or 45 %.

Cue the cash register sound.

Due to the excessive heat now in Florida, I think Ill be slowing down.   All I can say is at least I don't have to do any roofing in the summer this time.

I do have a few stucco nits yet to take care of but after that I will be focusing on is the last one to complete my permits.   It is finishing the paver driveway.

Happy building,

The DR.