The Front Walk Way Project

I have a new project....well several new projects. Specifically this one project is called the front walk way project.

The front walk way to my house is been something my wife has been asking me to deal with for awhile. She wants to put up some new solar lights in the area (front walk way) but the soil and the run off from our roof prevents that at the moment.

The run off from the roof, of course, falls and hits my soil pretty hard. I have a rock perimeter that is made up of small stones that is left over from the rain pounding the soil away. Eventually I want to add gutters to the house so I can redirect this rain.....maybe into a dry well?

Second, I live on a hill. Naturally my property slopes. This makes a bit of a problem for my front stairs. Its quite a hefty first step from the ground to the first step. Add in a little soil erosion and this can quickly become a problem.

Enter in a 16' ( ' is foot, " is inches in case anyone didn't know) long by 6' wide raised front walk way. I have cut stone on my property, plenty of soil, the tools to do so, and a little time here and there to make this happen.

What you see here in this picture (right) is me lining up the future lay out of the walk way with some PVC pipe. Just trying to get a feel for what it would look like.

I put up some stakes and mason line to give me a guide to work by during excavation. It kind of helps but I found out yesterday that its not exactly straight. It doesn't matter to much though. I have to remove all the dirt in the area, remove most of the rocks (keeping the smaller ones), and then get everything wet enough so I can level everything out and then tramp it down.

The purpose of all that is that with dry soil it has all the lumps from digging, holes from removing rocks, and just soil compression. If you get it kind of muddy and then smooth it all out...let it dry for a little bit and then tramp it you get a nice slightly compacted soil that is level.

It helps to not only lay down the retaining stones but it makes putting in a drain cloth super easy AND the paver stones that will go in. Having a nice level and compacted soil is crucial to landscaping like this. Having uneven soil will give you a wavy unappealing path which can also be a trip hazard and could end up cracking your pavers.

I'll try and remind myself to give you a shot of the tools I am using.