Driveway woes.

[T-Keith]

A few months ago we moved into a new house. We were having a hard time selling our old one, so we quickly bought the "best" one we could afford. Unfortunately we weren't able to get the garage I wanted, or more like needed. Our house has a two car garage with a 16' wide asphalt driveway. We cannot add onto the garage at all. It upsets me greatly, because I'm in the minority that believes that all working cars should be in the garage. We have three cars total and a renter with one car. As you can guess it's a lot in that narrow driveway. I'd like to add on, but I just can't find a way to do it.

The city says any driveway must be blacktop or concrete. I called 5 blacktop places today and the only one I reached said there was a minimum of $1500. I can't afford that. What should I do? I'm not sure what I could do myself and it seems next to impossible to pay someone to do it.

I've even considered putting two feet of paver bricks on either side, so you can at least get out of the car. I'm in Minnesota and winter is coming soon.

-T

 

[Bryanccfshr]

Pour your own. It is common to build boat aprons to park boat trailers next to the driveways where I live. You can get the form,material and the matting and rent a mixer relatively inexpensively.. It's a large project if you never poured concrete yourself before but it is possible, then again I am not familiar with your soil and ground conditions either.

 

[michaelc80]

No matter what you do make sure you pay attention to codes and regulations-especially regarding distance from the property line. It would be even worse to do all the work and then have an inspector tell you to tear it out because it's 6 inches too close to the property line.

Pouring your own isn't that hard-the prep work is the hardest. Plan it carefully and make sure the pitch is correct (you don't want snowmelt running into the middle of the driveway and freezing there). Gather a group of good friends-you'll find out who your real friends are when you ask them to help pour some concrete. Plan it for a Saturday morning and then hope about 1/3 of them actually show up to help.

 

[brianl703]

quote:

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Originally posted by michaelc80:
No matter what you do make sure you pay attention to codes and regulations-especially regarding distance from the property line. It would be even worse to do all the work and then have an inspector tell you to tear it out because it's 6 inches too close to the property line.

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For that reason, it might be a good idea to get a building permit, because part of the permit process in most areas is checking zoning and making sure that the proposed additions/alterations will not violate building codes.