Black Magic

   There is no cure all for sealing an aging driveway. I inherited a fatally neglected driveway when we purchased our house. Well past its prime, this modest slab has become an ongoing project of trying to avoid replacing the whole thing. Some years later, my cumulative efforts have started to yield a stronger, easier to care for driveway.
   The journey has led me through a whole lot of products that are a complete waste of time and money. The best tip I ever got was to use asphalt sealer as crack filler. It costs a fraction of what is doled out in those little liter bottles and is of much higher quality. My freshman attempt at sealing used a whole lot of those bottles and it did not even last two years. I can report that after eight years and four sealcoats, the sealcoat / crack filler method works well.
   Hot liquid fillers are superior, given the time and resources, but if you are buying multiple pails of sealcoat, you already have the product on hand and will most likely have leftovers. To reinforce this method, I use a layer of trowel mix across the top of all my seams. This is by far my favorite consumer asphalt product, if applied correctly, it as strong as your asphalt. I have rebuilt aprons, depressions, divots, and failing edges. When we removed the turnaround from our drive, large sections of this product remained intact even after being hit with a sledge.
   The additional trowel mix step is important because unattended cracks sink from water washing out the sub base. The trowel mix levels out the surface and allows the water to shed the way it was intended. In more complex scenarios, I use several drywall knife sizes similar to applying joint compound.
   It may sound like I have mastered DIY asphalt repair, but there is an Achilles heal. All commercially available sealcoats have a terminal thickness. So be warned, if you get addicted to that deep black magic, it comes at a high cost. The topcoat will lose its elasticity and the entire surface will flake off. The ten year warranties are bunk as well, even with the best conditions, it will need maintenance every few years.

Reusable Hand Warmers

   The ever oppressive 2013/2014 Winter has entered a new realm of brutality. Days have blurred into weeks of repetitive snow removal. We have seen periods of record lows along with just plain weird weeks of spring weather in the middle. This is not unusual for our Rocky Mountain town, it is however in harsh contrast to our last several mild winters.
   As I get older, my hands seem to lag behind the rest of my body when I engage in outdoor activities. Besides the unpleasant stinging of extreme cold, it is equally annoying to have to run inside every fifteen minutes to warm my hands. I stubbornly refused hand warmers for many years, but last year they finally became a necessity. This year they proved to be well worth the bulk investment. I did have a problem with using a new pair each day for just a couple of hours. This seemed like a huge waste considering that a pair will last up to 10 hours.

   Since the thermal reaction is fueled by oxygen, I wanted to see if I could stop this process by starving the heaters. Sure enough, sealing the pair of heaters in a sandwich bag achieved the desired result. The heaters cooled down and were easily revived once the bag was reopened. The important step is to push all the air out and slide the knot as close to the hand warmers as possible.
   Not only have I been able to reuse the same heaters, so far I have gotten seven uses out of one pair over a two week period. This has saved me several pairs of heaters that would have been partially used then discarded. Not to mention a single pair can cost a dollar a pack and I have been shoveling daily for the last month.
   As a final side note, this tip was inspired by my mother-in-law, who wraps wet paintbrushes in sandwich bags. I used this trick extensively throughout painting our house, saving multiple brush cleanings between recoats. Simply enough, not only does it save time and money, it reduces waste.

DIY Asphalt Driveway Removal, Resolution

   I would like to act like the driveway project was spontaneous, and I was somehow sticking it to an anonymous group of teenage, street-racer thugs, but that is not the case. Yes, they were the final straw, but I had already invested a significant amount of time designing the surrounding landscape while considering all the possibilities for the failing asphalt.
   Even with a pretty good idea, I will wait and let my subconscious process the details for as long as possible. I devoutly believe in the "back burner" thought process, and I have witnessed the benefits with every major modification to our home. At this point, I can attest that it has paid off with better design and engineering, versus bullying through with my first broad, initial impulse.

   As mentioned before, the perimeter of the new walkway was laid out directly on the pavement with Sharpie markers. This turned out to be an essential part of the creative process. There were no true right angles to base my geometry on. The edges of the asphalt had severely degraded and I had to approximate where to start my straight runs and then adjust the dimensions accordingly.
   I soon came to realize that by eliminating the semicircle driveway, it united two large sections of evergreen shrubs which had been independently cultivated. It would turn out to be the unifying solution that I had not have foreseen years earlier.
   Up to this point, we had slowly cut back the original plantings trying to find the underlying organization. Thirty-five years of thoughtless additions with inadequate upkeep had rendered the property's landscaping an eye sore. The sea of river rock was buried in detritus slowly turning into mud. Countless weeds and knee-deep dead juniper aside, there were some redeeming qualities such as mature, healthy trees. Little did we know it was going to take hundreds of man hours to achieve the needed clarity.
   One of the previous upgrades from a few years back were the raised beds. It made sense to build upon this design element and continue it around the to the front of the house. These beds also visually reinforce the fact that there is no longer a quick turnaround for wayward motorists.
   I had no idea that when I embarked on this hefty, dramatic change, that it would ultimately bind together the last six years of hard work into a cohesive package.

DIY Asphalt Driveway Removal, Part One

   When we bought our house I was rather indifferent to the semicircle driveway. There were so many other fires to put out, that I only noted the condition of the neglected pavement and that it probably should have been resealed some ten years ago. I researched the lifespan of a residential driveway and knew ours was at the end of its life. I did not budget for this expense and it fell far behind replacing the cedar roof that the crows were eating daily. I did some repairs and seal coated the asphalt trying to bide us more time.
  The real problem would show itself as we lived in the new house. We are located at the entrance of a busy neighborhood and our continuous drive provided a quick roundabout for lost motorists. To make the problem worse, there is a business plaza located across the street which amplifies the amount of misdirected traffic.
   I had gone as far as installing an industrial speed bump, hoping to deter drivers from the quick exit. I finally had it, when purely by chance, I witnessed two teenage drivers drifting sideways, racing through the narrow semicircle. They had to be going no less than 20 mph. At that moment, still reeling in complete disbelief of what I had just witnessed, I made the decision that the semicircle had to go. I began laying out ideas immediately.

   To start, I needed to cut break points in the pavement. This would define the new edges of the walkway I was creating. I needed to cut a minimum of 100' of linear asphalt and some concrete. After getting a reasonable, yet high quote from a local paving expert, I realized that I needed to figure out how to do this myself. Ultimately, it was cheapest for me to buy a low-end Skil saw and a 3-pack of DeWalt masonry blades. This was cheaper than renting a concrete saw while yielding similar results.
   Fortunately, I have one of the nicest, most generous neighbors ever. He gladly pitched in and offered to haul away the broken up slabs. The most I could offer him was to help, when he in turn removed his semicircle drive, which was a mirror image of ours and the source of his headaches.   
   I laid out my lines directly on the pavement with chisel point Sharpies, The lines remained for a couple days until all the cuts were made. Now it was the moment of truth, could I easily break up the pieces?...Yes! and once I got going with the pry bar, I was unstoppable. I do recommend that you have a landscape plan before moving forward because there is a significant amount of compacted road mix under the pavement. I knew that I was going to put large river rock on top so I did not need to remove it. My neighbor decided to put in grass, so we had to excavate several inches of material. This also resulted in us needing to haul in several yards of topsoil.
   When laying out my perimeter for the new drive and walkway, it occurred to me that not only would there be less to shovel in the winter, there would also be less asphalt to seal coat. Granted this is not doable for everyone, but I wanted to let you know about my interesting solution. The second part of this story will cover the hardscaping and the resolution of the newly unearthed space.

Best Exercise Ever

   First off, I love snow. I know there are mixed feelings towards winter, but I am a huge fan. Give me snow over rain any day. The crystalline structure and the fundamental chemistry of life come together to gives us a magical experience. Who among us doesn't feel a bit of childlike glee for the first snow of the year.
   This post is not about me being a veteran snowboarder, or the beautiful alpine setting where I live. My heart swells when I awake to see heavy, wet snow covering my driveway. Yes! I love shoveling snow. I believe it is one of the best all around exercises that also accomplishes a task. There is a starting point and a finish line. Hell, it even kills people, so you know it is quality exercise. With proper form and pace, you can get a great workout and do a job that people pay others to do.

   Paying for someone to plow your drive or mow your yard never made much sense to me. Especially, when that same homeowner probably owns a gym membership. Like I said before, I enjoy landscaping, hard labor and being tired after a solid days work. The point of writing all this down is to hopefully change the attitude of at least one person out there.
   With that said. I would like to mention my favorite shovel is a Suncast SC2700. I currently own three of these shovels. This shovel is superior because it is a combo pusher and shovel. The scoop is deep enough to hold a heavy throw and make a clean pass on a two car wide driveway.
   It would only be fair to mention that I have replaced the steel wear strip on two of these shovels. I actually contacted Suncast a couple years ago to see about replacement parts, but the gave me some malarkey about not being able to match the factory rivet spacing because the parts are assembled hot.
   Whatever, you know that did not sit well with me. I made my own template and I have used it multiple times to make new wear strips. And you know what, the rivets line up every time. This is a great $3.00 solution for a $20.00 shovel. It is important to replace the strip before it breaks, which greatly weakens the plastic scoop. This mod will last much longer than the factory strip.
   These shovels are widely available for less than $10.00 in the late winter, clearance sections. I still prefer to get every bit of life out of the shovel before sending it to a landfill.



Sweet Modified SC2700
 

    I have  a couple other tips and tricks to reach the goal of an enviable clean driveway. Consistency is the key. I will shovel 1" of snow just to keep tire tracks from packing down the snow. A clean driveway is the easiest to shovel. A properly sealed blacktop will also aid in the snow releasing effortlessly. On days where the snow sticks to the scoop, I will spray the shovel with a thin coat of cooking spray.   So get a good shovel, develop proper technique and enjoy being outside while your neighbors are holed up waiting for spring.