Driveway's Done!

Last week saw intense activity at our house as work was finalized on our driveway. Long story/short version: our contract for the purchase of this property included having a driveway installed by our neighbor who owns an excavation company. He had originally sold the parcel with that provision to the guy from whom we purchased it. During our negotiations, we at one point suggested a lower purchase price and the omission of the driveway part. The fates smiled on us when the seller didn't go for it!

During the July 4 deluge, we realized that a suspected problem was a huge problem. The water which ran down our hill on the north side of the house hit the driveway and was flowing backward toward the house! Fortunately, our builder is a great guy who said, in a nutshell, "That's not right; we'll get it fixed."

My suspicion is that since Friday, Sept. 4 was the start of a holiday weekend and since our neighbor's business appears to include a great many road projects, that he had to pull his crew that day. Rather than have them not work -- I think he just sent 'em here! At one point, we had a crew of five laborers and the following equipment on our property: bulldozer, front-end loader, water truck, road grader and roller.

In order to correct the problem with our driveway, a side-dumper brought in two loads of rock from which two walls were constructed. Additionally, a four-foot wide, asphalted "french drain" was installed between our lower concrete apron and the gravel drive. We're certain this amount of materials, equipment and labor would have cost us thousands more -- had it not been included in our purchase agreement.

The photo above shows the rock wall built along the north side of our driveway. It's about 30-35' long. The concrete retaining wall which abuts the rocks is 5' tall, so you get the idea how big the rocks and the wall really is!

This photo shows the shorter wall built on the down-slope side of the driveway. In the foreground, a portion of the french drain which will now carry water away from our garage doors and concrete apron and downhill. We hope.