Parking Strip

So fun fact, the area between the road and the sidewalk around your house is called a parking strip. Ours feels narrow, as in "don't even try to plant trees here" narrow. We don't want to plant a ton of grass, so instead we're going with low water plants and such.

Vegetation in our yard at this point is definitely in the TBA category. Other than weeds. We're really great at growing weeds. Just ask our neighbors. Or the police.

My big project this year is a retaining wall. Mostly because we have some pressing concerns. Like our house sits above a retention pond concerns. The wall will be about 9' tall in places, which means engineering plans and a city approved building permit.

While waiting for the engineering plans on the wall I wanted to keep myself busy. To support our low water use yard we wanted walkways between the road and the sidewalk and I went with a herringbone pattern because I'm a masochist.

The materials

• Holland/Charcoal pavers - the price is creeping up on these. I got them on sale for $.25/each which they do about three times per year. They are $.56/each now.  Check slickdeals.com for sales.   
• Edging - something strong. Mine is powder coated steel that is staked into the ground.
• Weed barrier - mine is not very water-permiable. The goal is to separate the mason sand from the road base. 
• Road base
• Mason sand - don't use playground sand. You can find this at any materials yard. 

Tools

• circular saw
• mason blade - you will go through many of these.
• marker for cut lines
• straight edge for marked lines
• tamper or hand compactor to compact dirt and road base
• rubber mallet
• string line and stakes
• safety glasses
• mask

parking strip - figure 1

For the most part these parking street pavers were pretty easy. There are three more just like this around the yard. Where it made sense I stubbed out irrigation with either 1" or 3" (as a conduit) PVC underneath. This (Figure 1) example borders with our awesome neighbors the Mays so no irrigation pipe.  

Each section means:

• digging down 7 inches
• compacting dirt
• bringing in 4 inches of road base
• Sinking and staking in place metal borders. 
• Compacting the road base
• Laying weed barrier (mostly to separate sand and road base but also to keep sand from escaping past gaps in the metal edging)
• Adding and leveling 1 inch of moist mason sand.
• Setting whole and custom cut pavers. 

I think using whole pavers as a "border" worked well for this size of project. In my stairs I think it was too compact of a look. This is all about the prep work. If you get your road base where you want it, and compacted you are in great shape. Moist sand with the right prep work is extremely forgiving.

I used the same mason sand to fill between pavers and lock them in place. There is a product that is water activated and firms up but I think there is no school like the old school.

This was a great early Spring project because the ground was wet enough to get a shovel in.  When it gets dry this ground can feel like shoveling into road base. Then you start hitting good sized rocks on top of that.  

All custom cuts on the pavers were done with a Dewalt circular saw and a mason blade.  The blades run $15 each and I went through about 3 on the parking strips.  They are supposed to last longer if you wet them down. Mostly it creates a huge mess and means 15 minutes of cleaning the saw after a session of cutting.  I've also tried more expensive blades. They have similar lifespans.  I think what I should really get is a wet saw but I have gone way over my tool budget. 

parking strip under mailbox - figure 2

Things got a little tricky under the mailbox (Figure 2). There is a concrete slab under most of these pavers.  There is also a metal bracket bolted into it. I had to custom cut underneath the pavers to allow space for the metal frame and bolts.

I felt great about this start for the year. Visible progress with just a few hours work because each section was contained and small. If you are getting started with pavers and trying to figure out if you want to do more--this is the project for you!

What I learned

• Cutting pavers is messy and dusty. 
• When it comes to whetting the saw, come big or stay at home. I tried a spray bottle and it seems to just make things messy. Either go with a wet saw that has it's own pump and water source or go dry.