Phase Two
According to Jason Morey, the president of Brookwood Landscape & Stonework, this is Phase Two of the Spring Clean TO DO LIST.
For a quick recap of our previous blog post The Spring Clean TO DO LIST Phase One, check it out here: https://brookwoodstone.com/lets-think-spring/
Now its time to repair any damage to your walkways, bricks, pavers, patios and driveway.
In the Winter, in the Northern hemisphere and in colder regions, a natural phenomenon exists called a frost heave. During the cold season in the North East snow will melt on a sunny day and then the temperature can drop significantly at night. The water from the melted snow seeps under your bricks, pavers, walkways and driveway and then the water will freeze overnight. As the ice expands under the sub terrain it can push bricks, pavers, cement and even asphalt up and therefore cause a disruption in the evenness of the surface.
Unfortunately, in the spring when the ice melts below the surface of the ground where there was once a frost heave there is now a pocket of air. When you drive over or even walk on a frost heave it can easily become a dangerous pot hole due to the space that was created after the ice melted.
Jason Morey, states that the bricks, stonework, pavers, patios, walkways and driveway should have been properly laid out when they were first installed to take into consideration the varying weather conditions in the North East. Even with that being said, the weather conditions in this temperate zone can be quite extreme and even with all of your best plans and careful measures you still might not have been able to prevent frost heaves, pot holes and damage to pavers, cobblestone, cement and asphalt.
To solve the problem, as soon as it is warm enough remove the bricks or pavers from the immediate area that was affected by a frost heave and/or now has a pot hole. Level the area and then add more bedding material or sand to the area and replace the bricks or pavers. Always, double check the area with a leveler tool before filling in the gaps with more bedding material or sand before calling it a day.
For walkways, patios and driveways made of cement or asphalt that suffered over the winter and now have treacherous pot holes you are better off contacting an expert like Brookwood Stonework to help save the day. This is a more involved project, but Brookwood can improve your property value by converting those out of date cement and asphalt walk ways and driveway to classic, stunning stonework or esthetically pleasing, yet practical pavers.
If you want to do the work yourself, depending on the extent of the damage, plan on a weekend or a month or possibly even months worth of heavy labor.
However, if you do not want to break your back, contact Brookwood Stonework to do the project right.
As Jason Morey always says: “Measure twice and cut once!”
