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deeinde

Help! Opinion about brick walk needed ASAP

deeinmd
10 years ago

I contracted to have a brick walk put in around the the side of my house from my driveway to the back porch. The ground was on a tilt (slight hill) and very bumpy and uneven. I talked to them about leveling it and putting the walk in and they said they would build the lower edge up with soil and seed it because it would be slightly raised. Came home today and they had dug it out, put stone in and compacted it. But it has a huge drop, at least to my eye. I took a level out and in 28 inches of my level,(and the walk is 42 inches wide) it had at least a 6 inch drop! It seems way to much tilt to me! It would be at least an 8 inch or more across the whole width in some areas, and others no tilt. Should I call and express my concerns now before they go any farther? Or is this normal?
Thanks for your quick responses!

Comments (3)

  • annzgw
    10 years ago

    You got photos? From what you've described it sounds like the hillside needs some reinforcement in order to support the new walkway.
    IMO, yes, that's too much of a drop. Stop all work until it's corrected.
    Personally, I'd stop the work and bring in a reputable contractor for consultation. His fee will be miniscule compared to what you'll save in the long run. Call a masonry business for names of masonry contractors.

  • marcinde
    10 years ago

    so you're saying that this grade difference is across the WIDTH of the walk (as in, if you walked down the path right now you'd be tilted like you didn't have a V8)? Is this how I'm reading it?

    Only an idiot would lay a walk like that, which leaves us with two possibilities: 1) you screened poorly and hired an idiot, or 2) you didn't hire an idiot and the contractor is raising the grade appropriately, which involves adding gravel, compacting in 2-4" lifts, adding more gravel, compacting again, and so on till the desired grade is achieved. Depending on how many people are on the site, perhaps they only got but so far and will continue raising the grade tomorrow. Since you provided no pics and I can't read your contractor's mind, perhaps asking the person to whom you're writing checks is the most expedient solution here.

    I know that if something was freaking *my* client out, I would rather s/he called me and said "this is freaking me out, what's going on?" instead of going online and asking people who have no way of knowing what's going on. If you hire someone, they have a duty to answer your questions and make you comfortable with what's going on. The flip side is that YOU have a duty, when you have a big question that's worrying you - your duty is to ask the contractor asap. We live in this chaos and confusion and destruction every day and we know what the steps are that will get us to an awesome result. It's easy to forget that our clients do not.

    So don't be shy.

  • marcinde
    10 years ago

    so what happened?