Garage and Driveway

Our home sits on a large lot that is almost a 1/4 acre. I know that for some this is not that big, but right now its almost all grass and has to be mowed, and our house only has a one car garage.

Therefore we are considering the idea of putting in a detached garage. The thing is, is that we want to kind of do it in stages. We would maybe like to do the driveway first and begin using it as a parking area and then maybe put in the pad for the garage and then put in the garage itself.

I want to do as much of it myself as I can. Partially for the learning opportunity and also to save money. As this is a pretty big job, I've been doing a lot of research into what options are available.

As far as the driveway I have so far seen concrete, asphalt, and paving bricks. The paving brick thing has me very interested. It would be a lot of work but essentially you build a brick driveway. Paving bricks are more solid and don't obsorb as much water as other bricks. You can also get them in different shapes.

The work comes in that you first have to dig the area out and down a little bit because this thing comes in layers. You also have to install some sort of edging which is going to stay in place. One option for this are bricks up on end, either staright or tilted diagonally. The next step is to put down a layer of gravel for drainage. I am still looking to find out how much gravel we are talking about and how deep. The next is to put down a layer of landscape fabric to make sure nothing grows up into your driveway. You then put down a layer of sand for the bricks or stones to sit in.

The idea for this is that the bricks are put in so tightly against each other that they don't move. The only down-side to this type of driveway that I have seen so far is that the sand underneath can sometimes wash away over time.

But once the sand is in place you basically start putting your bricks in and when you get to the edges you cut them to fit. Once the bricks or stones are in place you throw a bunch of masonry sand on top of it and sweep it into any cracks. That is pretty muc each, but of course there is a lot more it it than just that.

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