Walkway outside Garage - Edged Appropriately?

[cdd1]

This is not exactly garage related, but here's the situation.

We have a brick walkway right outside our garage which was in pretty poor shape. We had a mason pull up all the bricks, re-grade it and dry lay the bricks again.

I'm happy with the result, with one exception. At the end of the walkway, the brick bumps up against the asphalt driveway. The mason cut some bricks (not on a single angle--some bricks are angled more severely than others even though the border is straight) and then left some gaps with no bricks, so that it's not perfectly finished.

We paid (I think) a high price for the job and I wanted to get a second opinion on whether or not the finishing job here was sufficient. I tend to think "no" that he should have finished it straight and filled in.

Do you all agree or disagree? Thanks!


Finished job

Whole edge

Edge against driveway

 

[mrpizza]

I would want the asphalt to be cut on a straight line as well as the bricks so they make a nice joint.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Hi cdd1, I guess i am a stickler for detail, the finish of the edge spoils an other wise neat job not to mention that the egde bricks will remain loose and a potential trip hazard.
I would have cemented them in against a cut line in the asphalt to prevent movement.
I like the look of brick paving.............

 

[el Pedro]

I agree with you. The straight edge against the drive would be easy to cut and do RIGHT. I would have also cut in a little to make it finish flush with the height of the driveway too. All that work just to cut corners (pardon the pun) on that little bit....

 

[ElectroLight]

Yup, looks like it's not finished. Proper cuts to form a smooth curve or strieght edge, you got niether.

 

[BD1]

I agree with the others, not acceptable. it appears he ran out of bricks. Either
square off or cut FULL BRICKS to form a straight edge . The small pieces if
required would be on the inside with the cut bricks up against them. The exposed edge must be straight as the others. This may have been the easy way out to avoid cutting the bottom of the gate.

 

[jhelrey]

Plus, the walk looks like it does the wave...

 

[NUTTSGT]

Got more bricks ? Remove all the cut and pieces of bricks. Replace with full bricks. Lay 1 row of full bricks end to end perpendicular to the gate. Scribe a line on the backside (away from the gate). Take the end to end row of bricks out. Remove the bricks you scribed and cut them with a masonary blade. Put the cut bricks back, along with the end to end row.

This will give you a new clean edge. Now if you want it to be level with the asphalt, you'll have to do more work, maybe cut the asphalt, relay the bricks with less sand under them.

 

[K13]

No offense but if you paid a high price for that job you did not get what you paid for. The edge against the driveway is horrible and it doesn't look like there is a straight line to be seen on the rest of it.

 

[ddawg16]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here.....

Part of the problem is that the gate is at an angle....so, you have three choices....

1. Cut back the asphalt so that you finish off the path square....that means you will have a section of brick sticking past the gate.....I think that would look crappy.

2. Remove some of the brick until the end is straight....then lay down more asphalt.

3. Relocate the gate so that it is perpendicular to the path.

I personally think it looks ok given the current gate configuration.

 

[Max Headroom]

It's hard to tell from the pictures - is there a height difference between the asphalt and brick or are they at the same level?

 

[buzz4041]

It definately is not finished off correctly. It could have been blended and sloped to match up with the asphalt at the gate better than was done.

 

[crazytrain]

If this was done by a professional brick mason he did a horrible job finishing off the end. He should have cut the asphalt straight and then cut full length bricks to finish it off. It looks like he just used what ever pieces were left to fill in. they look loose and will always remain that way unless fixed and will cause a serious fall/tripping hazard. I would call him back and let him know I was unhappy with it and give him a chance to come back and finish it correctly.

 

[BillK]

I have to agree with the others. Crappy job all around. I did a brick patio and walk at my first house and it looked 100% better than that does. Not only the lousy finish job at the gate but also the fact that the joint lines are all crooked like someone else mentioned.

But . . . . depends on what you paid

 

[nehog]

IMHO, the whole job looks amateur. The place where the black top walk meets the bricks is unacceptable to me, I'd tell them to do it right. There is no excuse for the poor quality, and that would lead me to question the quality of the rest of the work, such as was the underlayment done correctly or not, etc.

 

[cdd1]

Thanks for all the responses. I had planned to let him know about the edging (we have not yet paid the balance of the job) so we'll see what he says.


To answer some of the questions, the asphalt is lower than the bricks. I am not sure why he couldn't have leveled the brick to the asphalt level (except cutting corners as others have mentioned).

I also don't have more bricks. The entire area was actually not bricked before, so they interdispersed new bricks with the existing bricks given the greater surface area of the new walkway. So they could supply a few more new bricks to edge, and I wouldn't mind the difference in color.

ddawg, thanks also for your contrarian opinion as well. I will take a look, with the gate both closed and open and see what I think. I really don't want the gate to be perpendicular, so we'll have to make the best with the gate at an angle.

I'll update when I hear what the mason says. Thanks again, everyone.

 

[CoconutPete]

Is it just the picture, or does it "sag" in the middle towards the house? Does water pool there?

What is the green saucer looking thing?

 

[ydna]

The whole thing looks like it's ducking and diving all over the place. Not a straight line in site.

The termination at the gate could have been done better in every way.

 

[Andybull]

Cut the asphalt and trim the bricks to match. This is why I end up doing most everything myself, or I end up having to hold the contractor's hand.
It is always a good thing to walk the job prior to commencing and asking the contractor questions as to how he, she plans to do the detail work.

 

[Herb]

I think to finish it off I would cut the asphalt in a straight line, maybe trim the bricks back too, and end up with a 4" space. Excavate that out and pour some fiber reinforced cement tapering up from the level of the asphalt to the level of the bricks. Now if you really wanted it to look right, but take a lot more work, I would find a piece of granite curbing and drop that in.