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I want to widen the sidewalk that goes from my front door to the street. Then I want slate tile over it.
Can I just lay the framing to the size I want (around the exsisting walk) and do it that way? Do I have to bust out the exsisting walk?
Wondering because the ugly pattern it would make would be covered by tile.
And then when I do tile (will be hiring it out but want to know how it's done as well)---when I do the tile do I have to leave the gaps between slabs open or can I just uniformly tile over top the whole thing????
Yes and no respectively, with provisions. The new poured area because of its size and shape will expand and contract at a different rate than the existing sidewalk. (Also made of concrete?). You could tie the new pour and the old pour together with rebar to minimize this but when you tile over it all, you will still have three different surfaces expanding and contracting at slightly different and sometimes substantially different rates. This will possibly mean cracks in the tile and or grout joints if any. You many want to consider pouring the new section and have the whole thing over topped and stamp finished to look like slate. The older and newer sections can be saw cut or scribed to look like finished slate tiles or flags and them everything will match. Here's an example http://www.concretenetwork.com/photo-gallery/concrete-walkwa... . I did an over pour to expand our little patio area and hand finished it to look like flagstone, and five years later it still looks great.
Ah yes I've seen that site before---beautiful work!
Yes, we'd planned to have rebar tieing them together. Overall I'll have to weigh costs of removing the whole thing and just repouring it, which ideally is my preference but it will come down to cost in the end because everything on this 30 year home needs a facelift lol!
If you go the tile-like route, the new pour line joint can be disguised as a grout joint. Then cut the old slab to match the new slab "tile" dimensions. Unless there are structural problems with the old slab I'd use it. Have you considered widening it by pouring new borders on each side? Then you could cut and stain the center and sides in different colors and/or patterns to make it look like brick lined slate or flagstone etc.
Here is the reason to change it. I think the craftsman who put it in were on something. Why else would you wave a walk to a formal Colonial? It just looks very out of place for the structure.
I think you could still pour both sides to widen it to the width of the landing cut the left border to match the right width. The balance of the left pour could become the maximum tile width for the rest of the center cuts or do a stamped cobble overpour on the center and a slate stamp in matching colors or stains on the borders and landing or vice versa. With a couple of large planted urns or topiaries it would make a very stately entrance.
I hope your project goes well. I've got something similar planned for our front entrance which has no access at all except up the driveway. You have a beautiful home. I think the money you save on demolition and the a large repour will go a long way towards paying for the stamp work and smaller pour especially if you're doing some of the work yourself.
Yes we'll have to kill some frustrations by busting out the walk ourselves lol.
And what's annoying is a streetside walkway but no one parks IN the street to come up to the house so ppl for 30 years have had to trek across the lawn to get to the door from the drive. Odd.
