Every owner wants to have an excellent driveway. There are great reasons why you’d want your driveway to be the best it could be. Not only does it get you great street cred, it also helps avoid traffic incidents involving a pothole and a truck. But there are ways you can royally screw up your driveway and it would warrant a repaving several years down the line or worse, right after the job is done.
Paving The Wrong Way
There is always going to be a golden standard whenever doing something. Regardless of whether you’re cooking your grandmother’s signature dish or paving a driveway, you should always be ready to follow the steps to doing it properly. And like every recipe, not knowing how to do it properly can end in you ruining your pavement to the point that you’re going to need a professional do it for you anyways. Some of these mistakes that many DIY pavers makes are listed below so you can avoid them.
Poor Planning
Going into a paving project without a proper plan is similar to going on a vacation without properly planning out where to go. It will end in massive disaster unless you’re either extremely lucky or you’ve done it enough times to know the process by heart. A proper plan lets you space out what you need to do and what you need to get for things to work out with your paving project.
Rushing
Haste makes waste and the same can be said of rushing a paving job. Rushing is especially dangerous during a paving job as it can mean that you’re not using your tools and materials efficiently. Expect to see wasted materials and broken tools when you rush. Rushing the paving process will also lead to your pavement having horrible bumps that will make it a nightmare to drive on and severely damage the wheels of any vehicle that will be parked on it.
Skimping Out On Materials and Tools
Picking the right tools and materials for the job is incredibly important. Using the wrong ones could end up shortening the lifespan of your pavement or wasting money. Make sure to avoid just picking the cheapest products for the job unless you’re certain that these have the best quality despite being cheap. Later on you’re going to end up regretting buying those cheaper materials as your driveway will end up degrading faster than normal or your tools end up breaking during the project itself.
Doing It Yourself
You may be thinking that paving is an easy undertaking and you get right into it yourself without thinking. Paving is definitely something that can be easily done. You’re bound to make mistakes that a professional would be able to prevent. These mistakes will not only make your pavement look worse than a professionally paved one but it will also cost you far more.
It will cost you more in terms of materials and you’re newly paved driveway might even need to be repaved by a professional anyways. This effectively makes you pay for your pavement twice. Professional pavers have been doing their jobs for years and know the ins and outs that a first time DIY paver won’t know.