Spring Cleaning for Driveways, Paths, and Parking Areas
Time was when most houses were approached on foot up the garden path and entered through the front door; the horse or carriage presumably was left by the front gate. The advent of automobiles and busier roads has left the front doors of many older houses high and dry, blindly facing a busy highway on which it is no longer safe for horse or automobile to tarry. Many of these older houses https://rentry.co/i9qxrodw are now entered by what was once the back or side door, and a new approach has been necessarily created, often involving some form of driveway and parking space. Modern houses are designed with their main entrance oriented to the automobile’s requirements, usually up a private driveway. In the suburbs, it may be a short suburban tarred strip; in the country, a longer shaled driveway leading to the house.Whether you have a short or a long driveway, it will need certain maintenance from time to time. Make your inspection after you are sure the last snow has come and gone. If yours is a gravel driveway, clean up and rake back any gravel that may have been snowplowed off (usually onto the adjoining lawn).If you have a blacktop driveway, check for cracks and holes. If these are minor, they can easily be repaired with special tars available from hardware stores and lumberyards. Occasionally, the whole driveway can benefit from a coat of blacktop sealer that creates a new wearing surface.Similarly, minor repairs to concrete driveways are easily made at this stage using a concrete mix that can be bought in small sacks from building suppliers, lumberyards, and many hardware stores. (See pages 21-24 for more information on concrete repair.)If yours is a longer driveway made of shale, crushed stone, split rock, or gravel, it will probably require more regular maintenance than either blacktop or concrete. Snowplowing, if necessary in your area, can exact a heavy toll by removing surface material along with the snow. 