Browse Forums Paving & Concreting 1 Jul 16, 2010 8:50 am So I had one of those 3am thoughts last night about (of all things) putting my wheelie bins out once I'm in my new house. This is a photo of my house layout - the red bits are where I assumed that I'd be concreting: http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/oo276/sjs137/Concrete1.jpg The only access I have to my back yard is going to be through a gate across the sideway in the bottom right of this diagram. So naturally, I will be putting my wheelie bins just near that gate. I'm trying to decide if I need to put concrete in the blue section - or would this look silly? I had originally planned to put garden there, but I don't want to be wheeling bins over the garden every week. Can anyone offer any suggestions/advice?? Is concrete there going to look weird?? Are there any alternatives that anyone can think of?? P. PS. I'm also thinking ahead for when I landscape the back yard - I'll probably be wheelbarrow-ing stuff down that side of the house, so I'll need to have access for that too. Re: Advice needed - concrete path from house to footpath?? 2Jul 16, 2010 9:55 am Looks like that's only about 1m wide? Yep, better leave some room for w/barrowing and w/bins. Maybe you could still have the garden bed on the blue section, starting right at the front boundary, but then gently curving it towards the fence to zero width garden bed (or very narrow, for some tall strappy plants) - which should still leave you plenty of room for w/b's. My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Advice needed - concrete path from house to footpath?? 3Jul 16, 2010 10:05 am We have a side path and gate similarly placed to yours but we also have the path continuing around in front of the house joining the driveway and a stepped entry path from the front door. You will definitely need a pathway somewher and that looks like the only solution. Re: Advice needed - concrete path from house to footpath?? 4Jul 16, 2010 10:09 am suh We have a side path and gate similarly placed to yours but we also have the path continuing around in front of the house joining the driveway and a stepped entry path from the front door. You will definitely need a pathway somewher and that looks like the only solution. Yes, I thought of having the path go in front of the house instead, and then meeting up with the driveway. By my front yard is really small... 10.5m wide, less the driveway, and only 4-5m setback, so I thought that a path around the front would pretty much mean no front yard. I'm still not set on that blue concrete section though... P Re: Advice needed - concrete path from house to footpath?? 6Jul 16, 2010 1:34 pm Rather than concrete the path, you could do granitic (sp?) sand with pavers. The sand will compact down hard so the bins will go over it no worries, but you could plant out the sides of the path with mondo grass or something similar so it doesn't look so blank. You could plant some star jasmine or something behind the mondo grass on the fence side and it will creep up the fence. You only need about 15cm or so for the plants. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Advice needed - concrete path from house to footpath?? 7Jul 16, 2010 5:12 pm Nothing wrong with a concrete path at the front. Design for practicality first then consider the aesthetics - there is always a clever way to do it. I think that practical, logical features like paths etc that are for a purpose are good design features in themselves as they enhance the land use of the block and can give character. Don't know what the style of the dwelling is, but if not going for the super formal look you could curve the path away from the fence as it approaches the footpath to create an ideal herb garden bed out the front. (Sort of "S" shaped path.) Path doesn't have to be 1m wide, 900mm actually looks better and even could do 800mm if this gives you your required access, experiment with the correct width to suit the scale of the rest of the front garden. Glass tiles or other features can be inlaid to give character and when established overhanging ground covers or mass plantings of roo paws or lomandra or ficinia nodosa etc can overspill the path to soften its edges and/or herb garden alongside with say lemongrass encroaching, heaps of ways to do it. Re: Advice needed - concrete path from house to footpath?? 8Jul 28, 2010 8:32 pm A herb garden down the front path sounds like a nice idea. But if its just a wheelie bin path then keep it practical by being straight and maybe a dwarf hedge to hide it away a bit. If you make a main access path then with an S shape path it can be handy to have something like a tree or a rock to meander around to stop people walking the straight line and ruining your garden. For a main access path if you live by yourself perhaps an 800-900 mm path.. familys perhaps the full 1.2m path so you can walk side by side. Hi all I am looking to run a water line under my concrete footpath which is directly next to my home, was seeing if this is possible without cutting the entire section… 0 15256 Hello everyone, After some suggestions and ideas about how to put a concrete path around the drop edge beam area on our new build. We are required to have a concrete path… 0 11035 Thank you so much for your response. I have drawn a pedestrian gate in - for curb appeal, let's see how much costs come in at. I think you're right - if we decide to… 2 5144 |