Ugly cracked cemented footpath

[Puma888]

Hi all , 

im looking for some ideas what I can do to make the ugly footpath look nicer. Ive never done much DIY. But I’m willing to have a go.. to date I’ve planted grass from seeds, painted some wardrobes, learnt to garden.... 

I was wondering if anyone has built A footpath made of merbau over the top of the concrete instead of removing it . I’ll be great full for any tips . 

  

[Jason · Accepted solution]

Hi @Puma888,

Welcome to the Workshop community. We're really pleased to have you join us and trust that you'll learn heaps and get loads of inspiration for future projects from our wonderful members. 

I hope our members will have some helpful advice for you to improve your path.

My immediate thought was that if you didn't want to remove the concrete, you could try something like paving paint or the pebble resurfacer that the @MakeItYours team used for their recent low-cost backyard renovation project. But unfortunately I suspect you're not going to get a great result with those options as the path is very cracked and broken in places. 

If you were interested in removing the path and doing your own paving, then @Adam_W has produced a very helpful guide on How to lay paving for a path which should suit your needs well. 

Jason

[Adam_W]

Hi @Puma888 & welcome!
Wow, yes... that path has seen better days. Looks like it was an old-school poured with out reinforcing job. You can see too it was laid without any expansion jointing so it's cracked wherever it wanted rather than on the sacrificial joints.

I guess the big question is how level and stable is it? Do any of the bits rock around or are they all pretty solid?
If it's solid you could float a decking boardwalk over it if that's the look you wanted. Would be simple enough to do.These doobies make that sort of project easy as you can just put them in place and then slot the bearer in to get started.

The other option is a sleeper boardwalk and then stain that the colour you want. They are actually super easy to make.

[Puma888]

Thanks for responding @Adam_W. They are pretty solid and don’t rock. I got quotes in to remove and dispose of this and it was roughly around $1500. So instead of doung this I thought that if the merbau decking boardwalk. It might work out cheaper ... I’ll have a look at a sleeper boardwalk and see if that will be a cheaper option 😊

[Puma888]

Thanks Jason , I’m trying to move away from concrete n paving look. The old owners didn’t like any greenery or maintenance and practically paved and concreted what they could . Some areas where I was able to I followed Bunnings link and grew grass from scratch from seeds. Thank god this survived the drought . My immediate thought was to remove this but it costs $1.5k... and to replace it with a floorboard walkway would be the  same. So I thought to save cost   Could I just have timber frames over this and screw on floorboards ... 

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Workshop community @Puma888.

You might like to take a look at some of the modular decking solutions that we offer. There is a decking buying guide and also a D.I.Y. step-by-step tutorial on How to build modular decking. This could be a good option if you would like to go with leaving the path in place and covering it over.

If you would like to know more about our decking solutions or had other questions please let me know.

Mitchell

[Noyade]

"My immediate thought was to remove this but it costs $1.5k"

Just a thought - and I've never tried it myself - but "Crazy Paving"

Breaking up the paving and reusing some of it.

What's left over should be a lot less than $1,500 to remove - ?

[dirtygardener]

Consider the crazy paving but to make is less like concrete, paint the pieces in a nice colour and spread them apart with nice pebbles in between.