Arizona Foothills Custom Homes - 2004 Edition
Pave Your Way: Driveways
By Kathryn Eastlick
To an 8-year-old, a driveway is the perfect surface for hopscotch. To a teenager, it’s the pathway to freedom. For an adult pulling in after a long day’s work, a driveway is a symbol of sanctuary. Your driveway may be the last thing on your to-design list, but planning it carefully is important. Our experts help steer you in the right direction.
Free Your Front Yard
Christine Ten Eyck, president of Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, has a pet peeve about large, concrete circular driveways. “I don’t like it when people’s front yards become hostage to automobiles,” she says. “I hate it when you drive up and all you see are cars – I want to reclaim that space for people.” In order to create what she calls a “decompression zone” between the car and the front door, Ten Eyck builds auto courts off to one side, leaving the area in front of the house open for a beautiful garden or courtyard.
Solving the Puzzle
Phil Nichols, president and owner of Phil Nichols Company, a Scottsdale custom-home builder, says that using interlocking concrete pavers, which fit together like puzzle pieces, is a popular choice for driveways. Before taking hold in Arizona, the decorative pavers were available in only three or four colors and patterns, but there are now about 50 colors and 15 patterns to mix and match.
Concrete Evidence
Experts agree that concrete, which cheap, is a bad idea for Arizona driveways. Large amounts of concrete increase the “heat island” effect in the Valley, and the surface can’t hold rain during sudden summer downpours. Eventually, cracks will develop. Driveways using stones or pavers last longer and are much more forgiving in hot or rainy weather.
Ten Eyck also likes Grasscrete, which she used in her own office parking lot. Grasscrete looks like a waffle with holes for grass to grow. For a driveway, she suggests filling the holes with stabilized granite (crushed gravel), which creates a permeable surface that is more attractive than plain old concrete.
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