Water and/or ice collects below the 3" blocks.
How to add a 3" slope to a concrete walkway?
by
Shelley
+5
I had the front steps mud jacked last summer. It brought the sidewalk up 3" to where it used to be. Now the smaller concrete sidewalk on the right is 3" too low. I temporarily placed 3" blocks to make a step down but that now creates a water and or ice dam at the bottom. How do I get a gradual 3" slope?
Can't add a 3" slope because it would be higher than the lawn. What you can do is remove the blocks from the small sidewalk and grade the soil so it slopes slightly away from the steps to prevent water and ice build up. Replace the blocks and make sure they slope away from the steps and the tops are flush.
Hi Shelley,
You have a couple of options. An ADA compliant ramp has a 5 degree incline, which is 1inch of incline for every 1 foot of ramp. In other words, you need at least 3 feet of ramp to get your 3 inches of height to make the incline comfortable to walk up. To make that ramp, you would need to build a retaining structure out of landscape timbers, wall blocks, pavers, etc. to hold everything in place. Remember it only has to be 3 inches high so it's not like building a wall on either side. Remove 3 feet of the lower walk pavers. Excavate down as many inches as necessary depending on what you use for retaining material. Depending on the thickness of the material you choose, you may need two courses. One which is completely buried and the second that sits on top of it, or if you use a 5x5 landscape timber, you would bury it 2 inches deep and stake it in place. Make it as many inches wide as the walkway pavers and retaining structure material plus a few inches. Lay down some landscape fabric to cover the bottom and sides of the excavated area and then fill and compact with gravel. This will absorb frost heaving in the winter. Lay your retaining structure material on each side. You can either do it at an angle to match the grade from the lower walk to the upper walk or keep it level. Now create the ramp using sand or stone dust leaving enough height to re-lay your lower walk pavers so they end up even with the upper walk. You may need to add soil around the new ramp to even out the grade on the sides. The other option is to extend the upper walk with more 3" blocks like you already have to make a more comfortable landing area when stepping from the lower walk to the upper walk and not bother with the ramp.
Take up dig out dirt, the gradually use sand to make a slope. Tamp it down and readd blocks. You should add blocks as you taper the sand. Check out utube. Put in search bar. People love to show off their skills.
Shelley, use a crowbar to remove several blocks in that area, then fill it with dirt. Tamp the dirt down until you have a gradual rise to the steps. Now you can lay your blocks back down and it should match the height you want. I hope I explained this well enough for you to follow.
Thanks