Technical > Home Improvement > Somethings wrong with my new driveway!

reply to maxpower90

Re: Somethings wrong with my new driveway!

reply to james1

reply to deltat2000
I've seen several built like that around here. The problem comes from setting the driveway at the maximum allowable slope and figuring the slope all the way from the curb to the front of the garage. Doing that neglects the flatter grade of the driveway across the sidewalk, and the need for an area in front of the garage for the driveway to flatten out for the approach to the entrance. Say the maximum allowable grade is 15% and the house is 40 feet from the curb. Setting the garage grade 6 feet above the curb grade 'seems' to work if you don't take the level areas into account. The house and garage get built at that elevation, the road is already in, and suddenly the builder discovers that they've lost 10 feet of driveway length from curb to back of walk, 5 feet of fairly level area in front of the garage, and they need the driveway to climb 5 feet or so in 25 feet. Ha.

In the photo the level area in front of the garage was eliminated, to keep the driveway slope slightly less steep. And the car will scrape its undercarriage at the garage entrance, and will bang bumpers at the sidewalk.

Once the house and road are built at those elevations, it's not a problem with a good solution. The garage floor needs to be lower, probably several feet. That's pretty costly for a house that's mostly built.

Another problem that happens is the reverse of this, where the slope is downhill from the road to the house. Once in awhile a builder forgets to have the driveway level out, tilt slightly to one side, and begin going uphill into the garage. When this is forgotten the water runs off the street, down the drive, and into the garage. I actually saw photos of a house near here get the back wall of their garage blown out by water that way.

The ground around the houses in the picture looks very built-up. It may be raised above a flood plain level, although that would leave the road under water in a flood so I doubt that's the case. I'm thinking a builder sold houses with walkout basements, and found out later (rather than knowing up front as they should have) that the lots were not suited for walkouts in the rear.
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Female monkeys often utter loud, distinctive calls before, during or after sex..

reply to deltat2000
I saw those pictures on the internet about 8 years ago, I saved them then. Why ?
In real life many houses built in Atlanta GA look similar, including the driveways.

reply to mattmag

reply to fatness
You're stupid if you think that grounds built up! That dealing with a hill.

reply to deltat2000
I have a comment about the house design .. What drugs were house designers on when they thought having the garage as the focal point of the house was a good idea ??? I see a lot of this.
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If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand.

reply to mattmag
So I'm a troll for making fun of the "experts" who think everything is "shopped"?

I could see your point if I posted with terms like "pixelation" and "colour curves", but saying that the picture was made out of pixels was about as silly and obvious as I could get!

Just say you were tired when you read it and laugh.

reply to 61999674
I read the other things and it sounds like a great home.

Beautiful media center and 3 car garage, neat view.

That driveway though is a killer.

reply to mityfowl
Well let's see. The road area is flat. The area at the end of the road looks flat. The woods at the end of the road and to the right, wrapping around the last house, look lower than the road. So either the houses are on ground built up by man, or the road is on ground graded lower by man, and in either case the resulting slope between the 2 is man-made.
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Female monkeys often utter loud, distinctive calls before, during or after sex..

reply to deltat2000
This could have been fixed easy. The whole neighborhood.

reply to james1

reply to deltat2000
Well, on other pictures provided by maxpower:

there's a unique tree that lines up in the original and the second pictures... looks kinda like a light green sail. The third picture, however, is completely different; notably, a two-car garage instead of a three-car, the house on the left, the bare tree on the left (in the second picture, the trunk splits in two), and the grass growing in on the left side. We are at least dealing with 2 different houses, photoshopped or no. I'd like to know where maxpower got his/her photos from?

reply to 61999674

reply to Anonymous Coward

quote:

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I'd like to know where maxpower got his/her photos from?

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reply to sempergoofy

reply to deltat2000
The solution here is obvious...

Form and pour some walls below the existing garage, make THAT the new garage, and use the existing garage as living space.

Ta-da!


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A is A

reply to Anonymous Coward

reply to maxpower90
There is a house at the bottom of the mountain here, with a 250' winding driveway that's as steep as this, but a LOT longer and NOT straight, but winding S curves going up to the house. The house itself is built on a steep slope. There is another house 1/4 mile from that one which is also an engineering nightmare of a driveway. You could swear the whole house is going to fall off the cliff.
But these developed housing projects should be better designed than what these photos show.