Concrete walkways in Ancaster
The front walk is the piece of concrete every visitor uses and the one most often built as an afterthought. In Ancaster it cannot be an afterthought, because on most of these lots it has to climb.
Above the brow and through the Heights the front yard has grade in it, so the walk becomes a sequence: a run, a landing, a step or two, another run. Once there is more than a step involved, the Building Code has an opinion about riser and tread consistency, and it is a good opinion. Inconsistent risers on an outdoor approach are the most reliable trip hazard on a residential property, because people walk them without looking. Where the ground falls away beside the walk, a guard may be required as well, and that has to be designed in rather than added after the concrete is down.
Frost is the second Ancaster problem. A walkway is a narrow slab, which means it has an enormous amount of edge relative to its area, and edges are where heave starts. That is also why walkways price higher per square foot than a driveway does: the forming perimeter on a three-foot-wide run is nearly as long as it would be for something four times the area, and the forming is where the labour goes. Base depth and a real drainage path matter more here per square foot than anywhere else on the property.
Where the walk meets something already rigid, the front porch, a step assembly, the driveway apron, that seam gets an isolation joint. Two slabs on different expansion schedules pressed against each other will crack, and it will be at the seam, and it will look like poor workmanship because in effect it is.
Broom finish is the right answer across the run. It grips when wet and it grips better under a thin glaze of ice than a smooth or heavily patterned surface, and on a sloped approach that is not a stylistic preference.
We also pour the steps that these walks connect to and the driveways they meet at the apron, and cover the rest of our Ancaster service area.
Down in the lower city most front walks are short and level and the whole stair question disappears, which is what concrete walkways in Hamilton covers. On the rural Flamborough properties the walk is often long and has to route around a septic bed, dealt with on concrete walkways in Waterdown.
