Do you remember where you were during the Halloween snowstorm of 2011? We do! Our crew was in the middle of installing a heated paver driveway in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Unfortunately, we were not far enough into it to test the snow-melting qualities of a heated paver driveway!
When this client – for whom we had installed a heated driveway at his other residence – called us to install another one at his new construction home in Wolfeboro we were very excited. He had an architect create a custom paver design and spec out a heating coil system that was state-of-the-art. The project was scheduled to start in mid-October.
One of the biggest challenges to installing any paver driveway is base compaction.
A paver driveway base has to be able to handle the weight of oil delivery trucks during New Hampshire’s freeze-thaw cycles. This heated paver driveway had additional base compaction challenges: heavy clay sub-soil and deep utility trenching that hadn’t yet settled.
We solved this problem by removing extra soil and stabilizing it with rip-rap stone, geotextile fabric. and geo-grid in between compaction lifts.
Heating coils for this paver driveway were state-of-the-art!
The client spared no expense when it came to installing heating coils in the driveway. The architect had spec’d out a hydronic system with tough but flexible PVC tubing. Hydronic heating coils use forced hot water that continually cycle throughout the winter, so that snow never builds up on the driveway
A custom paver design that even challenged our installers.
Normally, the fun normally begins once the base compaction is done. The Green Monster paver installation crew is top-notch, but this heated paver driveway had a few challenges to overcome in the paver installation phase too.
Specifically, there was a compass design inlay at the garage entrance that had to be cut in first, point true north, all the while being careful not to disturb the bedding sand that sat only 1 inch above the heating coils. The grade and pitch on this driveway also had to be perfect so that water would run off where it was supposed to.
When you do projects like this, you find another gear – a slower one – that helps you work through the challenges and create a result that is simply amazing. Our client seemed to think so too – as he hired us to do a heated paver driveway at another residence after this one!