Rosetta Old Mission Pavers Make Stunning Driveway

THE CHALLENGE

When the owner of this beautiful country home created an outdoor living area using Rosetta Hardscapes in 2010, he wasn't expecting the result the new patio would have on the home's existing driveway.

"The plain concrete looked awful compared to the new patio. The concrete was old, and the freeze-thaw cycles over the past few years were causing it to heave and crack. It looked pretty bad," the homeowner said.

Looking for a way to create an aesthetic driveway that would tie in with the Rosetta seat walls, steps, pavers, wood-fired pizza oven, grilling area and fireplace in the nearby outdoor living space, the family turned again to Rosetta Hardscapes. "Integrating with our existing patio was important," the owner explained.

When traveling in Europe several years ago, the homeowner took note of the natural stone pavers he saw in Germany and Italy. He liked the look and thought natural cobblestones would look great for his driveway, but he didn't like the rounded shape that made the pavers difficult to walk on.

THE SOLUTION

The homeowner eventually chose the Rosetta Old Mission instead of a European style cobblestone because Old Mission "has a natural-looking edge and surface, but the joints are flatter so it's easier to walk on because the texture goes down, rather than sticking up. Even our grandkids can ride tricycles out here without any problems," he said.

Old Mission pavers come in three sizes (6x9 inches, 9x9 inches and 9x12 inches or 152x229 millimeters, 229x229 millimeters and 229x305 millimeters), that integrate to create a beautiful and natural-looking driveway, walkway, or patio. All wetcast concrete units are a uniform 2.75-inch (70-millimeter) thick, creating a consistently level surface for safe walking and smooth driving. The consistent dimensions also make Old Mission easier and faster to install than natural stone cobblestones - saving time and money in the installation phase of the project.

When the homeowner contacted Wade Smith at Four Lakes Landscape, LLC of Northern Michigan, he had a design in mind. "We are usually very involved in the design phase of a project, but we went into this project with a general layout in mind and only had to tweak a few elements to help with the radii and curves," Smith explained.

The homeowner had a very hard time choosing which colors he wanted to use for the patio, as several options were available from the local Rosetta manufacturer, Rosetta of Michigan. "Finally I just told them, 'put all the colors in.' The combination of colors ties in with the house really well because the house has gray siding with brown accents," he said.

The biggest challenge of this project was constructing it for proper drainage. "Multiple slopes had to be met," Smith explained. "We had to slope it away from the garage and we had two other asphalt surfaces with existing grades we had to match. It was a challenge to make it the smoothest transition while still allowing the proper drainage. The consistent size of the Old Mission pavers gave us a huge advantage in achieving the proper grades."

To prepare the site for installation, the Four Lakes crew spent two days removing 70 cubic yards (54 cubic meters) of soil and installing 70 cubic yards (54 cubic meters) of limestone base. Actual installation and sealing of the 1,600 square feet (149 square meters) of Old Mission pavers was completed over the course of three days. Although an Old Mission patio or driveway can be permeable if permeable jointing material is used, this project utilized polymeric jointing sand because there was ample room for proper drainage. Once installation was complete, the crew pressure washed the driveway and sealed it using two coats of Dupont Paver Armor Pro sealer.

THE OUTCOME

"The crew really enjoyed installing it," Smith explained. "It's a smaller brick, so it's easier to handle and manage. The way each block fits together is one of the biggest benefits of this product from an installation standpoint. When you're doing a big area like this and you're trying to fit blocks tight, they have to be precisely square and your lines have to be straight. Consistency in size and the overall texture and appearance of Old Mission is great. It's probably one of my favorite wetcast paving stones on the market today."

Overall, what does the owner think of the project? "We've gotten a lot of positive comments on the driveway when we have company. They love the way it looks, and so do we!"

PROJECT DETAILS

Project Name: Old Misson Driveway Project Owner: Private Residence Block Manufacturer: Rosetta of Michigan Installer: Four Lakes Landscape, LLC Design: Homeowner and Four Lakes Landscape, LLC Project Location: Petoskey, MI Year: 2013 Case: 23 - Repeat Customer Old Mission