How I Saved Thousands on My Driveway Makeover: DIY Steel Design and Sustainable Landscaping!

It’s refreshing to hear someone talk about what they gain from spending their time this way as opposed to the more traditional “oh my time is worth ‘x’ .” Glad you had fun and made a great driveway!

Your house looks beautiful and these additions and hearing about all the laws and regulations is super interesting.

The 5-year guarantee requirement on contract work is an excellent regulation! We do not have that in Canada. Not many contractors take pride in doing a good job, unfortunately. That regulation would protect customers and raise standards. Very impressed with your driveway. Congratulations on a job well done.

It was definitely worth doing it yourself, the skills and fun gained are immeasurable and it looks amazing. Can't wait for the update with blooming flowers.

Make sure you plan ahead for water runoff or you will be pulling up your bricks and resetting them because water pulls both sand and setting stones away, so always put pipes under your tamping gravel in a sloping way away from high spots and towards gutters in street. Trust me I've done lots of pavers and walks

That looks really good, and I like the idea of using galvanised steel as the border. I'm all for doing work on a house as much as possible, as long as you know your limits. A competent DIYer can do a better job than most contractors, as you don't have the time pressure. The satisfaction of completing a job is massive and satisfies something deep inside us to create things. It's also a welcome change from being infront of a computer.

As someone who lived in Germany I’m always pleasantly reminded of these little rules. Like the Sonntagsruhe and stuff. But great project. I love to follow these build projects. 👍🏼😊👏🏼

I bought a house 2 years ago at auction with no surveys and we've slowly been renovating it (because it was falling down). Got to say the landscaping/driveway was the most fun and rewarding job I've completed to date. Roof next. Wish me luck 😂

Being an Engineer myself I love basic over engineering of a every day issue. Looks fantastic but don't forget to mastic the open copper pipe ends or you'll be inviting every bug to use the super highway into your basement.

Very nice! Would like to see later how it turned out with all the plants etc.

First time viewer. Your decision to DIY was perfect. Your attention to detail is top shelf. The final product looks fantastic and kudos for not planting grass. The aroma and the color in the summer will be amazing. Great job!!!

Fun and informative video and the driveway looks great! I've got to say though, you are likely to have some issues going forward: The galvanized steel will be straight and look good for a few years, but it won't last under soil. That's the reason the normal procedure is to use concrete blocks. The steel, even galvanized, will corrode eventually, you'll probably get 10+ years, but concrete would last 50+ years. Also, you kind of built a bathtub from what I saw in the video. You have lots of free draining material in your subbase (the granite dust and sand under your paver layer) and around your pavers, but where does the water go once it drains through them? Perforated underdrain pipes to collect the water in your subbase sloped to an outlet would be the best way to handle this. You may get lucky and the soil under your constructed subbase may drain well and then you'll have no problems, but if you have a lot of clay in the native soil, that makes an impermeable layer that will hold the water in your free draining subbase material. Where that material is so shallow, you may well find everything frost heaving over the next winter and spring. If your bricks move up and down after a few freeze thaw cycles, know that it is because you have water stuck in your subbase without a good outlet. That water expands as it freezes, then contracts as it thaws, creating a lot of hydraulic pressure pushing upwards where ever water is trapped. Just some lessons learned working as a civil engineer for the last 16 years building public roads and sidewalks in Maine, USA. Again, great video, thank you for sharing!

I'm a pay-for-it kind of guy. I did a lot of DIY on mates house over the years, so I'm not inexperienced, i just don't have the time these days. 3 weeks, 15 days. I noticed a few people helping so I'm going to assume 2 people per day. That's probably about €300 per day to pay professionals (in the UK). That's around €4500. So, with your materials and hire cost, that adds up to €8800. The original quote wasn't far off.

For reference: you said 5 years of warranty in Germany, but it's 10 years of warranty ("décennale") in France for anything made by a pro to your house.

I love the tracks because it saves on materials, adds water permeability and reduces stored heat. If you add some terracing to your property, and driveway, it will: Decrease ground subsidence (reduce the need to repair concrete structures); reduce the amount of water at the foot of the hill; decrease downstream flooding; decrease the need to water the upper portions of your garden; prevent overdrying, and soil loss: maintain greenery longer; decrease grid strain on 'gridded'(pumped) water; reduce irrigation/watering effort; build soil, etc, terracing is a great way to offset maintenance and other problems.

I'll be honest, I played this video on my second screen while doing some work...just for the sound of someone talking. I spent the entire 17minutes watching this video instead of focusing on my work. 😂 Super interesting to watch and it came out perfectly! I wish I have the effort to do that sort of work in my life. Haha. New subscriber earned. ;) Keep up the awesome stuff!

A few things: 1) In the USA, driveways can cost $10-20k depending on the features, so the contracted quote is pretty accurate, but it's still smart to save money where you can. Love seeing the ways in which you're using your engineering background to add value to your home with the new driveway and Trash Train. The real draw here is the acquisition of new knowledge and hard skills which is more useful than conveniently contracting out such services. 2) All of this home renovation work is reminding me of the 1990s Father of the Bride films with Steve Martin. As a kid, I once helped a friend and his father lay down lots of new red brick for their walkway. I agree, it's fun learning a new skill. Love that you are forgoing the use of grass. Can't wait to see an update with the new flowers and herbs. 3) All of the red brick featured here reminds me of older places in the Northeast like Cambridge, MA (specifically Harvard Square), the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and various buildings around NYC and Georgetown that feature Federal and Georgian style architecture with beautiful red brick.

I am astonished at the engineering considered necessary for a drive way in Germany! In Australia we’d only dig out about 30 cm and lay the bricks over a foundation of gravel and then sand, but no edges of any kind except perhaps a decorative brick border. I’m not quite sure what the edging is for really. Fascinating.

Be very PROUD of yourself ,you did a super fine job

I got my stepdad one of those dumpers since he is getting on in years. He loves it. Makes things easier for him around the farm. Sure wasn't easy finding one around. So I went online and there was a company that has tons of attachable beds for it. I ordered that. So much easier for him doing the light jobs and he still has the larger trailer for the bigger jobs. That little excavator is so fun to use. Everyone that has some land should have one or rent one just once. Remember if you want to save your lawn there are systems you can rent with your equipment that aren't that expensive. You might also want to look at just some simple PLYWOOD. I just did a drive way in the country for my stepfather about a year ago using a cellular grid system. It was the easiest and best things ever. I love it, and even with the grain trucks going down our farm drive we have 0 issues. Anyone looking for a solution to their driveway or long paths or even for like a rock yard and you want it to hold up. I highly recommend that you check out a cellular grid system. I know it's easier to find them over in the Europe.