Close to the world-famous city of San Francisco, Oakland is often an unheard of place for most visitors to California. This city, however, has its own wonders to showcase and secrets to reveal. After all, it’s teeming with incredibly vibrant communities that host a down-to-earth yet trendy lifestyle. Anyone in need of more space without leaving the loud streets of the city can take refuge here.
A lot of properties in the neighborhoods, especially those close to the canyon at the outskirts of the city, come with wide lawns that provide the luxury of tending a garden and building an exquisite driveway. Some even offer a panoramic view of the city, enticing property owners to hire Oakland deck builders to add a deck to their homes facing the cityscape. Furthermore, across the landscape lie depressions and creeks that warrant sturdy bridge driveways for vehicles to cross safely.
Having a bridge driveway can be a boon for any home separated from the accessible landscape or road by a small creek or open canal. Like a typical driveway, a bridge driveway needs to have a surface strong enough to hold moving loads yet should also be exquisite enough to match the aesthetics of the entire property, particularly the home’s architecture.
A bridge driveway may come in different surface types. According to an article written for WiseGeek.com by contributor Jeri Sullivan, the most popular driveway materials include concrete, gravel, pavers, and crushed stone. Concrete, made from silica and sand, normally has a plain, dull output. It’s clothed with a different, more decorative stone or brick to improve its appearance. In some cases, a tint is added to the concrete mixture to achieve a more colorful and lively finished product.
Asphalt can also be an excellent material for bridge driveway surfaces. While it’s just as simple-looking as concrete, asphalt is smoother and less susceptible to cracking. To improve the durability of asphalt bridge driveways in Oakland, builders recommend laying it on a thick base layer of gravel.
Solid driveways like concrete and asphalt are the most durable, although other non-solid options, such as gravel and crushed stone may also last long. Non-solid materials, however, may not be effective for sloped bridge driveways. Pavers—brick, cobblestone, or slate—are more ideal for this kind of bridge driveway.
Whatever material you want to use to build your bridge driveway, you can guarantee safe and smooth construction if you hire experts like Schafer Construction Inc. Besides having professional builders in their team, they can also find the highest quality material in town to meet your standards.
(Source: What Are the Different Types of Driveway Surfaces?, WiseGeek.com)
