sidewalksaver.com Blog

The answer to this question varies according to the type of property, the local ordinances, the type and severity of damage to the sidewalks, and according to the availability of Contractors who are willing to do the work. There are certainly some jobs that are not up to the minimum threshold of the jobs that local contractors are willing to do. Perhaps the best situation is where a contractor is going to be replacing several blocks so that the home-owner can award the job to the Contractor who is willing to do the additional minor defect areas at the same time for a nominal additional fee.

Concrete Contractors:

The Grinding operations are being performed by Contractors who see the Grinding operation as a kind of “Clean Up” operation to make the new sections they install blend in with and flow smoothly into the existing sidewalk panels.  Contractors also use the Grinding operation as a method to win the jobs by offering a Hybrid Repair that incorporates replacement where absolutely necessary and grinding where appropriate. 

Maintenance Departments:

Many public and private institutions have “in-house” maintenance departments to do the actual work. A Hotel Chain or shopping center could easily justify having the complete sets of Sidewalk Savers equipment on their Trucks or in their workshops. Hospitals, schools, Parks on the city, state, National level, Office Parks, even the local Law offices who want to protect themselves from themselves, all have a need to be prepared to take corrective actions to maintain their property as a safe hazard free environment.

DIY Homeowners:

There are many cases where home owners or small businesses have relatively slight stub-toe trip-hazards that need to be addressed but which do not represent enough business to attract contractors who are unable to justify the cost of setting up their equipment for the relatively small amount of work.

Sidewalk Saver Entrepreneurs:

More recently, there have been increases in people who see the Sidewalk Saver Procedures as business opportunities to fill a void where none of the above seems to fit. Regardless of the category or the goals of the particular group, the need is huge. It is spread all over the country. It will continue to need to be done wherever trees grow or freeze-thaw conditions exist or wherever ground settles. And, best of all, the workpieces can never be shipped off shore to have the grinding operations performed.

Grind It! Cut It! Fix It! ™

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Mid west USA Cities are increasingly following the West Coast offense and implimenting the Diamond Cup grinding solution for maintaining their sidewalks.   The benefits to homeowners are obviously lower costs and the availability of a mid term solution to a problem that they are made aware of each time they shovel snow or simply walk on their own sidewalk.    Most responsible homeowners would minimize the trip hazard if only they had a low cost, convenient method for doing so.

Now, by applying the methods used for many years in California and cities like Portland, Oregon,  mid-west cities such as Columbus, OH have approved this process for at least some of the observed problems.

The benefits to cities and neighborhoods are the elimination of problems while they are small by simple periodic grinding.  Some politicians refer to this as the “Broken Window” theory – take care of the small problems and the big problems will take care of themselves.

Even the relatively steep step shown below can be made safer with a grinding operation on the left side of the raised block, although this would clearly be a temporary solution as the codes and procedures in many cities would require blocks such as these to be removed and replaced.

The Sidewalk below shows multiple trip hazards caused by a single, relatively small  tree.  In order to repair this type of a hazard, the costs would be the replacement costs for 3 perfectly good concrete sidewalk blocks.     Of course, the tree will keep growing so that in 2 or 3 years the new blocks would need to be replaced again.

Rather than waiting for the problem to get worse over time, diamond cup grinding for these blocks would require a minimal amount of work and would eliminate the Stub-Toe Trip Hazard liability for a fraction of the costs, providing a temporary reprieve for the same 2 – 3 years when additional grinding could perhaps be used or not, according to conditions and local codes.

Grind It!  Cut It!  Fix It! ™            http://sidewalksaver.com/blog1/ 

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Sidewalker

On a pleasant 15-MAY-2007 afternoon walk along Mission Bay’s “Boardwalk” we had an excellent opportunity to see how well a public walkway can be maintained with the Sidewalk Savers system of Diamond Cup Grinding.     The “Boardwalk”, of course, is actually made of concrete and it is used regularly by walkers, joggers, bicyclists, skate-boarders, in-line skaters, wheelchair riders, and parents pushing baby strollers.     All of these users have one common need, a smooth walkway with no bumps or “stub-toe” trip hazards.

Here we can see an area where many hazards have been eliminated by grinding.   It is amazing to think of how many skinned and bloody young knees were avoided by this simple 20 minute correction over the past year!     The only loser in this case is the Band-Aid Business!

A pickup truck, a wagon, and a few thousand dollars worth of equipment would be enough to get started saving public walkways and park sidewalks from the threats of stub-toe trip hazard liability.    

Whether it is done by the cities themselves or by sub-contracted service providers, the ongoing maintenance is readily accomplished at a fraction of the costs of removal and replacement.      What other business offers an endless supply of fixed location workpieces to be repaired by such a simple procedure as diamond grinding?      Isn’t it time for states, counties, and cities to demand that the hazards be eliminated rather than painted with “alert orange” paint?

Grind It. Cut It. Fix It. ™

City engineers and maintenance agencies are welcome to visit www.sidewalksaver.com  for a complete list of everything they need to get started. We look forward to hearing or reading comments on your own experiences.  

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Sidewalker

It is now nearly 20 years since I encountered my first Concrete Grinding and Cutting Project in what would eventually become Sidewalk Savers Ltd.    Living in the central Ohio area, my car was frequently dragging Ice Melt Rock Salt from the local highways and streets onto my garage floor.   Sigh …..    Perhaps many of you have seen this in your own garages as the 1 or 2   feet of concrete garage floor nearest to the driveway, becomes pitted and spalled by the highway residue dripping from the car to the floor each evening.   

During the summer of 1987, I was looking at this problem in my own 14 year old garage when I saw my next door neighbor solve the same problem in his home by having the 4 foot long section of his Garage Floor professionally removed by Diamond Sawing and then replaced with a new section of concrete floor.     Being somewhat strapped for cash myself, I looked at the array of Diamond Saw Blades and Diamond Grinding Cups on my work bench as I contemplated doing this job for myself.   

My methods involved a combination of sawing, chipping, and grinding to a depth of 1” for the width of my driveway and for a length of  18” so that I could use good old packaged Concrete mix to produce a new layer of Concrete Garage Floor 16 feet x  1.5 feet  x 1” deep.    The bad news was that it was a lot more work than I had bargained for.     The good news was that I had produced a very rough surface to which the newly mixed concrete bonded very well.   Twenty Years Later, the results are in:  I did an amazingly good job, if I do say so myself.   ([:^  )      The floor still looks great.

Now, for the True Confession part of my story:  I protected myself with a Respirator and goggles while Sawing, but I was way too casual about protecting the rest of my garage,  my poor boat, and even my house from the dust.   Dust went everywhere!       It was not until 15 years later when contemplating the Sidewalk Savers Solution that I found the people at Dust-Muzzle and  Loveless Ash.       

Bottom line:  The methods and the Tools are now readily available to tackle these very common problems without exposing yourself to the concrete dust, so don’t ignore it.

……….      Grind It.  Cut It.  Fix It. ™

Sidewalker

One aspect of the Simple Sidewalk Grinding Procedures is frequently overlooked. The DIY Homeowner or even the customer who pays someone else to grind his Sidewalk Trip Hazards will be amazed at how easily Diamond Tools can reshape and finish the concrete. This is clearly a case where seeing is believing.

Additional applications around the house or shop suddenly become feasible, even though not necessarily by the DIY homeowner. Repairing a basement floor low spot was my first “extra curricular” project as I found that my crack sealer blade and 4.5” diamond cup could make a small trough from a low spot in the basement floor to the drain that was 10” away. 15 minutes of grinding and the 25 year old basement (washing machine) puddle problem was forever gone!

This was clearly a case of me being a kid with a new tool. I was on the march looking for other problems to solve. Our garden sidewalk and our patio presented the next correctable defects in my path. Nice!

The beautiful aggregate that was exposed by my grinding the front sidewalk and patio made me contemplate grinding the entire patio as I moved from maintenance grinding to Decorative Concrete Grinding. But, that’s another story.

Other homeowners could very easily consider a wall-sawing option for enhancing the usefulness and beauty of their basement by cutting new larger windows or doors. This is really a great way to add value to the right house. This is clearly a job for the Professionals, and who would have thought of it if they hadn’t first started by grinding that little Stub-Toe Trip Hazard on their front sidewalk?

Bottom line: While grinding down that Stub Toe Hazard, don’t forget to think about other projects around the home. And, by all means, post your questions and your stories here so that we can help steer you in the right direction.

Grind It. Cut It. Fix It. ™

Sidewalker

Most Sidewalk Trip Hazards tend to Grow over time. They start out as 1/4″ bumps and over a period of 2 or 3 years they move from being a minor annoyance to being a full fledged Trip Hazard. Since nobody calls in a Concrete Contractor to repair the sidewalk for minor problems, there has really been not much a homeowner or shopkeeper could do beyond watching it grow.

Generally, the Shopkeeper reaches his pain thresh-hold where he can no longer ignore the problem when the bump hits 3/4″ or when he receives a “Love Letter” from the City advising him that he needs to replace the defective pavement block. A homeowner’s thresh-hold for ignoring the problem has historically been Lots higher, with the real procrastinators risking “Love Letters” from their local attorney by ignoring Stub Toe Hazards in the 3″ – 4″ range. The real advantage for Diamond Grinding is the low cost of equipment and the relative ease for eliminating even the smallest of trip hazards.

Bottom line: There is no longer any excuse for allowing Stub-Toe, Trip Hazards to exist. What are your thoughts on the subject?

Grind It. Cut It. Fix It. ™

Sidewalker

Here are some photographs of a Rest Area that I happened to visit in South Dakota in July 2006. It is interesting to think of the time spent painting the Stub-Toe Trip Hazards as compared to the time required to grind them and actually eliminate the hazards. These are the types of Trip Hazards that are spaced far enough apart and seemingly minor until someone actually trips and falls.

Our Sidewalk Savers approach could eliminate the minor problems before they become big problems. And just think of the benefits from eliminating Alert Orange Paint on the Sidewalks!

Grind It. Cut It. Fix It. ™

 Sidewalker