Concrete Sidewalks and Walkways in Arlington, TX and the DFW Metroplex

A front walk should be 4 feet wide so two people can pass and a stroller or a walker fits without a wheel dropping off the edge. A side-yard path between the house and the fence can go to 3 feet, which is the narrowest we pour and still the minimum clear width for an accessible route. Narrower than that and you are building a curb, not a walk.

Straight or curved is a choice between cost and looks. Straight runs form up fast with standard lumber. Curves take flexible forms and more layout time, but they follow the landscaping and hide the lot's lines. Either way we hold the walk about an inch above the finished lawn so the mower clears it and rain runs off into the grass instead of sitting on the slab.

Where the walk meets the porch, the foundation or a driveway, we set an isolation joint with expansion material. The house and the walk move at different rates in North Texas clay, and that joint is what keeps the walk from prying on the slab it touches.

Four inches is the right thickness for foot traffic, and it is the thickness most public sidewalk across DFW is built to. We strip the topsoil and roots, compact the subgrade, and set 2 inches of compacted base before any forms go in. The base is the part nobody sees and the part that decides whether the walk is flat in five years. Arlington clay swells when it is wet and shrinks when it is dry, and a walk poured straight on soft dirt rides that movement one panel at a time.

Steel holds the panels together when the ground does move. Welded wire mesh or #3 rebar on chairs, so it sits in the middle of the slab instead of on the dirt where it does nothing. On our price bands rebar adds $0.60 to $1.10 per square foot, and on a walk that is usually a few hundred dollars that buys a slab that moves as one piece.

Where a vehicle crosses the walk, at the driveway apron or a gate a mower or trailer rolls through, we thicken the slab to match the driveway. A 4-inch walk is for feet; a tire needs more.

Water has to leave a walk or it stays, and in winter that is ice at the front door. We cross-slope every walkway a quarter inch per foot, about 2 percent, away from the house. That is also the most cross slope the ADA allows on an accessible route (1:48), so the walk drains without tilting anyone's wheelchair or walker.

Along the direction of travel we keep the grade at or under 1:20, or 5 percent. The ADA standards bind public and commercial buildings, not private homes, but they are the right numbers for anyone: a 5 percent walk is one a person can push a stroller up without thinking about it. Steeper than that and it is a ramp by definition, which means landings, a 1:12 limit and handrails. We pour the ramp, and CJM Metals welds the steel handrail on it, one family covering both trades.

On a lot where the front door sits well above the street, we would rather run the walk on a gentle diagonal than pour steps. Steps are where people fall and where mail carriers stop coming to the door. If steps are unavoidable we cast them with 7-inch risers, 11-inch treads and a broom-finished nose, and we talk about a rail before we pour.

Broom finish is the default on a walkway for one reason: grip. We float the surface, then drag a finishing broom across it perpendicular to the direction of travel, so the ridges work against a slipping shoe in rain. It costs nothing extra and it is the finish on nearly every public sidewalk in Arlington. Stamped and exposed aggregate are options on a front walk if you want it to match a patio, at a higher band and with a sealer that has to keep up.

Concrete cracks; joints decide where. On a 4-foot walk we cut control joints every 4 to 5 feet, so each panel is about as long as it is wide. That is tighter than the 8 to 10 feet a 4-inch slab can technically carry, and it is why a walk cut to its width stays looking like a row of clean squares while one cut every 10 feet cracks down the middle of each panel. We tool the joints while the concrete is plastic or saw them the next morning, a quarter of the slab depth. More on that in why concrete cracks.

You can walk on it after 24 hours. Keep planters, furniture and anything with a point off it for 3 days, and keep the surface damp or curing compound on it for the first week, because Texas heat pulls the water out before the cement has used it. Full design strength is 28 days, and that is the soonest a sealer should go on.

The sidewalk between the curb and your yard is in the public right-of-way, and it is treated differently from a walk on your lot. Arlington requires a permit for construction in the public right-of-way, issued through Planning and Development Services at the One Start Development Center, 101 W. Abram St, 817-459-6502, and the contractor who pulls it has to be registered with the City first. The City's right-of-way permitting and construction manual also spells out the demolition: a full-depth saw cut with a power saw, removed back to an existing joint rather than a broken jackhammer edge, and replacement to the City's Cut and Restore Pavement Detail so the new panel matches the sidewalk on either side.

Who pays for a failed public sidewalk depends on the section. Arlington's Public Works runs a concrete panel and sidewalk replacement program, paid for largely by the City's voter-approved street maintenance sales tax, that removes and replaces sidewalk panels and pedestrian ramps that no longer meet its standards, and a damaged section can be reported to Public Works through the Ask Arlington app or at 817-459-6550. In many Texas cities the abutting owner carries some of the responsibility, so before anyone breaks out a city sidewalk in front of your house, confirm with the City of Arlington which case yours is and whether it is already on a list. That call can save you the whole job.

When we do the work we pull the permit, saw cut to the joint, set the grade to match the neighbors' panels and pour it to the City detail. A tripping edge on the public sidewalk is also the kind of thing our concrete repair crew grinds or replaces one panel at a time, if the rest of the run is sound. See do I need a permit for concrete in Arlington for the rules on the rest of your lot.