N° 087
BerczyEstate
Markham, ON·2024
“Sixteen winters of cracked asphalt — rewritten in a single autumn as a herringbone composition that reads as old as the house.”
N° 087 · Driveways
A complete re-imagining of the arrival sequence for a 1990s-era home in north Markham. The owners had lived with cracked asphalt for sixteen winters; what they asked for was a driveway that would feel native to the architecture they were slowly modernizing around it.
A 1.4-metre grade drop from the garage threshold to the street, combined with a clay subgrade prone to spring heave, meant a standard 150 mm base was not going to survive a Markham freeze cycle. Drainage had to be engineered before a single paver was cut.
We over-excavated to 350 mm, installed a woven geotextile separator, and built up in 75 mm compacted lifts of 19 mm clear stone capped with high-performance bedding sand. A linear ACO channel at the garage apron ties into the storm lateral so meltwater never reaches the threshold.
From what was there to what should have been.
Materials used
- M.01Unilock Beacon Hill Flagstone — Granite Fusion
- M.02Unilock Series 3000 — Onyx soldier course
- M.03ACO KlassikDrain K100 linear channel
- M.04Techniseal SmartSand RG+ polymeric sand
- M.0519 mm clear stone base, 75 mm lifts
- M.06Mirafi 500X woven geotextile
What we delivered
- 01Demolition of 320 m² asphalt apron
- 02Over-excavation to 350 mm subgrade
- 03Sub-drain & storm lateral tie-in
- 04Geotextile separator + base build-up
- 05Herringbone paver installation
- 06Edge restraint & polymeric sand
- 07Final wash & 24-month workmanship guarantee
We expected a driveway. We received a piece of architecture. The crew measured twice, swept three times, and left the property cleaner than they found it.
The craft, day by day.
Day 02
Day 05
Day 09
Day 15
Day 21
Day 25
Every Anissa Inc. project begins the same way: a quiet walk of the property, a measuring tape, a sketch.
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