Ramp up the style quotient

Jagvir Goyal

Entrance ramp is an important feature of a house. Along with the front elevation, an entrance ramp is the first thing that is noted about a house. Though completed last of all, an entrance ramp demands due attention towards its planning, slope, look and strength. It has to be made capable of allowing smooth entry of vehicles as well as providing convenient access to all members and visitors of all ages to the premises. Let us have a look at some important features of an entrance ramp:

Width: The width of an entrance ramp depends on the width of the gate. These days, the gates are kept wider to allow easy entry and parking of four-wheelers in the porch. Width wise, the entrance ramp should extend from outer edge of one gate pillar to the outer edge of the other pillar. If the gate is 11 ft wide and three ft wide gate pillars are provided on each side, the width of entrance ramp shall be 17 ft or more.

Design: Many people prefer to provide a combination of steps and slope in the entrance ramp. However, entrance ramps without steps look better, are easy to use for entry and exit of vehicles and remain comparatively cleaner. Even if a main gate and a side gate are planned, steps should be avoided and a gentle and uniform slope to the whole of the ramp should be given. Otherwise, the steps may be limited to the width of side gate only.

Joints: Care should be taken that the joint of the entrance ramp and the courtyard flooring shouldn't make the vehicle jump or a person stumble. Similarly, the joint of the entrance ramp and the road edge shouldn't create a trough allowing water to collect and stagnate there and making a vehicle enter the ramp with a thud. Both joints should allow a smooth transition.

Toe walls: Toe wall should be provided at each side edge of the entrance ramp. The outer edge of each toe wall should match with the outer edges of the ramp. The toe walls should run perpendicular to the boundary wall of the house. These should be made in bricks and cement mortar and suitable foundation depth and width should be provided. Generally, a 9-inch wide toe wall is sufficient with an 18-inch wide foundation. Toe walls provide strong edge support to entrance ramp and it doesn't give way when the tyres of the vehicle ride the edge of the entrance ramp. Often, the vehicles temporarily parked over the entrance ramp have their tyres resting over the edge of the ramp as enough space is left in front of the gate for a person to pass. Toe walls also help in effectively containing the sub base material of the entrance ramp.

Earth compaction: The earth filled below the ramp should be fully compacted before laying concrete over it. The toe walls on either side will contain this earth well and no chance should be taken on its compaction as heavily loaded vehicles may ride the ramp at any time of its use. Earth should be laid in layers of 6-inch thickness and each layer should be compacted by using a hand compacter called durmat or a motorised compacter. 

PCC: A layer of plain cement concrete should be laid over the earth fill before the final finish material is laid in the ramp portion. The thickness of concrete layer should be kept as minimum 50 mm if not more. A cement sand bajri (stone aggregate) ratio of 1 : 1 ½ : 3 is appropriate for this concrete. The concrete layer should be compacted well and cement slurry should not be allowed to flow to the bottom edge of ramp as the ramp is being laid to slope. To avoid flow of cement slurry from the concrete, water content of the concrete should be kept low. Ramps constructed without proper compaction of earth or laying of concrete layer often give way under load.

Drainage arrangements: Water drainage arrangement should be provided along the top edge of an entrance ramp. Often, the courtyards are washed by the house owners by making liberal use of water and all the used water flows over the ramp, to the road creating a pool of muddy water there. To avoid such a recurring situation, water drainage arrangements should be made along the top edge of the ramp. To make this arrangement, a concrete or brick drain of 3 inch width can be created along the outer edge of courtyard and covered with an iron grating that allows the water to flow into the drain. Otherwise, a 4-inch diameter PVC pipe can be cut along its length into two semicircular halves and one of these halves can be inserted below the courtyard level along its outer edge, to act as a PVC drain. In this case also an iron grating should be fixed over the drain. Top level of iron grating should be kept flush with the level of the courtyard.

Water disposal: It has been seen that the water collected through the drain is allowed to flow to the side lawn created by the house owner outside the boundary wall. Instead of doing this, the open drain should be connected to an underground pipe laid below the side lawn to dispose of the drainage water into the nearby manhole. Some people don't develop a lawn outside the boundary wall of their house but prefer to provide concrete floor there to facilitate parking of vehicles. In such a case also, drainage of water through underground pipe to the manhole becomes essential.

Ramp finish material: Many materials are used by the people as top finish material for the entrance ramp. These include polished granite, marble, porcelain tiles, red stone, Kota stone, concrete tiles etc. Whatever material one may choose for use as finish material for the ramp, three aspects should always be kept in view. Firstly, the ramp should not become slippery. So use of polished granite should be avoided. Second aspect is that the finish material should not gather dust. Third is that it should look beautiful. Though polished granite looks beautiful, is easy to clean and dust resistant, but it may be very slippery, especially during rainy season. .

Right material: Locally produced concrete tiles with self-design and mostly in red, beige or brown finish are commonly used by people in uniform colour or as a combination of two colours but their colour fades with time and often, the design created on their surface gathers dust. Marble is preferred by some people but it too becomes slippery. Rough stone used on the ramp doesn't look attractive. Good quality light coloured Kota stone when used on the ramp by creating attractive design in it looks good. Best material for ramp, however, is the leather finish granite which not only looks good, is durable, easy to clean, non-slippery and dust resistant. Care should be taken that the granite is actually provided leather finish by use of prescribed brushes for the same and not simply rough and unpolished granite.

— The writer is HOD and Chief, Civil Engineering Department in a Punjab PSU