Planning to pour a walkway between my garage and my neighbor's yard.
On my neighbor's side is a four-foot-high cinder block retaining wall. My side is a windowless stuccoed garage wall. The walkway is five feet wide, forty feet long. I want to put concrete edge-to-edge along the entire width and length. No fancy flagstone, weathered brick, herringbone patio pavers. Just plain old gray brushed concrete.
I have several questions that perhaps some of you kind people can answer for me.
First: how does one build forms for this kind of job? Basically, the concrete walkway will extend from the footing of my neighbor's cinderblock wall five feet across to the footing of my concrete slab garage floor. No edge forms needed, or do I need expansion joints at those points in addition to those placed laterally along its length? A line of benderboard between walkway and wall(s)?
Second: how does one screed a pour like this? There is no edge-to-edge "play" that I can drag a screed board across to ensure a smooth, level surface. The cinderblock and the garage wall are in the way. (This one REALLY puzzles me.)
Third: Drainage. My neighbor's yard is uphill of mine. When it rains hard, runoff pours from his back yard into my back yard and out this walkway to the street. (My neighbor is a plumber. After the last hard rains, he installed a drainage system that he claims will eliminate this problem. But, weather is freakish, and I'd like to ensure that whatever his drainage system can't handle, mine will.) Of course, the walkway will slope towards the street. I'm also planning a drainage channel on his side of the walk equivalent to 2" pipe, so the water will run away from my garage, down this channel, against his wall, to the street below. The walkway will have a double slope: one towards the street and one towards this channel. Does anyone see any problems with this scheme?
Many thanks for any and all useful advice.
-chib