Putting in a Walk-Around

You ve finally hit the big time and decide you can afford to put in a pool and party area in the backyard. A pool has water in it — well, let s hope so. With water comes mud and a mess, so you need to put a nice cement walk around the perimeter of the pool. 

When you have an existing pool or other area that needs to be surrounded, then you take measurements of the structure in the middle and determine what you want around the outside — how wide and how deep. 

To figure the total area of the cement walkway, divide the walkway into four rectangles. Include the square corners in rectangles that go across the top and bottom. The rectangles across the top and bottom now have dimensions 42 feet by 6 feet (the 42 comes from 30 + 6 + 6 for the two ends). Multiplying 42 x 6, you get 252 square feet for each of the two sections. The side sections are 40 feet by 6 feet, so each of their areas are 40 x 6 = 240 square feet. Double each section type and add the areas together 2(252) + 2(240) = 504 + 480 = 

But what if you want curved comers It may be that you want to make mowing easier by making the corners curves. Or, perhaps, you think that the curved comers are more aesthetically pleasing. Also, there s always the chance that you re just very frugal and want to save some money. 

The four corners of the walkway are each one-fourth of the same 6-foot-radius circle. Just find the area of a circle with a radius of 6 feet, and add it onto the four rectangular sections. The four rectangular sections have dimensions matching the sides of the pool. Two sections are 40 x 6, and the other two are 30 x 6. 

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