(Please, don't tell me to have me or a contractor put in a new sidewalk
unless you're willing to pay for it. Anyhow, this is more an
intellectual** question than it is a search for construction advice )

**Dirt is as intellectual as I get.

When a quality cement/sidewalk pourer puts a sidewalk in, does he make a
real effort to have the ground underneath flat and horizontal?

The ground underneath my sidewalk was and is very uneven and the two
squares I've lifted up vary in thickness from 2" to 4", sometimes in the
space of 8 inches.

It looks like the paver made almost no effort to have the ground flat.

About 10 years ago a root had made one square heave up. I lifted up the
square and moved it to the side -- got very good at that so that I could
do it alone in from 5 to 10 minutes, and I could put it back in 5
minutes also -- and I cut out that root and others, but in doing so
disturbed the height of the soil. Then when I put the square back, it
rocked, or it was too high somewhere else, or too low.

If the ground had been flat in the first place, almost all I'd have to
do is make it flat again.

I got it right on the 3rd of 4th try, but now I'm 10 years older, 40
pounds heavier, don't want to work so hard, and I hoped I'd get lucky,
or be able to use what I learned the last time, and get it the first
time. But I didn't. I can live with that, but I'm curious as to how
it's supposed to be done.


I haven't found many flaws in my house, but this seems like one of them.
depending on what you all say.