Sidewalk Repair Expense

I understand that the township of Maplewood requires that owners repair/replace their own sidewalks. I've noticed, while walking around my neighborhood (Hilton), that a great many sidewalks are in dire need of repair. I wondered why so many homeowners have left their sidewalks in such a sorry state; and then I had an estimate done on my own sidewalk. Holy moly, is that expensive. No wonder there are so many busted, unsafe sidewalks in the neighborhood! (FTR, mine could use a sprucing up but it's not a hazard at this point.)

It made me wonder if there was a creative solution to the problem. I've heard of townships offering a town-wide deal where they contract the mason and everyone who wants to participate gets a lower price on the repair -- sort of a "bulk discount" situation. Or for the more socialist solution, perhaps a portion of Maplewood property taxes could go into a pool for sidewalk repair for those who can't afford it. But then how do you determine if someone really needs it? 

I don't know what the solution is... But it's prohibitively expensive to replace sidewalks, especially when you also have to deal with higher home repair priorities like a broken furnace, leaky roof, etc. It seems like since a sidewalk is a public area, the city should help maintain it.

you could at least do a smaller version of the group buy, if you have three or four neighbors in the same boat.

I love your idea.  

Be careful with the sidewalk being in disrepair. Our insurance company came for an inspection shortly after we purchased the house and got an umbrella policy and they requested that we fix the sidewalk. And yes, talk to your neighbors. We asked the person next to us, who needed a small portion fixed, if she wanted to get it done while we were doing ours and it only cost her a couple of hundred bucks since they were already there. It made our sidewalk look nicer and it helped her out as well. Worth having the conversation with your neighbors. And I do agree that the sidewalks in many places are in really bad shape. Pushing a stroller on the sidewalks around here is a hassle! I can only imagine if there are individuals with limited mobility of in need of walkers or wheel chairs. They would have to resort to using the roads. Not safe in either case. 

jed said:
.... I wondered why so many homeowners have left their sidewalks in such a sorry state; 

It gets fixed when your neighbor gets pissed at you and calls the town. Then you get the notice and a bill for a thousand or so.

what about the curbs too?  Who wants to spend $ on a curb, but it would make the town look nicer.

Every now and then there are town road replacing projects that end up also including the curbs and sidewalks.  I believe I've heard that is a condition when money is received for the project from certain (federal?) grant sources. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any way to find out if (or when) that might apply to any particular street or block.  It happened on our block where we lived in our first Maplewood house in the mid 1990s, but no such luck in our current neighborhood.

I live on Academy. The curb in front of my house is mostly gone; has been since I moved in 20 years ago. I am not going to spend money on repairing it unless the Village requires me to do so. South Orange recently announced a curb project for Academy, but it stops two blocks short of my house. They say they are seeking additional funds to complete the project to the town line. We shall see...

Concrete work is a fairly straight forward DIY project. It is not that expensive to repair or replace sidewalks or curbs with bagged concrete from local store. We replaced the entire gutter in front of our home a few years ago with concrete and Belgium block. It takes some labor but very satisfying accomplishment.