What kind of gravel for driveway?

[ray66v]

No matter how long the driveway is, it is still cheaper to buy the fabric, than all the gravel you will buy over and over again. Not to mention the time and effort that can be spent on maintenance. Plus, with the fabric you can get away with less gravel to start with.

My system is excavate 4"-6", lay fabric. Apply #304 or #411 in total of (3) 2" layers. Wet down and compact each layer, even if it is just by driving over it. Cap the top with 1"-2" of #57, (3/4"). This keeps the "sand" off your shoes and tires, and gives a very nice finished appearance.

You can get away with less base, in light traffic areas, and can add more, if it is a heavy traffic area.

The guy I deal with, has a sing axle truck, and can tailgate it so well I don't have to do much of any raking.

[Jeff244]

You may want to consider crushed asphalt if it is available. It is usually cheaper than crushed stone and holds up as well or better, it actually has a higher structural number than crushed limestone. It also creates less dust and tracks less than crushed stone.


Jeff

[jmfox]

Why is it that the website only recommends the fabric for weed control, and not driveway beds?

jmf

Originally Posted by mark.r

It's called Groundscape. It worked out pretty well. Some of the area was hard pack while other areas were soft and the covering keeps the gravel/aggregate from pushing down into the soft ground. There were a couple of ares that were simply mud and I had to back fill to firm them up. I ordered two rolls of 10' X 150' and trimmed the extra on the sides where it was a bit wide or folded it over.

Shaw Fabric Products, LLC

[Terra Firma Scott]

hello,
I did my driveway in CRUSH CRETE...1000 feet long...Crushed recycled Concrete...comes in different size granules/chunks..I chose the smallest they had like 1/4" or less..They called it "fines"..Once you grade it and it gets wet its nearly as hard as if you poured it...Mines been down 2 years now and NO problems...I drive my equipment and all vehicles on it..I can even roll a floorjack on it and lift truck on it..no lie...

I have had many compliments on how good it looks and alot question what it is...a bit pricey though-

My only complaint is that if we get no rain for a few weeks it gets dusty...And when you first get it down you must walk it daily to pick out the scrap pieces of metal or anything sharp..It is RECYCLED building matter,etc...

[mark.r]

Originally Posted by jmfox

Why is it that the website only recommends the fabric for weed control, and not driveway beds?

jmf

Which product were you looking at?

Groundscape is our filtration fabric for pond lining, golf course bunker lining, French drains, soil separation, and roadway underlayment. It looks like a 1/8-inch-thick felt, and weighs 8.0 ounces per square yard. It is a black non-woven fabric that cuts easily without any fraying of the edges.

I think everyone has great ideas especially based on where you live and whats available. That said, I did mine on the cheap, by myself, and it holds up to driving my vehicles acrossed it. I'm sure everyones works just as well, but for driving from my paved driveway to my back field/barn, it's all I needed.

[skipmarcy]

Looks like everything works for everybody - there are many, many ways to build an aggregate driveway and they all work to some extent. Strictly my opinion but - all you guys that use the fabric underlayment to keep your gravel from sinking - is your driveway floating on a sea of mud when wet? How can you achieve a permanent, solid base? All the driveways I've ever built I wanted the gravel to fill/displace the soft stuff to build a solid bed underneath. Multi-sized creek gravel to start and if it's a particularly soft spot, the larger rocks fill it up quicker. Once the bed is stabilized then you can top with the size/type rock of your choice, of course grading and crowning to handle your water. The biggest mistake I see people make when building a driveway is not doing the proper ditching before they ever start on the driveway itself. If you manage the water first, the driveway will be much easier to build and keep. Then again, this is all just my opinion.

[mark.r]

Originally Posted by skipmarcy

all you guys that use the fabric underlayment to keep your gravel from sinking - is your driveway floating on a sea of mud when wet? How can you achieve a permanent, solid base?

It's not so much mud or softness itself but when you are driving 5, 6, 7 thousand lbs vehicles on any kind of aggregate, it's going to get pushed down into the dirt regardles of how firm the dirt is. That is what the fabric prevents. There were two sections that I had mud to go over and it was a real problem to solve. I had to back fill with enough clay infused dirt (it was all that I had) that the gravel could build upon it. After it dried out if firmed up nicely.

[jbrumberg]

I jumped in this thread late, but after 13 years of dealing with NE's "Mud Season" with all the mud, ruts, getting vehicles stuck including my old Ford 1100 I finally "bit the bullet" and had a heavy equipment operator come in and remove ~ 170 yards of dirt and replacing it with ~180 yards of gravel including a topping of crusher run as well as laying down a couple of rolls of geotextile material. I have had no problems with hydrostatic pumping since . Jay

[jmfox]

You cannot build a road on topsoil. If a road bed is cut down to the subsoil there is no pumping.

jmf

[EdC]

After this Spring's quick thaw any gravel I had on my driveway is gone; sunk out of site in the clay. I've scraped it out as well as I can with my rear blade and will have 2.5" minus crushed concrete delivered next week. The delivery is more expensive than the material. $4.00 a cubic yard for the material and about $80.00 per hour for delivery. It is about an hour round trip. Later this summer when the concrete is compacted I'll top it off with 3/4 minus crushed asphalt. The weather here is hot enough in high summer where I should almost be able to roll it out.

If I can find a local source of geotextile fabric I'll put that down too but with the light traffic my driveway has I think (hope ) that is an extra.