Crushed rock driveway laying technique?`

[MikeD74T]

I have an outbuilding that's about 100' from the road. In the wettest part of spring one can sink knee deep thru holes in the frost walking to the building. In less extreme wetness 6-8" ruts were common. I removed 12" x 10' of soil & replaced it with recycled concrete. Concrete crushed to 1 1/2" max with fines included. No more ruts. Even in the wettest season I can drive over it barely making tire marks. The second year I added 1" of stone dust for cosmetic reasons, uniformity of color & so lawn mower was less likely to pick up rocks. The recycled concrete was 1/2 the price of stone or gravel at the time. It's important to get angular material, including the fines. It packs much better than sand or river rock. MikeD74T

 

[EastTnFarmboy]

I have an outbuilding that's about 100' from the road. In the wettest part of spring one can sink knee deep thru holes in the frost walking to the building. In less extreme wetness 6-8" ruts were common. I removed 12" x 10' of soil & replaced it with recycled concrete. Concrete crushed to 1 1/2" max with fines included. No more ruts. Even in the wettest season I can drive over it barely making tire marks. The second year I added 1" of stone dust for cosmetic reasons, uniformity of color & so lawn mower was less likely to pick up rocks. The recycled concrete was 1/2 the price of stone or gravel at the time. It's important to get angular material, including the fines. It packs much better than sand or river rock. MikeD74T

Mike,

I'm curious where you would find the recycled concrete. That might work for an application I have.

Thanks.

 

[MikeD74T]

Mike,

I'm curious where you would find the recycled concrete. That might work for an application I have. Thanks.

From highway/bridge construction companies, commercial recycling/disposal companies, or the larger demolition companies. Got mine from a highway/site contractor. They bring everything masonry (brick, block, concrete paving,curb, bridge demo, & pipe, etc) or asphalt back to their pit to be crushed when things are slow. Look for recycled asphalt also, it packs really well. MikeD74T

 

[Temp97]

Been working on a driveway for a while now (doing it all myself) and here is what I did. Dug down about 8-10", placed tarp on the bottom, screened my own rock (between 80-90 ton, or so I'm told). Base rock is no smaller than 4" on average. I have attached pictures so you can see the size screen that I used for the base. When the base is down I have a friend with a very heavy JD that I will use to pack it down. I will then throw a sheet of expanded metal of the screener and run the dirt down it again to get the smaller stone for the top layer. Now I have well screened top soil and a fairly cheap stone driveway. The idea is to get all those smaller stones down into the cracks of the big ones so they bind and not shift. When I'm done packing it down I'll order in some 1" crusher Run W/binder and smooth it out. The 1st 50' of my drive way was done this way 3 years ago and is "ROCK Solid" . I plan on paving after a few years of settling and as soon as I win the lottery. If the pictures don't work, somebody let me know and I'll try again.

 

[Renze]

I plan on paving after a few years of settling and as soon as I win the lottery.

Instead of winning the lottery, maybe you could have saved the fuel cost of screening so much dirt for just some rocks, and with that saving, pay transport for someone who wanted to get rid of a heap of rocks, and pay the paver too... ?

 

[turbopiper]

Newbie question here. Pretty soon I will be installing a culvert and then laying a 500ft+ crushed rock construction driveway. I want the driveway to eventually be permanent (havent decided if I will leave it as crushed rock or put blacktop on later???).

I was intending to the use the boxblade to take off the top surface of grass (having second thoughts on this part) and then put cloth on the dirt. Then I was going to spread the crushed rock along the length of the driveway and then compact it.

Anyway, this thread is to ask the "pros" what is the best way to do all this. The ground is level with loose grey sand covered with a very light layer (if you can call it that) of bahia grass. Grass is so sparse that wheel ruts can easily cause the grass to "disappear" if that makes sense?

1. Will piling crushed rock onto loose sand be okay? I just had a thought that leaving the light layer of grass might be a good thing (adds compaction) since the sand is so loose...what do you think?
2. How neccessary is the cloth underlayment?
3. Was thinking of 4" to 6" of rock...is that enough?
4. What is the best techinique for having the dump trucks delivery the rock...where should they dump and how should I move it....looking for specifics here...even photos if you have them.

I look forward to the replies, thanks guys!

markmc,
We have a neighbor down the street that brought in crushed concrete (14 loads) for our driveway and he put in 4" right on top of the sandy soil we have here. I will say it is solid and holding up well....
but at the time.... I didn't know there were different grades of crushed concrete... I ended up with "rocks" too large to walk on without keeping an eye on the ground. I happened to be at work at the time when the trucks delivered the loads, if I had been home I would have had a smaller grade delivered. I'm slowly seperating the larger chunks out, and using it as a base around the back of the garage where I'm building an extended shed roof to park the trailer and store other items out of the weather.
It is good stuff for a driveway, just make sure you don't get the larger stuff.
Ted

 

[amg7319]

I live in Texas as well, and recently did my driveway in crushed stone. It is a great way to make a driveway. I put my rock down right on top of the dirt, but I had driven a path on the dirt for several weeks before I put it down and it had compacted the dirt alot. I put in about 10 inches of crushed stone over about 16' wide driveway. My driveway is about 600' feet long and I have some very large rock areas in fron of my shop. I put in the original crushed stone about a year ago and just did some filling in of a few low spots. I ordered the rock by the semi truck load because they could bring 25 yards at a time. So far it has taken about 20 semi loads or 500 yards of crushed stone to make the driveway as nice as it can be. Each year I anticipate bringing in a load or two to fill in anywhere that may have become low. You do not need to put down any fabric barrier. You may have to spray a spot or two early on, but after a few months the crushed stone compacts so tightly that it is almost like concrete even when the weather is very wet. Good luck, it takes some time with the FEL and a box blade. I had the trucks just dump right in the driveway and I spread it out from there. Carryig many bucket loads to where exactly needed. Also, this is a great base for a blacktop driveway in the future.

 

[markmc]

markmc,
We have a neighbor down the street that brought in crushed concrete (14 loads) for our driveway and he put in 4" right on top of the sandy soil we have here. I will say it is solid and holding up well....
but at the time.... I didn't know there were different grades of crushed concrete... I ended up with "rocks" too large to walk on without keeping an eye on the ground. I happened to be at work at the time when the trucks delivered the loads, if I had been home I would have had a smaller grade delivered. I'm slowly seperating the larger chunks out, and using it as a base around the back of the garage where I'm building an extended shed roof to park the trailer and store other items out of the weather.
It is good stuff for a driveway, just make sure you don't get the larger stuff.
Ted

Sounds like you are not far from me....Hempstead is just up 290 a few miles. Where did your neighbor get the crushed concrete from?

 

[markmc]

I live in Texas as well, and recently did my driveway in crushed stone. It is a great way to make a driveway. I put my rock down right on top of the dirt, but I had driven a path on the dirt for several weeks before I put it down and it had compacted the dirt alot. I put in about 10 inches of crushed stone over about 16' wide driveway. My driveway is about 600' feet long and I have some very large rock areas in fron of my shop. I put in the original crushed stone about a year ago and just did some filling in of a few low spots. I ordered the rock by the semi truck load because they could bring 25 yards at a time. So far it has taken about 20 semi loads or 500 yards of crushed stone to make the driveway as nice as it can be. Each year I anticipate bringing in a load or two to fill in anywhere that may have become low. You do not need to put down any fabric barrier. You may have to spray a spot or two early on, but after a few months the crushed stone compacts so tightly that it is almost like concrete even when the weather is very wet. Good luck, it takes some time with the FEL and a box blade. I had the trucks just dump right in the driveway and I spread it out from there. Carryig many bucket loads to where exactly needed. Also, this is a great base for a blacktop driveway in the future.

Where in TX are you? I think I am going to compact my sand a little more in the area I am building the road. The grass is so thin and the sand is so deep I dont think it would do anything for me to remove anything at all as others have pointed out.

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

Back in February or March I put what the quarries around here call "3 minus" down, moved it wround with the box blade to smooth it out, then let it get rained/snowed on a couple of times this past winter to pack it before I started driving on it much. I've spent the rest of this year using it as a driveway/parking lot and it's holding up great everywhere I put down more than 4" of it. A few weeks after the first long boy load I had a second one brought in to fill in the spots that sunk.
Here in a couple of months - or maybe next spring I'll top it off with a couple inches of "road mix" which runs from 1.5" down to fines as a top coat. I've also found this all works best when wet is forecast so the rocks can settle/pack in better - without having to pay the RWD for the water!