Gravel Driveways

[jbrumberg]

To All:

I have read many, many threads as to constructing and maintaining gravel/crushed stone driveways. For the past 13+ years I have been promising my wife that I would do something about what used to be our gravel driveway. I have some ideas as to what I need for tractor attachments and materials including geotextile fabric. My questions to the global community: When should I start? Right now my "driveway" is frozen solid and I do not anticipate "mud season" to begin for another month. Or should I wait till everything dries out? Around these parts we have 3 seasons- Winter, Mud, & Summer. Thank you in advance for your input. Jay

 

[inveresk]

This month I finished laying in 450 feet of driveway over lawns and through a woodland. I started last September and got about half done when the seasonal rains came and stopped work until February. In September the ground was still pretty hard and so cutting the first section of drive took longer than it did last month but I preferred working the ground at that time simply because it was cleaner - less mush and mud about.

I scraped off the topsoil and laid about 8" of mixed size rock base over geotextile then topped it with about 4" pit run. At the top of the drive I'm excavating and preparing foundations for a barn (concrete being poured tomorrow) and so have been running both tracked and wheeled vehicles on the drive for about a month. The driveway throughout it's length has consolidated well and is now very hard packed.

Only thing I'd do differently next time is to probably make it a little wider. It's a fairly consistent 12' but some of the bigger trucks seem to find this a tad narrow when making some of the bends even though these don't feel particularly tight. I'm going to wait until we've completed our building works then excavate and get some stone in those few areas at curves where wheels have tracked off the drive. This local widening should be enough to ensure furniture lorries, fire tenders (I pray I never have a need for one of these up the drive) and other large vehicles can manouvre without damaging the landscape.

 

[Highbeam]

"furniture lorries, fire tenders (I pray I never have a need for one of these up the drive) and other large vehicles can manouvre"

I can tell you're not from the states. That last word is particularly interesting.

I would avoid working the road in the mush stage due to the high moisture content causing pumping and generally unstable ground long term, lots of extra rock required. If you can get in there now and finish up without getting mucky then you will use a much smaller amount of rock than if you did it in the mud stage. Any mush road can be stabilized with enough rock. The dry part of the summer is ideal if you can stand to wait since less rock will be needed. The final course of your road should be one that will seal off the lower layers from water infiltration since you are in a mud prone area.

 

[2nstonge]

I'm located just north of you in southern VT. Highbeam has got it right - wait for it to dry out. We haven't had too much snow this year so it shouldn't be too bad; May/June? Otherwise you'll just be playin' in the mud.

-Norm

 

[jbrumberg]

Joe, Norm, & George: Thank you for your responses. I've seen alot of stone get sucked back into the mud during mud season. It's really strange that the biggest rocks reappear when you least expect it. Waiting till things dry out buys me the time I need to convince the Comptroller- She Who Must Be Obeyed of the attachments I (think I) need. Jay

 

[inveresk]

Jay, if you're prone to pumping, I'd consider geotextile. I found this site helpful.

Propex overview

 

[k9kent]

I thought this was an interesting article about maintaining a gravel driveway. The article stresses maintaning the crown on the drive to promote drainage.

http://www.ruralhometech.com/fr/articles/crown.php

 

[flusher]

Last April I had my gravel driveway installed by a contractor (260 ft long, 20 ft wide, 6" thick roadbase gravel). The roadbase is crusher run gravel from a local supplier. It's everything that passes through a 3/4" mesh and it's what the county uses for it's rural roads.

I could have met local building code with a 10 ft wide driveway but I decided that 20 ft was a better way to go. In my county the Fire Dept requires a 10' x 50' bumpout for 10' wide driveways more than 300 ft in length so their trucks can turn around without having to back onto the road.

The contractor used a box blade to scrape off the turf. Didn't use geotextile. The gravel was spread in 2" thick layers. A water truck wet down the layers and one of those vibrating "steam rollers" was used to pack each layer.

My driveway has gone through the hot summer and the rainy season. More than a dozen concrete delivery trucks have run over it during construction of my house and garage/shop building. The septic system guy hauled my 1250 gal concrete tank over the driveway. Result: it looks like new after 10 months of traffic.

Total cost: $7500.

Expensive, maybe, but you get what you pay for. It's one of those pay me now pay me later deals.

 

[Investorguy]

Mine's 220 feet, 14 feet wide. I'm going to try to widen it later, then pave it. 20 feet sounds about right. It's crushed asphalt right now, so it's pretty good quality. Funny thing: I dumped a bunch of peanut oil out on it (accidentally) after deep frying a turkey last thanksgiving. That spot on the driveway looks very similar to the blacktop. I have outside my garage.

I may bring in a contractor. Or I may invest in a few vats of peanut oil... do it myself.

By the way, the turkey turned out great.

 

[PineRidge]

Our drive is now about 6 years of age. It's 650' long X 15' and has held up very well. I do have to condition it from time to time because with our Internet business we have lots of truck traffic 6 days a week. Normally it's just a matter of reversing the landscape rake and making a few passes to smooth it out again. They didn't use fabric under the gravel, they brought in huge loads of damaged concrete blocks for a base. Then they ran over that with a big dozer to break it up and pack it down. It was then capped with stone so I think it's going to be stable for a long time to come.