Spreading gravel this weekend and have a couple ?s

[leeinmemphis]

Hey everyone,

I am having 125 tons of 33c crushed limestone gravel delivered tomorrow to the farm. I am going to use the majority of it to spread inside of my barn and around a 10-12' wide border around the entire barn. The barn as a whole is 50'x50'. I am also going to make a parking pad for a couple of trailers and need to put in about 200' of driveway. I am guessing that I am having enough gravel delivered but I have a couple of questions.

1. The barn is under roof with mostly open sides. I do not appear to have any moisture inside it when it rains. It use to have livestock in it so the dirt is hard packed. How thick of a layer of gravel would you guys recommend? The man selling me the gravel suggested a 3" thick layer there.

2. THe area around the outside of the barn I am wanting to put about a 12' wide strip all the way around the barn. This area will be fairly high traffic. The man suggested a 4" thick spread rate for this area.....does that sound about right?

3. For the driveway and trailer parking area it was suggested for a 4-6 inch thickness in those areas because they area going to be high traffic as well. By high traffic I am meaning that it will be gone down anywhere from 2x's a week during the year to 20x's a week during hunting season.

Also a friend suggested for me to try to put some plastic down to help prevent the weeds from coming in. Is that something that I should really fool with? As large of an area that I am doing then putting out the plastic could be a fairly large project. I am going to be spreading the gravel with my kubota 5040 tractor with a loader and rear box blade for the majority of it because it will have to be shuffled around with the loader mostly but I also have a D4 dozer up there to help if I think it'll be helpful.

Any tips would be great.

 

[leeinmemphis]

Hey everyone,

I am having 125 tons of 33c crushed limestone gravel delivered tomorrow to the farm. I am going to use the majority of it to spread inside of my barn and around a 10-12' wide border around the entire barn. The barn as a whole is 50'x50'. I am also going to make a parking pad for a couple of trailers and need to put in about 200' of driveway. I am guessing that I am having enough gravel delivered but I have a couple of questions.

1. The barn is under roof with mostly open sides. I do not appear to have any moisture inside it when it rains. It use to have livestock in it so the dirt is hard packed. How thick of a layer of gravel would you guys recommend? The man selling me the gravel suggested a 3" thick layer there.

2. THe area around the outside of the barn I am wanting to put about a 12' wide strip all the way around the barn. This area will be fairly high traffic. The man suggested a 4" thick spread rate for this area.....does that sound about right?

3. For the driveway and trailer parking area it was suggested for a 4-6 inch thickness in those areas because they area going to be high traffic as well. By high traffic I am meaning that it will be gone down anywhere from 2x's a week during the year to 20x's a week during hunting season.

Also a friend suggested for me to try to put some plastic down to help prevent the weeds from coming in. Is that something that I should really fool with? As large of an area that I am doing then putting out the plastic could be a fairly large project. I am going to be spreading the gravel with my kubota 5040 tractor with a loader and rear box blade for the majority of it because it will have to be shuffled around with the loader mostly but I also have a D4 dozer up there to help if I think it'll be helpful.

Any tips would be great.

 

[bearhawk]

Sounds like a good plan.

I'm not sure of your soil type, but I would make sure you don't just put the gravel on top of loam.

Jim

 

[bearhawk]

Sounds like a good plan.

I'm not sure of your soil type, but I would make sure you don't just put the gravel on top of loam.

Jim

 

[ctpres]

I have had excellent results with geo fabric laid under my new driveway which was concrete washout on sandy soil. 1. reduced material required by 50%. 2. After three years of daily traffic there has been no visable migration of sand up and material down ie mixing. 3. No rutting so far. 4. No maintenance other than weed control along the edeges. Don't remember exact price but 300 ft roll 10ft wide was under $300

 

[ctpres]

I have had excellent results with geo fabric laid under my new driveway which was concrete washout on sandy soil. 1. reduced material required by 50%. 2. After three years of daily traffic there has been no visable migration of sand up and material down ie mixing. 3. No rutting so far. 4. No maintenance other than weed control along the edeges. Don't remember exact price but 300 ft roll 10ft wide was under $300

 

[Mike1]

I think you might end up needing more gravel. I'm in northern Alabama, my farm is on clay soil to an unknown depth. My barn is 70x50, with a 200' driveway. To date, I've spread 100 tons of gravel just for the drive, and a small area where I park my trailers, and a thin layer on one side of the barn. The driveway does need to go in heavy, because it sinks into the clay, same for the pad where I park my trailers. I'm guessing I'll end up using another 75 tons to spread gravel in a pattern similar to what you describe around the remainder of my barn. No plans to put any inside the barn though.
However - 125 tons is plenty of work for a single weekend, so you can see how far you get before ordering more. I didn't put down any type of weed barrier, and now am stuck dealing with the inevitible grass that loves to grow up out of the crushed limestone.

 

[Mike1]

I think you might end up needing more gravel. I'm in northern Alabama, my farm is on clay soil to an unknown depth. My barn is 70x50, with a 200' driveway. To date, I've spread 100 tons of gravel just for the drive, and a small area where I park my trailers, and a thin layer on one side of the barn. The driveway does need to go in heavy, because it sinks into the clay, same for the pad where I park my trailers. I'm guessing I'll end up using another 75 tons to spread gravel in a pattern similar to what you describe around the remainder of my barn. No plans to put any inside the barn though.
However - 125 tons is plenty of work for a single weekend, so you can see how far you get before ordering more. I didn't put down any type of weed barrier, and now am stuck dealing with the inevitible grass that loves to grow up out of the crushed limestone.

 

[tractorguy2]

I second CTPres. Geo-textile is the way to go under a traveled area especially if the existing soil is anything but gravel. I got some in a 12 foot width and spread gravel over it and it has performed better than expected. It acts as a material separator and will also prevent weeds from growing. It allows moisture (rain) to move both directions so the soil can dry or absorb water, as the case may be.

 

[tractorguy2]

I second CTPres. Geo-textile is the way to go under a traveled area especially if the existing soil is anything but gravel. I got some in a 12 foot width and spread gravel over it and it has performed better than expected. It acts as a material separator and will also prevent weeds from growing. It allows moisture (rain) to move both directions so the soil can dry or absorb water, as the case may be.