recycled asphalt for driveway

   / recycled asphalt for driveway #1  

Mike_Lipke

Silver Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
Messages
196
Tractor
Kubota BX1500
I have a gravel driveway and there is one spot where heavy rains come off the main road and run down my drive, making gullys. I have had fill brought in many times, but I keep losing it in this spot.
I can't put a culvert there and my excavator is suggesting that I try recycled asphalt as a fill material in this area, claiming that it bonds a lot better and holds up to erosion.
Anyone had experience with ground up asphalt? It is twice the price of just fill, but if it works, it would be worth it.
 
   / recycled asphalt for driveway #2  
Water will work it away in time no matter what you put there. It might last a little longer, but that's all. Even concrete will erode in time from water. It will either work its way under or around it.

You have to solve the water problem. There's always a way, it just might not be what you want to do.

Eddie
 
   / recycled asphalt for driveway #3  
Mike, it might depend on what part of the country you're in and the temperatures you have. My brother had a circle drive in front of his house, and drove a heavy truck (Matco Tool Distributor) over it every day. And a UPS truck also drove through it every day, 5 days a week. He had the recycled asphalt put on it. They just dumped it and he spread and levelled it with my tractor. The supplier told him if he'd spray a very light coat of diesel on it in the heat of the summer, then roll it, it would be almost the same as if he'd had it asphalted in the usual manner for new paving. However, he never applied the diesel nor did he use a roller. The summer heat and truck traffic did the job well enough and it held up very well.
 
   / recycled asphalt for driveway #4  
Mike, I'll have to agree with Eddie on this one if you've got a water problem nothing short of a culvert to divert it or carry it under or solid concrete poured with rebar will solve your problem for very long. On a sadder note the days of being able to use ground up asphalt are quickly coming to an end, I don't understand it since the counties and highway department do it daily almost everywhere both recycling and new but I've tried to buy ground up asphalt numerous times for our ranch and have run into a brick wall no one will sell it or let me haul it they claim and I can't believe they'd be lying since I'm trying to give them money but they say the EPA/OSHA/conservation groups etc all consider used asphalt to be like toxic waste and they have to reclaim it and reuse it they can't sell it. I'm not sure where your at but if you want to try the asphalt it sounds like you better hurry before its like the treated lumber and creosote telephone poles.
Steve
 
   / recycled asphalt for driveway #5  
I had the same problem. I had the driveway paved. 2" asphalt, 402' long. Was about half the price of concrete. I've had it 2 years and it stopped the washing problem. Just be sure to kill all the grass, if any growing under it, and don't turn sharp on it until it's cured a week or two. Concrete's a lot better and will handle a lot more weight and gas and oil spilled on it, but it's twice as much as asphalt if you have to have it formed and finished like I did for the turnaround next to the house.
 
   / recycled asphalt for driveway #6  
Mike_Lipke said:
I can't put a culvert there and my excavator is suggesting that I try recycled asphalt as a fill material in this area, claiming that it bonds a lot better and holds up to erosion.
Anyone had experience with ground up asphalt? It is twice the price of just fill, but if it works, it would be worth it.
We have crushed asphalt for a driveway, the water runs down hill across our driveway. We had gravel, not sure what type, it would wash away like yours is. We brought in 8 truck loads of the crushed asphalt and replaced the gravel. It has been almost 2 years since we got the new crushed asphalt driveway. Now the water runs up to the edge of the drive way and has made a furrow beside the driveway. It is digging a ditch beside the driveway that runs into the real drainage ditch beside the road. The drive way is solid but I am going to have to fix a better way to get the water to the drainage ditch. I think it will wash away the asphault in a couple more years.
 
   / recycled asphalt for driveway #7  
RAP (recycled asphalt) is actually a great solution to your problem, but not by itself. There are certain asphalt rejuvenation materials that should be mixed with the RAP and then put in the pothole.
I was dealing with a pothole in my drive way a few years back. Like you, water was constantly eroding the surface. I mixed RAP and a black liquid asphalt pothole repair material which makes the patch water impremiable and 10 years later, i'm still satisfied. The material I used was called TL-2000, I was able to find the manufacturer website. and this is for pothole repair. If you want, I could post pictures of my driveway patch using this material as reference. I am very satisfied with the results.
 
   / recycled asphalt for driveway #8  
I used RAP on about 400 feet of private road. 4-6" deep x 16' wide. I bought it because the local paving company had just repaved a large section of
Interstate 95 and and they were selling it for about half the cost of gravel.
It makes a nice finished surface and packs down real nice - in the summer when there is plenty of heat/sun. An issue I had was I live in Maine and in the winter, it became brittle and plowed up when scraped with a snow plow. I had to use a york rake every spring to get everything back where it belonged. I ended up topcoating it with some good quality bank run gravel and now everything is fine.

If I had your problem I would put in a french drain (large rocks 8" - 12" )in your roadbed then top it off with RAP or whatever. The runoff would work its way through the french drain, leaving your road surface in tact.

Also, sounds like you need a slight crown in your road so the water runs off the middle torward the sides
 
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   / recycled asphalt for driveway #9  
we use RAP here, but snow removal can really tear it up. I didn't see where you are located in your avatar.

You may consider a water bar across your driveway. this consists of a dip or rise in the drive that redirects the water. I am not saying a speed bump or a big cut. If you can gradually re-slope the drive with a small area that re directs the water off the drive lane you may find you can remove the problem.

Good luck
 
 
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