Building my own driveway: can it be done?

[ovrszd]

I'm on the side of elevation. You can't let water drain across your driveway. I wouldn't remove any soil from the driveway area, I'd add soil, taking it from the edges to elevate your grade. You'll like it better for drainage and especially when it snows. I've even scraped off old gravel from a flat driveway, elevated with dirt from the surrounding area, reset the gravel on the elevated grade and created a new, functional driveway with no material costs for the owner. If you are in the country, find who runs your local governmental road grader and see if they'll help. I run a grader for our Township and have built a dozen or more driveways, mostly for new build sites. It's a win-win situation. The builder gets the dirt work done at no cost. The Township gets a tax revenue boost when the buildings are completed. I could build you an elevated 1000' driveway across flat ground in about 4 hours. All you'd hafta do is finish grade any areas you wanted changed and call the gravel trucks. A first layer of 2" rock, packed in with use, then add 1 1/4" to complete. You don't need any fabric or huge rock on an elevated driveway.

 

[fordmantpw]

Thanks for the tips everyone! Sounds like I need to talk to one of the "pros" in my area, show them the land and how I want the driveway, and get some input from them. A lot of great ideas here, but in the end, it sounds like it is all going to depend on the lay of my land and the type of soil.

So, I'll get some local feedback after having them look at the land and go from there. If I decide to do it with my tractor, I'm sure I'll have more questions!

Thanks y'all!

 

[Egon]

Think about a road grader for doing the work. Strip and windrow the topsoil. Bring clay back from ditch area and lay it out for driveway. Use a proper packer when laying in the clay. Chain spread crushed gravel. Use road grader to finish road top and compact with vibratory packer.:thumbsup:

The grader will make things happen quickly.


Use your tractor to pile the wind rowed topsoil.:thumbsup:

 

[RDrancher]

If your natural drainage path crosses the driveway, you can't just elevate / crown and be done with it. If you do, you'll have what I call a "Texas bar-ditch to nowhere." The lay of the land will determine where you want to redirect the natural flow of water. That may include catch basins, culverts, swales and flowlines far away from the actual road to make it all work in unison.

Don't discount geotextiles, elevated driveway or not. Besides the obvious separation of soil and gravel (which helps keep the gravel from disappearing), it also helps to bridge unstable areas (which turn into potholes) and helps the driveway shed water.

 

[fordmantpw]

That geotextile stuff is expensive! Does anyone have a good source for buying it online?

And what keeps the rocks from just pushing through and tearing the fabric. I've worked with the thin stuff around the house, and even put some under a bunch of pea gravel in a playground for the kids, but if you are putting the heavy, sharp rocks on top of it, what keeps them from going through? Is it just that tough?

 

[RDrancher]

That geotextile stuff is expensive! Does anyone have a good source for buying it online?

And what keeps the rocks from just pushing through and tearing the fabric. I've worked with the thin stuff around the house, and even put some under a bunch of pea gravel in a playground for the kids, but if you are putting the heavy, sharp rocks on top of it, what keeps them from going through? Is it just that tough?

You have a PM.

 

[Dingeryote]

Price and Company | Splash Page

Last couple of 300ydx12' rolls were 150 bucks ea. IIRC. The price is up front, and the savings is on fuel and repairs/additional gravel later.
We run heavy equipment over ours constantly, and underneath the textile is sand like you would find on Florida beaches.
Nothing but annual back blade dressing in the spring, on account of winter damage from the plow, for 8 years.

The stuff is tougher than ****. It's no comparison to the garden and landscape stuff.
We ended up using Crushed and screened(No Rebar bits) concrete, but other guys have used ground asphalt or 22-23A with the same good results.
Drainage is no problem, even here where 130" of snow is an avg. winter and it basicly monsoons in spring.

Best of luck to ya!!

Best part is only a back blade is needed, to make a 4-6" cut, and then push out the gravel.

 

[Swarfeater]

I built our driveway with a Farmall F20 with a homemade loader, dug out the foundation also. Still have it ,still use it.

 

[Paratus]

Hi all,

Noob here. Some great advice in this thread from some real pros.

I just added a 100' x 12' gravel extension from the driveway down to my pole barn. I took off about 4" of topsoil (very sandy), smoothed, rolled, and covered the roadbed with a woven geotextile. I was concerned about loosing the stone down into the sandy soil.

I put the crushed driveway gravel over the top of that in two layers, smoothing, watering, and rolling after each. I used 18 tons of stone, I probably could have used more.

It slopes down a bit from the concrete driveway to the pole barn apron. I didn't put much of a crown on it, it is actually slanted to allow water from the yard to run over it to a drainage ditch.

I started on a Friday after work, and finished that Sunday afternoon. I did the work with a Massey Ferguson GC2600, FEL, 5' backblade, and 920 lb roller.

So far so good, it won't get a lot of heavy traffic so I don't expect too much trouble. Total investment was about $450 plus a tank of fuel.

 

[paulharvey]

In my area our standard is to use 6" of crushed limerick (a soft rock not gravel) or use 6" of ball field clay(sand clay) with a RAP (asphalt millings) cap about 3" thick to keep it from getting slimy. In the county I work for your required to have paved or concrete driveway from the edge of asphalt to the right of way with 10' radius and culvert with poured Mitered end sections, for any new permited home/business. County requires 6" of rock with 1.5" asphalt or 6" of 3000 paid concrete with WWF within the RoW.