Building our retirement home

[EddieWalker]

You are off to a great start. That's a very impressive driveway and barn!!!!

 

[docone]

Congrats, and I hope you enjoy your project. My wife and I are in somewhat of the same boat, as we are living in an apt I built in our 30x60 shop. hoping to start on the house soon, as this has been a 5year project for me so far.

Good Luck
Dave

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Since it is your retirement home, I hope you plan to make everything wheelchair accessible (just in case). 3'0" doors and wide passageways or hallways, ramps instead of stairs where possible, laundry access without stairs. Thinking ahead to old age may save some problems later. Good luck with everything!

All doorways are 36". Ground floor has no steps, 5' hallway and roll-in showers without doors. There are stairs to the basement but we made this 5' wide for installation of one of those power chair lifts.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

You are off to a great start. That's a very impressive driveway and barn!!!!

Thanks Eddie. I believe the driveway was finished this afternoon, so I'll be taking a spin out that way to check things out.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Took a run out to the farm this afternoon to see how things were going with my drive. This particular project has been going on for over a month - delayed by relentless rains. Today - it is finished!

Overall, I am pleased. It readily packs into a very hard surface and withstands heavy rain, so far, with no visible impact. I wish the surface was smoother but its carried a lot of dump trucks hauling in the material. That's good for packing but not so hot for smoothness.

My initial thought was to get a land leveler for the tractor to touch it up after construction has finished. I'm rethinking that but really haven't come up with a plan. The road material has rock of all sizes, maybe 1/2" to 3", mixed with a good deal of clay. I'm afraid a land leveler may just pull it apart, instead of leveling like it would on typical gravel.

You'll notice along the side of the drive, numerous piles of topsoil. I probably have 20 of these along the length of the drive. There will be much FEL work to move all this dirt around. I think I'll be happier with the aesthetics when the grass has time to recover along the edges, to give the drive a more defined appearance.

 

[s219]

Do you have a box blade? If you run it with the top link extended, only the rear cutting edge will contact the ground, and it will be feathered so it will smooth without tearing anything up (what rolls up should be minimal). What I would to is run up/down the driveway a couple times with the box feathered like that to even things out, and then drive over it again with box raised up in the air, to pack the gravel with your tractor wheels (make as many passes as you need to cover the whole width). It should have somewhat of a "tweed" appearance when you're done, due to the tire tread (assuming you have R4 tires or turfs -- R1 ags would make a mess and I wouldn't recommend it). Next time it rains, it will drink up the water and really settle down.

If you are going to have construction traffic, don't worry about it too much now. While we were building our house, I box-bladed about every 3-4 weeks to keep the driveway from rutting up, and then brought in some extra gravel about every 4 months to fill in and touch up. It really helped the driveway get established. Normally with homesites, the driveway takes a beating and then needs major renovation at the end. If you can keep it from getting bad, it will be in way better shape at the end. When we finished building, I brought in two truck loads of crusher run for a top coat, and it's been maintenance free for the past two years.

Also, I see that in some spots, the shoulder is higher than the road. See if you can knock down the shoulder so water will run off the road. Do whatever you can now to promote runoff and drainage, and it will pay back dividends as time goes on.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

s219 - thanks for the input.

No box blade as yet. My original dilemma was whether to go with the land leveler or the traditional box. Given the nature of my road material, it sounds like the box may be best. I'll have to study on this longer

Definitely, some of the shoulder is too high. It's mostly loose debris off the dozer blade but I need to get it down before it sets up. At least I can do that from my air conditioned cab

 

[s219]

Well, a box blade is more versatile for all kinds of things, but for dedicated road smoothing you can't beat a land plane. So maybe think about alternate uses and/or how much storage space you have for implements (that garage looks like you got plenty of room) and buy the one that makes the most sense, or buy them both!!

 

[Deere Dude]

. I wish the surface was smoother but its carried a lot of dump trucks hauling in the material. That's good for packing but not so hot for smoothness.

My initial thought was to get a land leveler for the tractor to touch it up after construction has finished. I'm rethinking that but really haven't come up with a plan. The road material has rock of all sizes, maybe 1/2" to 3", mixed with a good deal of clay.

View attachment 434170 View attachment 434171

I wouldn't do much with it until the construction was done. Let the trucks pack that all in good and then I would then put small stuff on such as 3/4 road gravel for a top coat. It looks like a fun but big project to be involved with.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Will be tuning in to see your project. Best of luck with it.