driveway material?

[Malibu 496]

I have a 700ft gravel sloped driveway that is going to need some help this spring and am looking for opinions on what material would be best to put on it. My wife runs a daycare so it gets a decent amount of traffic each day. I have had some people tell me to put down red rock, others say crushed concrete, and another said conbit which I think is a concrete asphalt mix.

Thanks

 

[Industrial Toys]

I don't know what you have in the area. I have a thousand foot driveway and have taken a liking to limestone dust. It is cheap, spreads nice, can be easily reworked, packs hard and doesn't make too much dust in the summer. You don't blow it all over the place with a snow blower, even though I have scraped a bunch onto my lawn with a blade when the ground wasn't frozen. It is a little suseptable to washouts from very heavy rains.

 

[Red Horse]

Are asphalt millings available in your area? IMO, the best option. I don't know about Minn., but here in Mass., if a big job is going on in your area, you can often get the product for nothing or little money as the trucking expense to get the milled asphalt off the jobsite can be excessive depending on haul distance to the dump site. So the contractor will often be willing to get rid of the material in th most expedient fashion. Put another way, it can mean the difference to hiring say 12 outside haul trucks vs, say 5 or six if the lesser number can keep up with the milling machine because of the shortened haul distance.

Only other thing you will need is ability to spread the material (I don't know what a Deutz 1920 is) and for the best job, renting a vibratory roller will asure you of a good job.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My vote is for crushed concrete! That's what seems to work best around here...

SR

 

[Industrial Toys]

They were grinding off the top of a highway near here and a friend got some of that spoil delivered. I just don't like it, because you have no way of working with it down the road. If it settles or gets frost damage, you are in a bit of a pickel to repair it. And you almost need a paving crew and equipment to do a nice job of laying it down. Plus warm sunny weather!

 

[RedNeckRacin]

You need to control the water first and foremost. Cross drains and swales work well depending on the steepness of your road. For a shallower slope a good solid crown to the road will help things immensely as long as the water has somewhere to go. What ever you use, it needs to have a good distribution of sizes of hard aggregate. The fines lock everything together and the larger media shoulders the load and transfers it to the subgrade. I'm not quite sure if you are just asking about adding a pretty layer on top, or whether your looking at rebuilding the entire structure of the road.

 

[MAN IN BLACK]

I use general aggregate 0-5/8"...packs and level well.
Other option would be stone dust...you spread it...water it down and level well, becomes just like pavement !

 

[Clay45]

What Redhorse said. The millings are friendly to spread and pack down well with normal traffic over them. Some folks claim that spraying with diesel in the morning before a hot day gets hot helps to set them but I haven't felt the need.

 

[Egon]

Diesel Is what the asphalt paving crews use to clean their tools. It helps the asphalt vaporize and disappear.

As has been said drainage is first, then a well shaped packed sub grade to make sure water cannot pool. For the overlay it depends on the budget and local materials available. They should be compact able and of sufficient depth to be solid. "BUDGET Dependent". They should also be laid down and spread even with smooth grade and crown.

Asphalt millings vary greatly in the amoUnt of asphalt present. Crushed rock, gravel, should have sufficient fines to pack easily. Crushed concrete should be of a regular maximum size with sufficient fines present to compact. Limestone dust?? Not familiar with.

The final grade as well as the sub grade should be properly compacted for best results. Contrary to opinion packing with vehicle tires does not quite do the job.

In the end you do what you can with the budget, equipment and materials available.

 

[roadhunter]

Asphalt millings are cheap and easy to install IMO. They pack really nice as well. Around here they go for about $10 a ton plus delivery.