Refurbishing gravel driveway + my first post!

[dkpilot]

Hello all,

This is a wonderful forum, and this is my first post. [everyone claps] Thank you, thank you.

We are the proud owners of a Mahindra 1538 HST, and we love the dickens out of it. It's still a relative newborn, but it's been running wild like a toddler and it will soon be coming home like a pre-teen covered in mud just a little late for supper.



My question:
We live in the Pacific Northwest, western WA. We need to fix/upgrade our gravel driveway and I just wanted to see if I'm on the right track. I've been reading lots of information here and elsewhere. We seem to have a pretty solid base of 12" or so of crushed rock, but only maybe 1 1/4" minus with 5/8" minus on top. It's getting fairly mushy and holy, so I plan to scrape off any muck and lay down new layers of rock. For long-term solidity, should I do 3" of 1 1/4" minus? Or just go straight to 5/8" minus? Do I need to get even more drastic? Lastly, in general, should the subbase, or actually subgrade, be graded to level with surrounding area to prevent bathtub? Or can the subbase be a little below grade so long as the top courses are nicely graded to shed water?

 

[deezler]

Welcome to TBN!

You... are probably going to get a lot of differing opinions on this. If your subgrade materials are crowned to easily shed water, that's the best.

Your picture looks real mucky but also seems to be holding vehicle weight just fine, so hopefully the base is as good as you think.

I would just scrape the top muck off, and lay down 3" of new gravel of your choosing. It should last years (you are below the snow line, right?)

Do you have a rear blade for your Mahindra? A very necessary gravel driveway tool.

 

[RichM752]

Oh man, I've got an EA land planer on order. Too bad you weren't a little closer.

 

[joeu235]

Welcome to TBN.

Your place is beautiful.

Land Planes are great implements.

 

[oosik]

Welcome to TBN & the forum from what is supposedly the "dry" side of the state. If the majority of your driveway is like the picture - you don't have roadside ditches to maintain. This is where a rear blade works well. If you will simply will be spreading delivered gravel - a Land Plane Grading Scraper(LPGS) does great. Then there is a box blade or also called a box scraper. Its good for moving material from here to there. The box scraper and rear blade have relatively long learning curves. The LPGS could not be any easier to use and use successfully. I have one of each. I use the HD rear blade( weight - 1050# ) to bring material out of and clean my driveway ditches. I then use the LPGS to smooth everything out.

If you have spots on you driveway that you will want to fill - then whatever implement you purchase - get it with scarifiers. A "patch" or "fill" will only hold if the area is scarified first so the fill material will blend and hold.

No matter what implement you purchase I STRONGLY recommend a hydraulic top link. Saves time, frustration, nerves, temper etc, etc and allows you to make finite adjustment to the implement to reach the perfect "contact patch" without stopping, dismounting, twisting, remounting etc, etc, etc. An addition well worth its cost.

 

[bcp]

I put 2-3 inches of 1 1/4 minus on my old driveway about 5 years ago and haven't touched it since, excepting raking off fir needles. It is smooth and nearly as hard as concrete.

Bruce

 

[fried1765]

Welcome to TBN & the forum from what is supposedly the "dry" side of the state. If the majority of your driveway is like the picture - you don't have roadside ditches to maintain. This is where a rear blade works well. If you will simply will be spreading delivered gravel - a Land Plane Grading Scraper(LPGS) does great. Then there is a box blade or also called a box scraper. Its good for moving material from here to there. The box scraper and rear blade have relatively long learning curves. The LPGS could not be any easier to use and use successfully. I have one of each. I use the HD rear blade( weight - 1050# ) to bring material out of and clean my driveway ditches. I then use the LPGS to smooth everything out.

If you have spots on you driveway that you will want to fill - then whatever implement you purchase - get it with scarifiers. A "patch" or "fill" will only hold if the area is scarified first so the fill material will blend and hold.

No matter what implement you purchase I STRONGLY recommend a hydraulic top link. Saves time, frustration, nerves, temper etc, etc and allows you to make finite adjustment to the implement to reach the perfect "contact patch" without stopping, dismounting, twisting, remounting etc, etc, etc. An addition well worth its cost.

The problem here, is that the OP does NOT have roadside ditches to maintain.
He should have ditches!
He needs a place for that water to go.
Adding more gravel will certainly help, but he really needs to build the center up close to 12".
That is going to be expensive.
The land plane will create a nice smooth flat surface, and that of course, will continue to hold water, as before.
Using a rear blade, it will be possible to create, and maintain a crown, to shed the water.
The whole idea here is to keep the water off the roadway.
I would estimate from the picture, that at a minimum, it would take at least 30 yds. of crushed gravel (1-1/4 minus, or 3/4 minus?) for each 100' of driveway.
Like I said, it ain't gonna be cheap.
The OP should buy a rear grader blade, and develop the learning curve to use it.
It is absolutely the best tool for the job (after the truck driver spreads the crushed gravel).
Ever seen anything that looks like a land plane on a highway construction job?
Of course not! All highways have a crown, and a highway base is shaped using a motor grader blade.

 

[dkpilot]

Wow! Thank you all so much for the quick responses, this really is such a fantastic resource for a city slicker like me!

But I should have been more forthcoming... we already have ALL of those implements!! Yes we totally went a little crazy with our initial tractor purchase, haha. Sooooo....

- With our land plane (grading scraper), I'm gettting a nice smooth surface but it is quite apparent we need more rock, and we are prepared for the cost.

- I think I understand now that I should use the rear blade to begin to form the crown and try to get some side ditches shaped at the same time. I will attempt to shape it best as I can now, and then use the fresh rock to finalize the water-shedding profile.

- To compact the surface after shaping, I will drive with a truck or our tractor until I fall asleep at the wheel.

- When we are ready for the crushed rock, your responses suggest I start with 1 1/4 minus. We can always top dress with smaller if need be.

- In regards to the land plane, I assume it will be more useful in the future when we have the basic driveway built up properly. Right now I'm questioning that investment a bit.

Again, THANKS and thanks to joeu235 for your compliment on our property.

 

[fried1765]

Wow! Thank you all so much for the quick responses, this really is such a fantastic resource for a city slicker like me!

But I should have been more forthcoming... we already have ALL of those implements!! Yes we totally went a little crazy with our initial tractor purchase, haha. Sooooo....

- With our land plane (grading scraper), I'm gettting a nice smooth surface but it is quite apparent we need more rock, and we are prepared for the cost.

- I think I understand now that I should use the rear blade to begin to form the crown and try to get some side ditches shaped at the same time. I will attempt to shape it best as I can now, and then use the fresh rock to finalize the water-shedding profile.

- To compact the surface after shaping, I will drive with a truck or our tractor until I fall asleep at the wheel.

- When we are ready for the crushed rock, your responses suggest I start with 1 1/4 minus. We can always top dress with smaller if need be.

- In regards to the land plane, I assume it will be more useful in the future when we have the basic driveway built up properly. Right now I'm questioning that investment a bit.

Again, THANKS and thanks to joeu235 for your compliment on our property.

I will never own a land plane (am a long ago civil engineer - highway design).
I have two rear blades.
One is a 6' cheapie that I bought maybe 40+ years ago.
The other is an 84" King Kutter that manually angles up or down, and manually offsets 16" left or right.
I like the KK, but it is just too difficult at my age (77) to adjust (1-1/8 socket needed).
I am going to sell them both.
Just tonight, I ordered an Everything Attachments 6 foot "6 way value blade".
I understand that you already have a blade, and likely do not want another.
You might take a look at the ETA website rear blade videos though, just for information.
I think their new "6 way value blade" is the cats asx.

 

[crazyal]

I'm just the opposite. I only use my back blade to pull gravel out of the ditches after the rain washes it there. For everything else I use my grading scrapper. Does yours have ripping teeth? I use them quite often. Places like where pot holes are forming I'll rip pretty deep and plenty wide on both sides. When I'm forming the crown I just extend the side link on my 3pt. If it was me I would remove the organics. Grass forms dirt which is mud when wet. Your driveway looks flat, if so I wouldn't worry about getting your crown too high unless you have problems with flooding in low spots. You just don't want water to form a pool on your driveway (It'll become a pot hole). Ideally you want the driveway to shed water off of it but slowly. If it does it too fast it'll carry the gravel with it. If not fast enough then the standing water will cause problems. I would put enough gravel down so your driveway is about an inch higher than your ground and the crown maybe an inch or two higher than that. If you still have problems you can build it up further. The locals around here usually just call it crusher run, not 1 1/4" minus.