[KUBOTA B3200] Grader Blade / Box Blade Recommendation for Driveway Maintenance

[paulsharvey]

So, we really need to get you to Good Enough, not perfect. 1000 yard drive, is gonna be 3000x10=2,000,000 lbs of base to get 6" thickness; that's 1000 tons; or a Bare minimum of $15,000 dollars in just the cheapest material around.

There is an Extensive thread a few months back, with in depth discussion on driveway materials, pros, cons, costs, ect. I'll try to link?

 

[Forest_Man]

No offense; but looking at what you have now; Why would you have scarifiers down? Your gonna want to drag the slop off, not loosen up the ground more. You should only need rippers in hard, packed, heavy soils,

No no no... two things we miscommunicated:

1. I need to wait for the driveway to dry before attempting anything. Not working on it until then.
2. I was talking for any usage of the blade box, not for the wet driveway: I do have dry sections of the driveway that are solid but with pockets of holes that need to be leveled. I will need the scaifiers there. And if I buy the 6 ft box I was asking if I had traction issues i was confirming i would be able to raise a few and still use the 6 ft box.

I hope this makes more sense now!

 

[paulsharvey]

The old thread was "pricing asphalt driveway". I copied one of my replies, was too lazy to retype the whole thing....


There are a Lot of options
A: dirt; cheap to free; can be fine for many people/conditions/soil types; sometimes a dirt or sand drive can seem fine, until a heavy vehicke breaks though; can always be improved later; on a slope, erosion can get Very bad fast; its entirely depended on your local soils/slopes/drainage; DIY friendly with tractor/skid steer; or nothing ar all

B: wood chips on dirt; cheap to free; works well many times But it will need removed if improved; can attract termites; can float in heavy water; can wash; Need to have a free source, like a power ROW clearing contractor; not easy to grade;

C: improv stabalized; carpet/conveyer belts/ect; can actually work very well; look ghetto as heck, really need to be removed if you make improvements

D: sand-clay/ball field clay; cheap (if locally available); doesn't wash too bad; can be added to with more clay/rock/ect; can actually be paved over; gets slimy in rain; stains vehicles/clothes/tracks into house; if you get it delivered, you can easily spread/grade with tractor/skid steer/mini hoe

E: gravel/roadbase; can get pricey with trucking, but if close locally, it's pretty cheap; properly installed will last a long time, can be added too/redressed/regraded/paved over; some roadbase (limerock) will wash pretty bad; washed graded gravel doesn't really bond into a homogenous base; even if you add a few loads of rock every 5 years, it's still probably far cheaper than asphalt or concrete; if delivered can easily be spread/shaped with tractor/skid steer/whatever

F: crushed concrete; very good material; can be priced near roadbase depending on trucking; very dusty; water doesn't hurt it, unless it's high volume/high velocity; can be added too/paved over; often has some wire, and can lead to flat tires; easily spread and shaped intialy; can be hard to regrade later

G: RAP/millings; getting very expensive, ($900/load locally, and that's off the roadway); pretty much only available near a milling job or an asphalt plant; water doesn't really affect it much; less dusty than crushed concrete; can be paved over; don't believe it's a magical material; it doesn't turn back to asphalt in the summer

H: chip seal over one of the base materials; cheaper than asphalt; protects the base from water; eliminates dust; pretty good traction; it's very thin, and won't last as long as asphalt; don't see. to be many contractors still doing it; requires a tack truck or atlwast a tack wagon, and a rock spreader, and traffic roller; Not DIY friendly; can be paved over in the future; can be re chip sealed.

I: asphalt; cheaper than concrete /pavers; dust free, not affect by rain/minor run off water; you do need to patch and crack seal as needed; can be milled or overlayed; fairly easy to cut or demo if needed; not DIY friendly, however, you really can Pave a small area with a dump trailer, box blade, and a plate tamp; in 90% of cases asphalt will be laid on top of another base material; but full depth asphalt, using asphalt as a base is also done in areas where time or water are critical issues; that gets extremely expensive when you start talking about 6-9" of asphalt.

J: concrete; if done correctly, with good subgrade it should outlast you, but is very expensive; poorly done concrete costs just as much, but will be a mess as quick as anything else; unaffected by petroleum/most chemicals; unaffected by water; cutting/demo very expensive; can Not be overlayed; can be very good looking; needs cure time after pour. Pretty DIY friendly, and can be done in sections/phases; many contractors; concrete plants deliver on ready mix trucks; can be pumped in some pretty bad terrian; can be groved to improve traction on slopes;

Few odd ball options;
Soil cement; has to be the right native soils (sandy, low organics); can be paved over; water doesn't break this base down; if soils are right, you are only importing the Portland cement to mix in; can't really be regraded after it cures; can reflect cracks though asphalt
Geostabalized grids; pretty costly, has to be paired with an aggregate base; can help bridge bad subgrade, but eventually the subgrade will rear its ugly head; don't know if it needs removed or top coated with additional base to Pave over?
Pavers; probably the most expensive, and to do properly for long life, they need to be on a good base; often grow mold/slime; will settle individually; can often remove a few broken ones to repair or remove and replace to trench under the drive; can also be mortared in

 

[paulsharvey]

No no no... two things we miscommunicated:

1. I need to wait for the driveway to dry before attempting anything. Not working on it until then.
2. I was talking for any usage of the blade box, not for the wet driveway: I do have dry sections of the driveway that are solid but with pockets of holes that need to be leveled. I will need the scaifiers there. And if I buy the 6 ft box I was asking if I had traction issues i was confirming i would be able to raise a few and still use the 6 ft box.

I hope this makes more sense now!

Yes, you could remove some, flip some, raise some up a hole, ect. You could also scarify with just the teeth down 3" blow the cutting edge, and the cutting edge off the ground, then flip/remove rippers, and then blade.

Traction Will be an issue; but that just means take less aggressive passes.

 

[Forest_Man]

So, we really need to get you to Good Enough, not perfect. 1000 yard drive, is gonna be 3000x10=2,000,000 lbs of base to get 6" thickness; that's 1000 tons; or a

hey, what's the 3,000 and the 10? Could you explain how you did this math?

I will actually measure the lengths of driveway that need repair (about 50% of is in solid and dry condition) and would like to understand your math so that I could re-do it later and figure out how much material to buy.

Bare minimum of $15,000 dollars in just the cheapest material around.

Crusher Run? am I on the right track with this crusher run thing the gravel salesperson told me or nor? What is the best value material I should be pricing?

There is an Extensive thread a few months back, with in depth discussion on driveway materials, pros, cons, costs, ect. I'll try to link?

Bro, I am in sponge mode. Please, if you find it, link it!

 

[Forest_Man]

The old thread was "pricing asphalt driveway". I copied one of my replies, was too lazy to retype the whole thing....

Amazing class. Thank you.

 

[Forest_Man]

Yes, you could remove some, flip some, raise some up a hole, ect. You could also scarify with just the teeth down 3" blow the cutting edge, and the cutting edge off the ground, then flip/remove rippers, and then blade.

Traction Will be an issue; but that just means take less aggressive passes.

Sounds like i'll start my searching for a 6 footer.

Thank you!

 

[Williy]

Our LS land plane was $1300+ works great don't
leave a pile of dirt like a box blade

willy

 

[paulsharvey]

hey, what's the 3,000 and the 10? Could you explain how you did this math?

I will actually measure the lengths of driveway that need repair (about 50% of is in solid and dry condition) and would like to understand your math so that I could re-do it later and figure out how much material to buy.





Crusher Run? am I on the right track with this crusher run thing the gravel salesperson told me or nor? What is the best value material I should be pricing?



Bro, I am in sponge mode. Please, if you find it, link it!

So, you said 995 yards long, so, that's where I got the 3000 LF. You said 12 ft wide wasn't gonna happen; so I used 10 feet wide as the width. I then converted the Square Feet to Square Yards by dividing by 9. Most roadbase materials, as a really brought brush, weigh about 100#/sy/inch of thickness. IE 6" of road base, over a 3 ft x 3 ft area, is gonna be approx 600 lbs.

 

[paulsharvey]

A Huge issue that pops up on here is; the locally accepted names for road base materials Vary a Lot from area to area. Crusher Run (we call that limerock road base) is a mix of material from dust upto maybe fist sized material, that when rolled, with proper moisture turns into a pretty monolithic, coherent base. This is pretty much the ideal material for a good base.

'Gravel' or washed, screened rock; doesn't really pack; this is what we call #57 or #89 or whatever, it kinda keeps moving as it doesn't have the fines to 'lock' everything together. The advantage of 'gravel' is because it doesn't pack well, it's essentially already packed. It doesn't settle in pipe ditch, and isnt affected by wet areas, however it will get pushed into a soft subgrade, and over time, your Gravel goes away. All the time, that Gravel being pushed into your subgrade, it does firm up the whole system.