Darla said:
I by far have more time than money. But, I do want to do it "right" (obviously very subjective) the first time since I plan to live here until I'm planted. I'm still very open to all suggestions and definitely do not consider any as bad suggestions. Right now the ground is very soft, but our gravel drive is not soft or spongy anywhere. Our issue that is sort of pressing is that we will need another couple of tri-alxe loads of gravel this summer if we don't do something. I just hate the thought of throwing away $600 or more for additional gravel when we want to go with something else. I don't recall the exact measured distance, but we were looking at going 12' wide.
I'm told that it's the lime in the gravel that holds it together but also makes the mess in our garage and barn. Besides, when it snows, it is a delicate job to plow the snow and not the gravel. Again, thanks for the ideas and suggestions. Still I ponder...
Darla,
When you say that you have more time than money, are you considering doing the work yourself? If you are, then that changes everything. Take out the expense of a contractor and his crew, and the prices of a concrete driveway drops an enourmous amount.
12' would be an ideal width, but your cars are only in the 8 foot wide range. Big rigs and RV's are maxed out on there width, and they will all fit on a 10 foot road. That extra two feet the full length of your drive will add 20 percent to the cost over a ten food wide driveway.
Why do you need several loads of gravel? Are there low spots? Potholes? If the road isn't perfectly flat before you put down concrete or blacktop, those materails can be used to fill those voids if you have a solid base, but the cost of concrete is close to $100 a yard and gravel is $15 a yard. Makes allot of sense to use the cheaper material for fill.
Lime does not hold the rock together. Depending on what type of rock you use, and here it's Limestone, the rock interlocks itself together. Road base consists of rock that is crushed so that you have big ones that may be several inches across to very fine particles. When it's put down thick enough, and that's usualy 4 inches or more, it will pack together when compactd to form a solid base. All the rocks will fit together with the smaller ones and the fines filling in every tiny bit of space. This will shed water, support tens of thousands of pounds and never move.
Some people like to drag there drives with a box blade to smooth it out, but I wouldn't ever recomend it. This breaks up the top layer of the rocks and fines and also cuts down on the thickness of the rock road material. When it's less than four inches thick, the rocks lose there strength and can no longer support very much weight or repel water. This is when most gravel roads fail.
Before you put blacktop or concrete on down, it's very important to have a solid base. If it moves, then your finished road will move also and it will begin to fall apart.
Bill's post reminded me of another material you might cosider. It's called oil sand. It looks very similar to blacktop, but it's made with sand instead of rock. Overall, it's not near as strong as blacktop, but it's allot cheaper. Allot of the county roads in my area are made this way, and they have all sorts of heavy traffic on them all day long.
I have no first hand experience with oil sand, but you might want to look into it before making a decision.
Eddie
