Best approach for my driveway?

[JCA]

Hi folks. First post in a while.

Looking through the archives I found a lot of information on grading driveways, getting rid of the "washboard" effect, and so on. Problem is, there are different kinds of driveways, and it isn't always easy to figure out what kind of driveway they're talking about.

My driveway (about 900' long) is (on the top layer) a mixture of dirt and crushed stone, so that when it's in good shape it has a smooth surface, with the crushed stone stabilizing, making a hard, compacted surface. Over time, some dirt washes away (I guess) leaving loose pieces of crushed stone. It's in pretty good shape at the moment, considering the number of intense rains we had this summer, but I plan to smooth it out a bit before the ground freezes. There are a few spots with pretty nasty washboarding I'd like to smooth out. This will be my first winter with a tractor/snowblower, so I'm not sure how much of a problem (if any) the loose gravel will be.

In the past all I've done--the first time was in the Spring--was back-drag with the back edge of the bucket. When there's plenty of dirt this smooths things out nicely. But when it gets a bit bare and lots of gravel is exposed, it doesn't work as well. I plan to order some more dirt/finish mix from the guy who has maintained the driveway in the past (he owns an excavation business). But what's the best tool for me to use to do basic maintenance on a drive like this? Suggestions I've read include box blade and (wheeled) York rake. But, as I said at the beginning, I don't know which of these is best for what kind of driveway.

Thanks, folks.

Jim

 

[MarkV]

Jim,

I agree that every situation is different so it is hard to offer one fix for everyone. My experience is with just short of a mile of gravel community road that has red clay as a base. It will get so hard that short of a dozer there isn’t much that you can do with it in the summer. Then when the rainy season comes it becomes a red clay gravel mess. In our case it needs more gravel but as a private community road it is hard to get the money together. Sounds like a soil and gravel mix works for your area where here the good roads use four or five inches of a crushed gravel with stone dust mixed in to top the clay. The stone dust locks the stone together making a hard smooth surface that grades out pretty well.

As far a grading the box blade has been the best tool for maintaining the road in my case. There is a bit of a learning curve to become efficient at knocking down the high spots and wash board but it comes pretty fast. If the road needs to be recrowned before new gravel is applied or ditches cleared I find that a rear blade that can tilt is helpful. The only time that the landscape rake with gauge wheels works for me is if there is loose gravel and I don’t get much of that.

MarkV

 

[bellweather]

You’ll get a lot of differing opinions on this one, but what worked really well for me (especially the wash boarding) is a landscape rake (York type) with gauge wheels. I tried without the wheels and I could not get rid of the washboard. Multiple passes was all it took (not that many), and it did a good job of fixing potholes, as well as re-homogenizing the fines and stones.

 

[Soundguy]

On some lime rock roads I've seen.. once it washboards, you either have to cut the washboad down, and then add more material back and compact.. ( might scab though )... or you simply add material over the ridges and compact. Seems to hold up either way till it gets too wet.. or too rainy.

Lots of folks with a smooth finish top road will also contract wit a local paving company and havce a tack coat sprayed on. This essentially looks like oil.. but is really a bituminous asphalt emulsion. Hot mixed, and sprayed on. It is environmentally inert, and adheres to finished stone or clay like glue. In fact.. that is themain purpose of a tack coat.. it provides and adhesive layer to the finish grade, that the asphalt will also stick too.

Anyway.. after the tack is applied.. it can be sanded to give it a surface texture, and protect it while curing. Once dried.. it is like a mini-asphalt road... course the toping is only about 1/8 thick mix of sanf and tack... bt it holds up for years with minor maintenance. A finished road like that can be improve don later.. for instance.. if still in good shape later, it can be swept, have another application of tack.. then have large gravel laid.. tacked again.. and then small gravels laid... this is a slag road. very akin to 'chip-seal'. Very common in the south. Slag roads, when finished by a good operator, look almost identical to an old faded paved road. And they have a great lifespan. There are slag roads in place near my parents house that have been there since I was in high school. with nothing other than pothole patching having been done.

In areas of lotsa water.. soil cement is big. The company I work for is putting quite a few roads in down in palatka florida. Water level in that coastal city is sometimes a few inches below grade. Many of the roads we are working on have water setting in the swales year round. The subgrade is always wet. So far we've had decent luck with mixing the subgrade with a heavy ratio of soil cement.. cutting and finishing grade.. and then prime and pave. In other areas we've done straight black base.

( slag is cheap.. soil cement isn't so cheap.. though cheaper than asphalt... )

Soundguy

 

[8561]

I have both a landscape rake with wheels as well as a boxblade. Before my driveway was paved, I only had the boxblade and I used it on the drive. It worked very, very well and I think it would be my first choice. I think a rake would probably work too, I'm just not sure it would work quite as well. Ultimately, I think you could get it done with either, and either would work way better than backdragging your loader.