Drainage, driveways, etc

[KTurner]

Can anyone recommend a good resource for learning about maintaining driveways and fixing drainage problems around the yard? We have several large low spots that get very soggy after a hard rain. I have to avoid them, when walking, mowing or driving.

Keith

 

[AchingBack]

You are here already. Your issues have been discussed a multitude of times. Just use the search engine, and enter key words. Hope you have a tractor to assist you.

 

[brucewj]

I found this to be helpful

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[jeffinsgf]

There are a few fundamental rules about drainage that should help. With regard to roads, I think it was Eddie Walker who wrote here years ago that if you don't have two ditches, you have one --- right down the middle of your road. You absolutely have to build your road bed up to the point that a heavy downpour runs off the crown and down the ditch. I happen to be lucky enough that my road is a constant slope, with no point at which it dips. I do have a dry wash that runs across the road, which really gets rolling in a good rain. When we first moved here the culvert that the previous owners had installed for the dry wash was completely inadequate. After two springs of watching our gravel disappear and the road become impassable, I ripped the culvert out and replaced it with one three times the size and capable of moving the same volume of water the dry wash could carry.

I've also cut in several French drains, etc. for the yard. One of the best things I did for a soggy patch in the yard was to give up and make it a wet garden. With both surface swales and underground drainage I have all the water moving to one point, where I have planted a mass of native flowers and bushes that all like "wet feet". The plants move the water out of the ground through transpiration faster than grass ever could. If you have several boggy spots in the yard, channel all of them to one spot with drainage pipe and put a wet garden in the collection point. I put an overflow drain in the wet garden that runs to the dry wash for the real toad stranglers.

 

[pat32rf]

I used to try to explain to the plumbers that I worked with that "water runs downhill". When grading/landscaping you want to move the water from where you don't want it to where it won't do any harm. You can raise the low spots so the water won't stay there or install a trench that is even lower and runs to where you want it.
Doesn't really matter which you do, but the water is still going to run downhill. The quicker you get it to the side of your trails the better off you will be......

 

[CurlyDave]

When I look at my gravel driveway, I find that I don't have two ditches -- I really have four. Two wheel ruts and a ditch on each side. It is very difficult to prevent wheel ruts from forming in a gravel road.

My personal belief is that enough water can flow through the gravel to get to the deep ditches on each side so that the wheel ruts don't become flowing streams, but this is contrary to much of the conventional wisdom here. Just an observation.

 

[mjncad]

My personal belief is that enough water can flow through the gravel to get to the deep ditches on each side so that the wheel ruts don't become flowing streams, but this is contrary to much of the conventional wisdom here. Just an observation.

A lot of it has to do with the earth under the gravel too.

 

[jeffinsgf]

A lot of it has to do with the earth under the gravel too.

The earth under the gravel, and also the gravel itself. Limestone crushes and packs with traffic, and after a while, you've got wheel ruts. That's where road maintenance takes over for road building. The neighbor bought one of those double bladed grademaster style (he bought the LandPride) box blades. We both use it a couple times a year now, and haven't had to buy any more gravel since he got it. It's my favorite implement of his.

Before you think I'm a total mooch...I till his garden twice a year for him. Works out pretty good. He doesn't need a tiller and I don't need a grademaster.

 

[jenkinsph]

I think you need to put the spoils from the ditches on either side on the road base to elevate road and simultaneously lower the water level in the ditch. Making the ditch deep enough to start with provides more fill to build the road higher and with a proper crown. This needs to happen before the basecourse and gravel are placed. heavy rains and traffic can still wreak havoc on a gravel road though. You still have to recover the gravel and fines that get washed into the ditches with a rear blade and a landplane really helps to keep the surface dressed and smooth.

Just as important you have to plan where the water will go and hopefully this will be away from your road.

 

[teg]

Keith, Most of what I've seen on the net is about building roads and not as much about fixing roads. TBN has been about as good as it gets with information addressing fixing potholes, water drainage, and the like.

Potholes need to ripped out and gravel relaid... for soft spots, I build up with large 3"-4" size rocks, pushed into the ground and then lay a gravel base down on top of that.... I'll let you know how it works, if I can ever get up to the farm again

If you have the ability to build up that "low spot" area with larger rock and or dirt (allowing water to flow past it) Or digging a ditch to drain water away from that whole area would help. Photos or more information, posted here would also help since I'm sure there are others that could use the information.

Also, at the bottom of this page are "Similar Threads" if you don't use the search feature above.

 

[Rustywreck]

I don't know about others, or other areas; but credit the use of driveway/road mat for saving the gravel in a couple spots on my driveway from sinking to China.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Rusty,

That's a beautiful drive.

I see some large stones on the sides, under the gravel. Is the mat between the large stones and the gravel, or under the large stones?

I'm in the woulda shoulda coulda box with regard to mat.

 

[Rustywreck]

Thank you for the compliment. The mat is on top of the ground, under all the gravel. It is high and dry year round.
The driveway has served me well. The twists, narrowness, and trees keep anyone using it from driving too fast, which helps to keep the gravel on the driveway.
The driveway is what convinced me to buy my tractor - I wanted one, but just couldn't take the step.
I had a couple estimates done, which came in over $12,000.00. With the aid of my new tractor, chainsaw, and the local gravel guy I did it for less than $2,800.00. It took me longer than a pro would have, but I also got a tractor out of it.
When I started there wasn't even a foot path through the woods. Here is a picture from the other end of the driveway after I completed the first phase - a tractor wide path:

 

[mjncad]

Your driveway looks great Rustywreck! What brand and model of fabric did you use?

 

[JDGreenGrass]

Bulid a crown in the center by re-claiming the material that has fallen to the edge.

If needed, bring in yards of material to build up the driveway in the center and create a path or drainage along the edges. Don't be afraid to get it good and high with a well pitched crown.

Do the work when it is damp or slightly wet...helps with moving the material. And, be sure use your truck to pack down each layer that you put down. Helps keep the material in place.

I use a rear blade to maintain my gravel driveway. Works great.

One more thing....GO SLOW to obtain the best finished product.

 

[MarkV]

Rustywreck that is a very pretty drive. Just wondering if a fire truck can get through some of the tight turns?

MarkV

 

[/pine]

It is very difficult to prevent wheel ruts from forming in a gravel road.

Hills are a contributing factor as run-off helps create the ruts...However one way to help keep a gravel drive from forming ruts is to not crown it in the center...rather pitch the entire drive in one direction...thus you only need a ditch on one side or the other...The thing is to get the water into the ditch as soon as possible.

Of course it requires the use of culverts to change sides but because the run-off water never gets a chance to run down the tire tracking lanes it stops the erosion...and because it never travels farther than the width of the road it's force is minimized.

on steeper hills the water must not be allowed to run from top to bottom...it does not take much material to create smooth diverters that force the run-off into a ditch....done properly the diverters are practically unnoticeable when driving over them...

Anyone that has maintained a gravel road or drive knows for a fact that gravel "migrates"...generally down hill and to the shoulders...having an implement that is capable of collecting migrated gravel will greatly reduce the cost of maintaining an unpaved drive...

 

[killdozerd11]

The larger gravel will migrate less say 1-1/2 in rock as opposed to Pea to 1/2 rock

 

[Rustywreck]

MarkV

That is a good question, and I'm not certain of the answer. I know the gravel guy can make it with his dump truck.

If the fire department saw my wretched little house they probably wouldn't bother coming at all.

There is another access to my house, a trail that zig-zags the property line the fire department could use if they needed. Early in the spring is the only time that trail wouldn't work. I chose not to use the trail as a driveway in part because of the property line issue, but also because it would have been three times longer and three times more expensive.

 

[dcyrilc]

The larger gravel will migrate less say 1-1/2 in rock as opposed to Pea to 1/2 rock

My gravel only migrates one direction... straight down! It sinks as fines come up from underneath. Our water table can get pretty shallow during overly wet winters.