driveway material?

[Malibu 496]

I have a 700ft gravel sloped driveway that is going to need some help this spring and am looking for opinions on what material would be best to put on it. My wife runs a daycare so it gets a decent amount of traffic each day. I have had some people tell me to put down red rock, others say crushed concrete, and another said conbit which I think is a concrete asphalt mix.

Thanks

 

[Industrial Toys]

I don't know what you have in the area. I have a thousand foot driveway and have taken a liking to limestone dust. It is cheap, spreads nice, can be easily reworked, packs hard and doesn't make too much dust in the summer. You don't blow it all over the place with a snow blower, even though I have scraped a bunch onto my lawn with a blade when the ground wasn't frozen. It is a little suseptable to washouts from very heavy rains.

 

[Red Horse]

Are asphalt millings available in your area? IMO, the best option. I don't know about Minn., but here in Mass., if a big job is going on in your area, you can often get the product for nothing or little money as the trucking expense to get the milled asphalt off the jobsite can be excessive depending on haul distance to the dump site. So the contractor will often be willing to get rid of the material in th most expedient fashion. Put another way, it can mean the difference to hiring say 12 outside haul trucks vs, say 5 or six if the lesser number can keep up with the milling machine because of the shortened haul distance.

Only other thing you will need is ability to spread the material (I don't know what a Deutz 1920 is) and for the best job, renting a vibratory roller will asure you of a good job.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My vote is for crushed concrete! That's what seems to work best around here...

SR

 

[Industrial Toys]

They were grinding off the top of a highway near here and a friend got some of that spoil delivered. I just don't like it, because you have no way of working with it down the road. If it settles or gets frost damage, you are in a bit of a pickel to repair it. And you almost need a paving crew and equipment to do a nice job of laying it down. Plus warm sunny weather!

 

[RedNeckRacin]

You need to control the water first and foremost. Cross drains and swales work well depending on the steepness of your road. For a shallower slope a good solid crown to the road will help things immensely as long as the water has somewhere to go. What ever you use, it needs to have a good distribution of sizes of hard aggregate. The fines lock everything together and the larger media shoulders the load and transfers it to the subgrade. I'm not quite sure if you are just asking about adding a pretty layer on top, or whether your looking at rebuilding the entire structure of the road.

 

[MAN IN BLACK]

I use general aggregate 0-5/8"...packs and level well.
Other option would be stone dust...you spread it...water it down and level well, becomes just like pavement !

 

[Clay45]

What Redhorse said. The millings are friendly to spread and pack down well with normal traffic over them. Some folks claim that spraying with diesel in the morning before a hot day gets hot helps to set them but I haven't felt the need.

 

[Egon]

Diesel Is what the asphalt paving crews use to clean their tools. It helps the asphalt vaporize and disappear.

As has been said drainage is first, then a well shaped packed sub grade to make sure water cannot pool. For the overlay it depends on the budget and local materials available. They should be compact able and of sufficient depth to be solid. "BUDGET Dependent". They should also be laid down and spread even with smooth grade and crown.

Asphalt millings vary greatly in the amoUnt of asphalt present. Crushed rock, gravel, should have sufficient fines to pack easily. Crushed concrete should be of a regular maximum size with sufficient fines present to compact. Limestone dust?? Not familiar with.

The final grade as well as the sub grade should be properly compacted for best results. Contrary to opinion packing with vehicle tires does not quite do the job.

In the end you do what you can with the budget, equipment and materials available.

 

[roadhunter]

Asphalt millings are cheap and easy to install IMO. They pack really nice as well. Around here they go for about $10 a ton plus delivery.

 

[vtsnowedin]

My vote is for crushed concrete! That's what seems to work best around here...

SR

That can work well but be sure there is no rebar pieces or wire in it. Very tough on your tractor and car tires.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Asphalt millings are cheap and easy to install IMO. They pack really nice as well. Around here they go for about $10 a ton plus delivery.

That's surprising that they are that cheap in your area. Around here the paving companies hoard them all and recycle them into fresh mix to reduce the amount of new asphalt cement they have to buy. They figure they are worth $25 per ton sitting in the stockpile.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

That can work well but be sure there is no rebar pieces or wire in it. Very tough on your tractor and car tires.

That's true, but around here they do a good job of using a magnet when they crush it...

I think crushed concrete holds up better long term, to snow removable too...

SR

 

[Billrog]

I'd go with what ever you can grade if and when necessary. I tried Asphalt millings on 100' of my driveway & after a few yrs. you can't do anything with it but tear it up to fix any pot holes or regularity . The base would have to be perfect and stable. Lime stone, crushed concrete, 3/4" minus road mulch and probably other materials all make good rd. surfaces you can maintain.

 

[vtsnowedin]

To fix potholes in a RAP covered driveway you need to save some material in an out of the way spot. A couple of bucket fulls at least. Then when you need some Break up some of it with you loader bucket. (it will have got crusty and hardened sitting in the pile) and put it into a steel cement mixer. direct a propane rosebud torch into the mixer as it turns over the RAP. When it is lump free dump into your tractor bucket and go shovel into your pot holes and tamp down.
Or if you have a dumptruck you could just go buy a ton of 3/8" hot mix.

 

[orezok]

Out here there are miles and miles of dirt county roads. The county includes in the contract requirements that the millings be placed on adjacent dirt roads. Results in a short haul for the contractor, an improvement on the dirt roads and less dust.

Since it's low bid public works, the County virtually get the material for free.

 

[PILOON]

Around here the asphalt plants keep millings in 2 separate piles.
One is for municipalities and the other for contractors.
They qualify by the amount of bitimus binder remaining in the material.
The non municipal stuff is usually dry, sandy and won't re bind while the good stuff generally re binds and sets up under hot sunny days.
Our city is now laying about 6" of millings on all the gravel road hills and save a bundle on maintenance as rains don't wash the roads (hills) out.

 

[Malibu 496]

Thanks for all the replies. My driveway doesn't have too bad of a slope to it but it is enough to wash out little channel's in it when we get heavy rain, I did put some crushed concrete on it last year which helped but after all the traffic from my wifes daycare it is low where everybody drives and is evenstarting to washboard a little bit. I can get pretty much any of the stuff you guys have listed the only one I am not sure of is the limestone dust, crushed concrete is the easiest because there is a plant only 1/4mile from my house to get it from. As far as something to spread it with, I just put a down payment on a new kioti tractor but I am a total rookie with all of this stuff but my dad knows some about this stuff so he can help with the leveling and spreading of it. I really don't want to have to dig it out and redo a base but if that is what it takes to be more durable and require less maintenance that is what I will have to do.

 

[Egon]

. I really don't want to have to dig it out and redo a base but if that is what it takes to be more durable and require less maintenance that is what I will have to do.

Unfortunately that would be the proper way.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Agreed. The only reason to dig it out would be if you have soft spots or poor draining areas though. If you can get the water to flow away from the road and put a crown on it to get the water off the road in the first place, that will help out immensely. This may require some diversion bars, buried conveyor belting or culverts. IF you google dirt and gravel road maintenance it could provide you with alot of info.