Driveway time?

[BrettW]

Guys,
Here is the story. I just got a bid on a new house. The lot is cleared and ready to go but the bid didn't include any driveway, and it will be a long one 600' I'm guessing. I have a little 2000 lbs tractor and I know I can spread gravel and river rock around but should I attempt to dig down 3 or 4 inches with a box blade and do the whole thing? The drive will be going near some trees and I'm thinking of lots of oak roots.
There will be a dozer in there anyway to get the foundation of the house started. What do you think? bw

 

[WVBill]

Brett:

I'd have the dozer scrape the driveway out. 600' of driveway is too big of a job for a tractor with a box blade IMHO. There will be plenty of seat time moving the dirt the dozer scrapes up and that's a job more suited for a tractor anyway.

By the way - I think 3-4" may not be deep enough. You want to get down below topsoil or your driveway gravel will be sinking into the muck every winter. Do a search here on TBN for driveway and you'll find several threads that discuss this subject in detail.

Best of luck with the new house.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( By the way - I think 3-4" may not be deep enough. You want to get down below topsoil or your driveway gravel will be sinking into the muck every winter. )</font>

I concur with that. A good base is the best thing you can do for your driveway. You want to take out all the topsoil and lay the road stone on a good compacted subgrade. If you can't do that, say the topsoil is bottomless, then go down at least eight inches, compact the subgrade as best you can, and put geofabric down under the stone. That will keep the mud out of the stone and vice versa. A bit of fabric is cheap insurance.

 

[TimSullivan]

The driveway should be in before the foundation work starts.

When we built our home last year, we put the 800' driveway in during the summer when all was nice and dry. The house started in October and all the contractors were happy they did not have to battle the mud.

Skin off all the top soil with a dozer, it is cheaper in the long run. Pile and save that top soil you will be happy to have it later.

We took off six to eight inches of top soil and then made sure the clay base was taken down so that we had a ten inch compacted bed. Down went the fabic and then eight inches of #2 crusher run. After all the heavy trucks were done, I spread #1 crusher run to bring the road to grade and give it a little crown. I had the hauler tailgate spreed down the drive then I went to work grading it off with my 4300 JD.

The dozer and operator cost me $500 and I would not try to do a 600 foot drive any other way. He also stripped the top soil off the house site in that price. After a year I had an additional 40 ton brought in to spead. That took care of a few places that settled over the winter and just leveled every thing out.

Our barn floor was poured recently and today I am grading the drive to the barn. This will be my last load of stone for awhile. Feels good to have all the stone down and graded.

If you have a sandy base then you may need to go deeper with the heavy material.

 

[EddieWalker]

I just had a 1,200 foot driveway done on a house. I had a couple of dozer operators look it over and one big contractor. The dozer is capable of doing the job, but a motor grader is by far the superior choice.

It's quick, clean and the results are perfect!

I had him there three days from start to finish. One day for clearing, the next spreading the base rock (limestone) four inches thick with a nice crown, then we finished with a layer of unwashed river stone on the last day.

Two days later the rains started here in East Texas. Worst rains since 1973. We got 12.10 inches in 8 days. The road is solid, washed some of my river stone off into the drainage ditches, but nothing that will interfere with the sale of the house.