Geotextile Fabric

[summit151]

I've only used the woven type and only on spots that tend to have issues with getting muddy in the spring as the frost melts. It's quite tough and most rocks will not damage it. But you do need to keep enough gravel on top of it to prevent it from getting damaged. Things like snow plows and road maintenance equipment will catch and rip it. Also if on a slope if there's enough water coming up from under the road and not enough gravel on top it will move the fabric, think of a run in a paint job on a car, and create a sag.

Another thing to be careful of, if you don't use enough gravel, is that where your tires travel over it in the spring it will push the material down and force it to the center and edges of the drive. What this will do is make the gravel very thin in the center. It may not be evident until the next winter when you are plowing (most likely before the ground has frozen) and you see ripped fabric. I have one section of my road like this. It's not a killer but I would try to keep a minimum of 6" on top of the fabric. Does your crushed gravel include the fines? If so I think you would be fine putting the 1 1/2" crusher run down on top of the fabric. That's about what I use. If you have the land I will put down a base of hardpan on the fabric before putting down crusher run. I can dig down about 3 feet and get to hardpan that's a combination of clay and small stones that packs down well and doesn't allow the crusher run to mix.

Ok thanks for all the info. Some good points to think about . Yes it does contain fines and a little sand. It's river bed crush. It's what the county around here uses for roads

 

[summit151]

I have used both types, of fabric, in the same driveway. I don't see any difference.

A lot of people feel better, putting a layer of large stone down first. I don't. If you put down large stone, you must put sufficient fine grindings over it, to fill all the voids. If you don't, water will accumulate there. This causes the ground to be soft, and it will sink under load. The best way to make sure it is fill in properly, is to use a mixture of stone and dust to begin with.

Ideally, you can avoid a lot of trouble by having the trucks tailgate it over the fabric. You can spread it with a dozer or loader, if necessary. You better be a good operator.

Use randomly placed roofing shingles, or landscaping staples, to hold the fabric down, if wind is an issue.

Put down your layers of stone, no more than 3" or 4" down at a time. Wet it, and compact it. Ideally you roll it, or plate compact it. You can compact it any way you like, including driving over it with a heavy piece of equipment. But, this is important.

Putting too many inches down at a time, and not using any water, will result in a poorly packed driveway. There will be settling issues.

How thick, depends on drainage, and weight of the equipment you intend to move over it.

I cap it with a neat layer of 3/4" gravel, to keep the fine sand dust out of the garage.

I will be hauling the gravel myself with a tri axle dump trailer . I also own a skid steer so I figured I would use it to spread it. Is they any tricks to make sure it's evenly spread with 4 inches on top? I drive a 14,000 lb service truck on a daily basis so it will see heavy stuff.y yard way is also 100' wide by 114 ' long

 

[Billrog]

From my experience with it & road builders advice even a foot of coverage is minimal 18" is best.

 

[summit151]

From my experience with it & road builders advice even a foot of coverage is minimal 18" is best.

I have found some people say that when I was researching online. But with how my gravel yard way is sloped and where the house sits i can't raise everything by 18"

 

[teg]

18"??? Wow, I thought the fabric was to save you from having to use so much stone...

 

[madpuma13]

I did extensive research in geotextile fabric. Our driveway was going through farm land that has black clay under the top soil.

I did not want to spend extra over the years knowing that the driveway was just going to sink into the clay.

There are three major types of geotextile material that are used. They serve different functions and it's best to understand what they are best at.

Non woven fabric is fantastic at letting water pass through and its primary function is to act as a separator between layers (like keeping your subsoil and gravel/road base separate). This material is best imagined to be a heavier weed block fabric. As such, it is very weak at distributing loads and will allow the road to rut if heavy enough loads are placed on it. It is also possible for it to rip.

The geogrid textile is usually used on top of the non woven fabric. You can imagine this to be similar to those plastic orange construction fences you see all over just made heavier. This material isn't that great at keeping the layers separate but is fantastic at distributing loads. This can best be thought of as a snowshoe for your driveway. It is very difficult to tear.

Finally is the woven fabric. This is like the woven plastic tarps you can find at the department store, again much heavier duty. This material is the jack of all trades, master of none. It doesn't let as much water pass through as the non woven. It does act as a great separator and is resistant to tearing. It is stiffer than the non woven so it will help distribute heavier loads better but not as much as the geogrid. It is the most cost effective material if you want a do it all single material.

If you are susceptible to heavy rutting, (your subsoil is super mushy when it gets wet, like clay) the more you distribute the weight the better. You can either do the non woven+geogrid and place that right on top of the subsoil or place a bit of road base to strengthen the subsoil and then the woven on top. The best of the best would be road base under the non woven+ geogrid.

Either way doing any of these options is better than nothing imo.

This stuff is most susceptible to damage during installation. Is best not to let vehicles on top of the fabrics directly. If you must, make sure the subsoil can support the load (Don't drive on it if the tires are going to sink in). Also, do not accelerate or stop suddenly on it and do not make any turns on it.

Once you have as little as 2" of material on it you can get your machinery on it with much less fear of damage do to the tires. Just don't spin out and watch your grader blades and such to stay above the material to avoid tearing it that way.

Best recommendations I've seen is about 6" of road base on top of the fabric (which ever combination you want to use) and 1-2" of whatever you want to top off your driveway with (pea gravel (not my favorite), crushed rock, etc)

Good luck with your road!

Sorry for typos, did this on my phone. Not going back to fix it.

 

[ray66v]

I will be hauling the gravel myself with a tri axle dump trailer . I also own a skid steer so I figured I would use it to spread it. Is they any tricks to make sure it's evenly spread with 4 inches on top? I drive a 14,000 lb service truck on a daily basis so it will see heavy stuff.y yard way is also 100' wide by 114 ' long

I have never tailgated stone with a dump truck. But, the guy I use can dump it with remarkable precision.

He sets the tailgate so it will only open a few inches, raises the box until the stone starts to come out, and drives away.

I tell him what I want, and I barely have to touch it after he is done.

If you dump it out of the skid steer bucket while you drive backwards, that should give you a good degree of control.

If you have good drainage, you can get away with using less stone.

If you don't have good drainage, you should consider putting some tile in, under the fabric.

I would also remove the top soil, if that's practical.

My propane supplier drives on part of my drive that is only about 8" after it was compacted. And, it holds him fine. But, I also don't have him on it, in the spring, when the ground is really saturated.

 

[KYErik]

I have had good luck with the woven type. For moving farm machinery, about 3-4 inches of 2" gravel dumped right on top of the fabric by the gravel truck spreading in reverse. Be sure the soil is pretty dry/solid when you do this. It took quite a few trips over it before the gravel packed down and locked in place but it is nice and solid now. My dad was a fan of just adding more gravel every few years but he is impressed at how the fabric keeps the soil and gravel from mixing.

We just excavated the muddy area in back of the barn last fall (when it finally dried up) and put down fabric, then 3-4 inches of 1.5 inch gravel, then 3-4 inches of ag lime on top. The mud used to be 12-16 inches foot deep (the cows would really tromp it up going in and out of the barn), so far it is holding up really well.

 

[summit151]

I have never tailgated stone with a dump truck. But, the guy I use can dump it with remarkable precision.

He sets the tailgate so it will only open a few inches, raises the box until the stone starts to come out, and drives away.

I tell him what I want, and I barely have to touch it after he is done.

If you dump it out of the skid steer bucket while you drive backwards, that should give you a good degree of control.

If you have good drainage, you can get away with using less stone.

If you don't have good drainage, you should consider putting some tile in, under the fabric.

I would also remove the top soil, if that's practical.

My propane supplier drives on part of my drive that is only about 8" after it was compacted. And, it holds him fine. But, I also don't have him on it, in the spring, when the ground is really saturated.

Perfect, thanks for well written explanation of the types and what they do. Sounds like a woven ontop of my base now would be the best. Seems like every one who has used it has had positive results

 

[rswyan]

For the driveway, we removed all the topsoil down to the underlying clay, then used woven geotex, base course of 1's and 2's (probably 6" - 8" deep) - except for the areas where I used the crushed asphalt from the old driveway - all topped with crusher run (2" - 3" depth ... after it was packed and consolidated) ...

That was around 12 years ago ... and we've never added gravel since, although it is getting a little thin at this point in spots where there is run off.

Driveway removal and replacement pics start on post #33 in the thread linked below:

New Driveway and Polebarn