Gravel Driveway Maintenance

[paulsharvey]

Depending on your subgrade, you will have some rutting over the years as aggregate is pushed into the subgrade. That's not really even a bad thing, and maybe you add 20-40 tons every 5 years. Regrading is just moving around (and loosing) the existing material. The bony areas, and really all of it; fines or relatively fine material spread over the top, and roll. The roller won't break the bottom rocks, but it will force the fines into the voids, and provide a smoother surface. The drive in the pictures looks 100% functional (not knowing anything about snow and snow removal); but I'm assuming the complaint is a mix of ride quality and appearance? Fines should help with both of those; and without knowing; I assume a smooth surface is better for snow removal.

 

[paulsharvey]

Picture Drive#6; I can't really tell; but are you getting wheel ruts, that are forcing your bottom, large rock, out to the sides? I don't really see a rut, but the picture is probably deceiving. If that's the case, maybe try to pull some of that material back into the wheel ruts, before adding finer material over the top. Washed rock, graded rock, does move, and I'm thinking that is what happened?

Edit: I could be looking at it wrong, and maybe the base coarse is say, 14 ft wide, and the finer rock is only about 10-12 ft wide; and they have the water running down the outer 2 feet shoulder, over large rock, to slow down erosion.

Picture 7 and 8; on closer look; appear to be areas where high velocity water has washed the smaller, lighter rock, down hill and it's settled in low velocity areas. That's a ditch problem, mixed with a graded aggregate problem; and you aren't going to solve those with fine material. You need to not allow large volumes of fast moving water to flow down the drive. That can be helped with swales/ditches; crown; or "speed bumps"; to redirect or slow water.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Picture Drive#6; I can't really tell; but are you getting wheel ruts, that are forcing your bottom, large rock, out to the sides? I don't really see a rut, but the picture is probably deceiving. If that's the case, maybe try to pull some of that material back into the wheel ruts, before adding finer material over the top. Washed rock, graded rock, does move, and I'm thinking that is what happened?

It's definitely what is happening the small rocks displace the bigger rocks to the side.

 

[paulsharvey]

"He recommended using a large and heavy ride on vibratory roller that will break up and crush the larger material that came to the surface. Then, a blade of some type can be used to smooth it all out. Followed by another round of a ride on vibratory roller to compact it. He said I have plenty of stone on the driveway already and no new stone will be necessary"

Avoid this guy. Even a 8 ton roller, isn't going to break hard rock when pushed against a yielding surface; it might push it down into the surface, which is a good thing; but you won't crush it; and then any blading is going to immediately pull the large rock back to the surface.

 

[stumblinhorse]

Holy crap. I wish my driveway was that nice…. I would not do anything to it.

 

[Yander]

I think you're faced with two options. 1. Take a landscape rake to it and rake out those large rocks, then go over with a thin layer of the crushed limestone with fines as mentioned by others.

2. Leave the large rocks as they are and go over it with a pretty think layer of crushed limestone with fines, even with a thick layer, it may not really bind together that well over those big rocks, because it can't interlock correctly because they are so large.

If it were mine, I'd rake some of the big stuff out and find a new place for it. then use the front loader bucket or a land plane to grade it, then put down your new top coat of Crushed limestone.

It looks to me like the PO cheaped out on the top coat and now the large stuff is being exposed.

 

[paulsharvey]

Before spending money; (I'm a cheap skate); we need to know if some of the issue is water, and/or slope. Pictures can be very deceiving when it comes to slopes, ruts, ect. The big reason is; if this is a water issue, fines are going to be 100% wasted money.

Also; we need to know your expectations. If your wanting pretty and smooth; and your on a slope, with some drainage/water issues; your probably going to have to invest in it; But, if we just care about a drivable, 24/7/365 driveway, and it can be a bit bumpy, maybe a touch ugly, as long as it works; that's a different story.

 

[Streetcar]

"He recommended using a large and heavy ride on vibratory roller that will break up and crush the larger material that came to the surface. Then, a blade of some type can be used to smooth it all out. Followed by another round of a ride on vibratory roller to compact it. He said I have plenty of stone on the driveway already and no new stone will be necessary"

Avoid this guy. Even a 8 ton roller, isn't going to break hard rock when pushed against a yielding surface; it might push it down into the surface, which is a good thing; but you won't crush it; and then any blading is going to immediately pull the large rock back to the surface.

A eight ton roller will crack Ohio limestone

 

[paulsharvey]

A eight ton roller will crack Ohio limestone

I dont live in Ohio, so I'm not arguing that; but do we mean it will crack it on a smooth, unyielding surface; or do you mean it will crush it on semi loose gravel? Our Fla limerock is a very different material, and is pretty soft, and mix of fines, on upto about soft ball sized material; and to get a perfect, smooth, ready to string line and pave, you will still have shovel men picking up larger rocks, and shoveling fines into rock holes made by the grader. A gravel surface, using washed rock, is kinda always flexible, and I just don't see the roller breaking hard rock, before it simply pushed it into the semi-yielding surface of the gravel.