My drive way ran away.

[MossRoad]

For gravel roads to last any amount of time, they need to be at least 4 inches thick. If your gravel washed off the road, then it will just do it again until you get enough rock on there to hold it all together.

The second problem that caused gravel drives to fail is not having enough drainage. If the water washes over the road, it will fail. No amount of gravel is enough if you can't get the water away from it. The faster the better.

Create drainage ditches, put in culverts and crown the top of the road. When that's done, buy enough rock to get your 4 inch minimum thickness and you'll just have to worry about minor maintenance over the years.

To maintain a gravel drive, add rock. Those who drag boxblades, rakes and other tools over their gravel drives are speeding up the process of erossion. One good boxblading session can take years off the life of the road. It might be smoother for awhile, but that's just temporary.

Eddie

I tend to agree with your comments...

Why would someone want to drag scarifiers through a roadbed? It would loosen up everything that has taken years to pack down. We always had non-paved drives when I was a kid. We never used gravel, as it is round and won't lock together. Tires tend to push it out of the way and make two side ridges and one center ridge. Crushed rock or slag from a steel mill are better choices than gravel, in my opinion.

 

[KentT]

I tend to agree with your comments...

Why would someone want to drag scarifiers through a roadbed? It would loosen up everything that has taken years to pack down. We always had non-paved drives when I was a kid. We never used gravel, as it is round and won't lock together. Tires tend to push it out of the way and make two side ridges and one center ridge. Crushed rock or slag from a steel mill are better choices than gravel, in my opinion.

Once you get pot-holes or deep ruts, though, the ONLY solution is to cut down below them and respread all the material...

Filling a pothole or a deep rut is typically a "band-aid" that won't last...

 

[EddieWalker]

Kent,

I think we are in agreement here, but let me expand on what you said. If you have a pot hole or low spot, just dumping more rock on it won't fix it.

The new rock has to become part of the old rock, so you need to break up the old rock so that it will all lock together. For these types of repairs, I use the teeth in my backhoe, but I for smaller areas, I just use a pickaxe. My rock is too hard packed together for it to come apart by hand, but with the pointed end of the pickaxe, I can break it up. Then I dump the rock on top of the loose rock and smooth it out.

After you add the new rock, it's a simple matter of just driving over it a bunch of times to lock it all back together.

The rest of the road is not desturbed, so there is no fear of long term damage. The new area will quickly blend into the old rock and become just as strong.

Eddie

 

[Red Zebra]

Thanks Eddie. You're right. The gravel that has washed away was new layer put down while the house was being built. Planning drains/ditch to keep water from reaching the drive.

 

[ponytug]

I would just add that you want to add angular gravel, with fines. i.e. unwashed crushed rock. The fines are important to packing the roadbed together. For patching potholes, I would second Eddie Walker's comments, but that I usually add extra fines, i.e. clay/unwashed sand back into the hole to help it fuse. When you are done adding material, don't forget to compact it.

Depending where you are in the country there may be other materials available, such as slag, or blue rock, that will compact into a good roadbed.

One ranch that we were at had a heavy equipment operator that loved to drag the road with a box bland, and as a result it was always developing potholes...

All the best,

Peter

 

[LBrown59]

I tend to agree with your comments...

Why would someone want to drag scarifiers through a roadbed? It would loosen up everything that has taken years to pack down. We always had non-paved drives when I was a kid. We never used gravel, as it is round and won't lock together. Tires tend to push it out of the way and make two side ridges and one center ridge. Crushed rock or slag from a steel mill are better choices than gravel, in my opinion.

Slag is much better than gravel.
It's lighter so you get more of it per ton and it spreads farther than gravel.

 

[EddieWalker]

Slag might be alright for a gravel roadbase, but it's not as good as limestone or other rocks. The problem with slag is that it lacks the strenght of rock and breaks down fairly quickly. We have access to a glass looking black slag and a grey rock looking slag. The black stuff is pure junk, but the grey slag is fine for light use. It's no good for an underlayment or to pave over because of it's weakness. Another problem with slag is that it comes in one size at a time. You can have it mixed, but it's not the same as rock. From what I've seen, it's applied with the larger rocks first, then a layer of thinner rocks and then a layer of what they call fines. When you drive over it, it's solid and it looks great. Then after a few heavey rains, the fines start to disapear and the road gets rough. It just keeps getting rougher with use and rain.

Use what the highway and county uses on their roads. Allot of thought went into what they use and why they use it.

Eddie

 

[MossRoad]

Slag might be alright for a gravel roadbase, but it's not as good as limestone or other rocks. The problem with slag is that it lacks the strenght of rock and breaks down fairly quickly. We have access to a glass looking black slag and a grey rock looking slag. The black stuff is pure junk, but the grey slag is fine for light use. It's no good for an underlayment or to pave over because of it's weakness. Another problem with slag is that it comes in one size at a time. You can have it mixed, but it's not the same as rock. From what I've seen, it's applied with the larger rocks first, then a layer of thinner rocks and then a layer of what they call fines. When you drive over it, it's solid and it looks great. Then after a few heavey rains, the fines start to disapear and the road gets rough. It just keeps getting rougher with use and rain.

Use what the highway and county uses on their roads. Allot of thought went into what they use and why they use it.

Eddie

Perhaps the slag you are used to is not the same slag we are used to. We get ours from the steel mills in N.W. Indiana. It is grey and looks like volcanic rock, although it is much heavier than volcanic rock. We can get it in several different sizes, too. For a driveway, it works just fine. The thousands of rough edges make it lock together with no other fillers required. Just prepare your roadbed for drainage and lay down the slag 6" thick. That's it. No need to compact it. Normal driveway usage will pack it down very fast. It offers some great traction compared to crushed limestone or gravel. You don't want to fall down on it when riding a bike as it will skin the heck out of you.

I've never seen the black stuff you mention. Do you get if from steel mills?