Sebculb
Gold Member
Hey everbuddy,
So I'm making about 300 meters of somewhat steep driveway on my friends land. I'll be spreading a few inches of "lastre" over it which is road base I guess, like crusher rock of different sizes mixed with dirt. Gonna take like 10 tandem dump truck loads.
On most of these driveways in rural Costa Rica the road base just gets smoothed out and compacted with the backhoe bucket and we call it good. My buddy is somewhat hung up on the notion of renting a roller and compacting it "properly". That sounds nice to me, except I don't really know where to find a small roller that would go up the switchbacks. My buddy has *no* machinery or building experience, I've been doing it for several years now but learned way out in the country where a backhoe is basically all that is available.
I guess I'll start asking at the machinery yards that I know of if they can point me in the right direction for something like that.
Alternately, is it a ridiculous idea to buy a walk behind plate compactor (tamper, the one that looks like a lawnmower had a kid with a clothes iron) and try to compact the road base with it? Like 300 meters of 3 meter wide road, all sloped.
I saw some dudes pulling a tamper uphill with a rope a few months back, like two guys would with a wheelbarrow. But that was just prepping for a driveway apron pour.
Anyways, I could possibly get this job to pay for the tamper if I play my cards right, while keeping the boss happy. I've used tampers before, when I was helping on paving stone jobs and pours many years ago. And theoretically it could work. But what is y'alls experiences/opinions? Is this just ridiculous? Or perhaps a decent excuse to buy a new tool and have it for future jobs.
Thanks!
So I'm making about 300 meters of somewhat steep driveway on my friends land. I'll be spreading a few inches of "lastre" over it which is road base I guess, like crusher rock of different sizes mixed with dirt. Gonna take like 10 tandem dump truck loads.
On most of these driveways in rural Costa Rica the road base just gets smoothed out and compacted with the backhoe bucket and we call it good. My buddy is somewhat hung up on the notion of renting a roller and compacting it "properly". That sounds nice to me, except I don't really know where to find a small roller that would go up the switchbacks. My buddy has *no* machinery or building experience, I've been doing it for several years now but learned way out in the country where a backhoe is basically all that is available.
I guess I'll start asking at the machinery yards that I know of if they can point me in the right direction for something like that.
Alternately, is it a ridiculous idea to buy a walk behind plate compactor (tamper, the one that looks like a lawnmower had a kid with a clothes iron) and try to compact the road base with it? Like 300 meters of 3 meter wide road, all sloped.
I saw some dudes pulling a tamper uphill with a rope a few months back, like two guys would with a wheelbarrow. But that was just prepping for a driveway apron pour.
Anyways, I could possibly get this job to pay for the tamper if I play my cards right, while keeping the boss happy. I've used tampers before, when I was helping on paving stone jobs and pours many years ago. And theoretically it could work. But what is y'alls experiences/opinions? Is this just ridiculous? Or perhaps a decent excuse to buy a new tool and have it for future jobs.
Thanks!
