Putting in a gravel driveway

[Rockbadchild]

Thanks for the feedback. The driveway doesn't have to be perfectly level but that dip is pretty significant so it would need to be filled some. IU was leaning towards level especially for large trucks that are bringing building supplies. At some point we might have a large horse trailer and I feel like a large dip, spanning maybe 15', would not be good for that.

For the retaining wall it is not really a retaining wall. I am putting fill to the outside of the forms I was going to put up for support. The land slopes toward the back of the property so runoff is good.

As for the geocell. I haven't seen used on just the outsides of the drive. That would certainly save some $$. For a 12' driveway wou are thinking 4' of geocell on each side and leave the middle 12' open?

As for the geocell fill why sand and not gravel?

I see if the dip is not long then it make sense,

So what is your goal with the geocell? I was under the impression it was to used as supporting wall, to uses as lift to stood up the road quicker in order to keep the footprint narrow so stacking the geocell over each other. If that's the case then yes only on the edge and leave the middle without geocell... I would fill the geocell with gravel but fill with sand the middle to save money but that's for the supporting wall application... you can certainly put gravel all the way through but that will get expensive pretty quick, sand offer very good compaction, and good drainage, sand is used as road base all the time in our area.

If you want to used geocell as ground reinforcement, then it need to be the fill width of the road but if your soil is sand then I wouldn't bother.


even in the picture below they fill with sand

 

[deezler]

Quick thoughts.

If you really dug out to as much as 12" below grade already to remove organics, you're going to be buying a lot of fill/sand/rock/gravel to get it back up to grade. Do NOT leave the driveway as your lowest area. yes, I always prefer a nice crowned road that sheds water easily. The key is to get water OFF and away from your driveway as quickly and easily as you can.

Skip the boards and rebar to support raising the grade in your dip. Just add enough soil, compacted in lifts, to get it up to desired height. Soil can support itself, your boards would end up doing nothing.

Also skip the geo cell or geotextile, if you have sandy loam soils. All you need is a thick base layer of larger rock (2-3", or even bigger) on the bottom, before a few inches of smaller stone on top for the final layer. It should hold up.

How long is the total driveway going to be? I did my own 1000' of gravel driveway in southern Michigan over sandy soils back in 2014. Because I was tight on funds, I did most of it myself with 3 yards of crushed concrete or 21A limestone at a time in a borrowed dump trailer, but supplemented with delivered loads (tailgated out in smooth 500' runs by an absolute PRO) over the next couple years to get enough rock to hold up against the soils below. Now my driveway hardly needs any maintenance at all, very very solid.

 

[paulsharvey]

In my world, geotextiles are used for basically two reasons;
1) to bridge over material that really should have been removed, expansive clays, organics, areas that pump from excess moisture
2) as a impermeable surface for drainage reasons; can't do concrete or asphalt do to run off calcs; don't want or can't retain the water from that, so geocells provide a pervious surface that holds up well, while being cheaper than under parking retainage systems.

It doesn't sound like you have either issue.

 

[future_vision]

I see if the dip is not long then it make sense,

So what is your goal with the geocell? I was under the impression it was to used as supporting wall, to uses as lift to stood up the road quicker in order to keep the footprint narrow so stacking the geocell over each other. If that's the case then yes only on the edge and leave the middle without geocell... I would fill the geocell with gravel but fill with sand the middle to save money but that's for the supporting wall application... you can certainly put gravel all the way through but that will get expensive pretty quick, sand offer very good compaction, and good drainage, sand is used as road base all the time in our area.

If you want to used geocell as ground reinforcement, then it need to be the fill width of the road but if your soil is sand then I wouldn't bother.


even in the picture below they fill with sand
View attachment 941013

This would be for the entire driveway. No supporting walls needed with maybe the exception of the 7' dip.

As for sand bank run sand is the cheapest fill in my area. $7.50 per cubic yard. Straight sand is another $.50 per cubic yard. Then it jumps to $11 for -4 bank run gravel which has been recommended to me in the past as a base layer (no geocell)

 

[future_vision]

Quick thoughts.

If you really dug out to as much as 12" below grade already to remove organics, you're going to be buying a lot of fill/sand/rock/gravel to get it back up to grade. Do NOT leave the driveway as your lowest area. yes, I always prefer a nice crowned road that sheds water easily. The key is to get water OFF and away from your driveway as quickly and easily as you can.

Skip the boards and rebar to support raising the grade in your dip. Just add enough soil, compacted in lifts, to get it up to desired height. Soil can support itself, your boards would end up doing nothing.

Also skip the geo cell or geotextile, if you have sandy loam soils. All you need is a thick base layer of larger rock (2-3", or even bigger) on the bottom, before a few inches of smaller stone on top for the final layer. It should hold up.

How long is the total driveway going to be? I did my own 1000' of gravel driveway in southern Michigan over sandy soils back in 2014. Because I was tight on funds, I did most of it myself with 3 yards of crushed concrete or 21A limestone at a time in a borrowed dump trailer, but supplemented with delivered loads (tailgated out in smooth 500' runs by an absolute PRO) over the next couple years to get enough rock to hold up against the soils below. Now my driveway hardly needs any maintenance at all, very very solid.

Thanks. I definitely removed 1' in some areas. That 7' dip I removed more because we had filled in with small wood cutoffs, bushes and loam. That would have been a disaster if we left that there. I was thinking that I would take some of the less organic soil I pulled out, to get it level, and build that base back up. I've even got a little bank run gravel I can use. speaking of bank run gravel. That was what was originally recommended to me when we did our cut in. Appraaently it is used often for roads here or so I am told. I think I put down at least 6" for about a 60' span. Was considering digging that back out if we went the geocell route and spreading it out or using it to fill the geocell.

 

[future_vision]

Exchanged emails with a local pit and they gave me a quote for 1' of -4 bank run gravel. Isn't 1' a bit much?

 

[paulsharvey]

Exchanged emails with a local pit and they gave me a quote for 1' of -4 bank run gravel. Isn't 1' a bit much?

Hmm, as in, you gave them length and width, and they gave you a quote for 12" of base material, as a lump sum bid?

Most places around here, you'll get a FOB price per ton on base material, or if you deal with a trucking company, they will give you a price per ton of delivered material, or a price per loaded truck delivered.

I have Never liked having a salesman do a material take off for me; don't care if it's paint, lumber, concrete, or fill; I'd much prefer to do the math myself, and know I did it right.

6" of base type material is going to weight approx 600 lbs per sq yard of compacted material. So, lets say, 800 sq yards=480,000 lbs=240 tons=13-14 truck loads at 18t per load.

Absolutely nothing wrong with doing 8" or even 10"; but our major state roads are species at 12" stabalized subgrade, 10" limerock base; Many many county roads call out 12" stabazlied subgrade, 6" of limerock road base.

Where I want to be careful, I dont deal with freezing ground, freeze Thaw cycles, ect; so what works here, may not work in NY

 

[future_vision]

Yep. Gave them what I was looking for. This is the full quote:

What I can tell you is if your driveway is 600'Lx12'W and your garage area is 38'Lx55'W and you want 1' Depth of road base (4"minus bank run gravel) you would need 412CY of material.
412cy (4" minus bank run gravel) x $15.00 = $6,180.00
Delivery = 23 loads x $115.00 = $2,645.00
TOTAL = $8,825.00

 

[paulsharvey]

In my area, depending on distance to the rock mine; that could be as cheap as $6000 to as much as $10,000. That's material, trucking, and dumping, assuming good access, fairly close rock mine, available trucks.

 

[paulsharvey]

Yep. Gave them what I was looking for. This is the full quote:

What I can tell you is if your driveway is 600'Lx12'W and your garage area is 38'Lx55'W and you want 1' Depth of road base (4"minus bank run gravel) you would need 412CY of material.
412cy (4" minus bank run gravel) x $15.00 = $6,180.00
Delivery = 23 loads x $115.00 = $2,645.00
TOTAL = $8,825.00

So, I like your quote, it's pretty good. The way I see it, at those prices, I would worry too much about some areas being 12" deep, and the rest, maybe you run 8", and you either stock pile excess foe maintenance, or use the 'excess' in your low area?

If your doing 12" I highly recommend placing 6" across the whole thing, then another 6" on top. Allowing the 2nd lift trucks to do a lot of the compaction effort.