Rock Show!

[Farmwithjunk]

150(+) tons of crushed stone on the way to the farm! Gonna build a new driveway to the barn. Geo-tex fabric already laid down. Looks like I get to play this afternoon!

Pictures to follow!

 

[LMTC]

Tell us about the geo-tex. How much ($$), have you used it before? Every time I have a sinkhole in the drive aftger weeks of winter rains and freeze/thaws, I think about dragging the whole driveway(300') to one side, laying some of that stuff, then pulling the rock back on top.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

$?, Free in this case. We had a couple short rolls left over from a project at work. Being the pack rat that I am, I offered to save on dumpster cost and haul it home.

I've built several roads and parking areas where I used it. No immediate benefit, but a few years down the road, when the rock is still on the surface, and not imbedded in the dirt below, you'll LOVE the stuff.

In Kentucky, the County Soil and Water Conservation District will help you locate a vendor. Not sure about other states.

 

[RedRocker]

I'm new to the road building thing, is there a link to Geo-tex so I could enlighten myself?

 

[dmccarty]

RedRocker,

I found a link years ago to Amocco which is one of the makers of geotextile fabric. Google should help. I have a local supplier who sells rock, mulch, culverts, etc that also has the fabric.

The fabric comes in various widths. I have a roll of 3' and a 12-13' roll. I think they are both the same length. The wide roll is 360' long. My supplier charges me $300 a roll. The last roll I bought may have been $320. I just figure a dollar a linear foot.

Why use fabric? The fabric prevents the gravel from being pushed into the soil. I built a 500 foot drive way with fabric. In most places I would guess the gravel is only 3-4 inches think. In some places its much less. The drive handled multiple cement trucks, logging trucks, dump trucks, a small dozer, tracked execavator, as well as the various other supply trucks and contractors without a problem. I had planned on adding gravel after the house was built but the drive held up perfectly fine so we spent the money else where. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

If I put down gravel, I put down fabric first.

The only downside I can see in fabric is that you have to be careful if you regrade the gravel. If you hit the fabric you will pull it up and make a mess. Not fun. I did this a couple of times when building the driveway. It means you have to get off the tractor and grab a shovel. I have no need to regrade my driveway though so its kinda a moot point. I will add gravel to fix a low spot caused by settling in a trench but that is the only reason I need to add gravel.

I have had to regrade the road a couple of times but not the drive....

Later,
Dan

 

[rswyan]

Discount Drainage (locations in Akron, Columbus, and Cincy) handles both types - woven and non-woven.

The woven is for roadbase and comes in a 12.5' x 504' roll for about $490.

The non-woven is for sediment control for things like french drains, back-filled retaining walls, etc. Comes in a 15' x 360' roll for $390.

If you are having gravel tailgate-spread onto geotex and it's at all windy, make sure you have the geo-text adequately anchored as the driver starts his dump run .... otherwise the wind can pick it up and you may wind up with a mess (don't ask me how I know this)

 

[LMTC]

Randall, something tells me there's no need to ask how you know this. You know this the same way many of us know small, critical bits of information. Like the way I know that if you go 4-wheeling with your truck at the edge of a corn field where there is still some standing corn, it's quite possible to drive a corn stalk (all 1"+ diameter of it) right through your radiator.

So for any of you who have used this material, is it realistic for me to consider using a box blade & loader to pull my gravel into a pile, perhaps 30-50' feet at a time, lay down geo-tex, than dump gravel back on it with the loader? My drive is probably 6-8" thick almost everywhere, but subject to soft spots.

 

[dmccarty]

LMTC,

I used my FEL and box blade to move the gravel. I had smoothed out the driveway on grade the best I could. BUT, I had lots of little rocks, roots, etc. This would cause the fabric to poke up. Which made it easy to catch with the edge of the bucket or box blade. You DONT want to do this. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

After I laid down a section of fabric I put some rocks on it to hold it down. It was very windy on some days I was building the driveway. I just had the dump truck back up unto the fabric a little and then drop his load. I used the FEL for the most part to move the ABC. He would bring in the next load and repeat. I was always done spreading by the time he got back with another load. About 45-60 minutes. Since he was driving on the ABC I just spread he helped compact it for me. After the drive was all graveled I ran the box blade around until smooth. The ABC settled maybe 1/4-1/2 inch over time.

When I laid out the fabric I would leave it attached to the roll as much as possible. This helps hold it down in a wind.

Later,
Dan

 

[RobertN]

Do you compact when using this?

For our drive, and the continuing drive to our Granny flat, I had about 60 ton of 3/4-AB brought in. A company was working on the road in front of our house. I had them grade our long drive, place the 3/4-AB, and then they rolled/compacted it. It has held up exceptionally well for 5 years now, with only minimal touchup required in a couple of spots.

For the main roads in our sub division, we had our pavement double chip sealed with "Petromat" between the pavement and chipseal. I think it is a similar product to what you describe. It is a fabric material, and is suppossed to help hold the pavement together where they may be cracks.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

The road I was building sits on a side-hill. One side has about 4 to 5 " of rock where the other side has about 10". (And there's still 3 to 4" of fall to the low side. I used crushed limestone (#57's). I have a plate compactor sitting in the bed of my truck right now. It belongs to the company I work for. I'm compacting the rock tonight when I get home. If I don't, every time I drive down the road, I dig in a couple inches with the back tires. Compact it, then get a rain or two, and you can roller skate on this stuff!