Rubble for driveway?

[ERNIEB]

Patrick, Not only will the dust wash out of gravel, but finer particles will always travel downward. The idea of having a binder is that it will stick together, and hold the rocks in place. With road base, after it's spread, it's a good idea to wet it down real good, and compact it. You have probably seen contractors do this when building roadways.
The FAA designation indicates that the base meets Corp of Engineer specs for subgrade on runways. USAF or commercial runways are required to have FAA base beneath the asphalt or concrete.
I'm surprised that it's cheaper for you to get material from farther away. Usually it's the frieght thats the major expense. That pit close to you must be really high priced.

Ernie

 

[patrickg]

Ernie, Thanks for the info. About the closer pit. They are selling naturally made gravel I believe not crushing limestone. Their gravel is red and has a fair amount ot red dirt or clay in it, not washed to my liking. For a period, I leased my shop to a company doing QC on magnet cores for TDK. They bought some for the driveway on the east side of the shop. It is marginal, even after most of the stuff that will wash out has washed out. Can I just add the good stuff on top and let it each component find its own level or should I scrape most or all of it away and then use the good stuff?

I thought what you did, the cost should be in the digging and transportation, with transportation being the driver (Not intentional pun). But once again reality tramples on my "logical thinking".

Patrick

 

[patrickg]

Ernie, I forgot to ask how much compacting is enough compacting and how to do it. Rent vibrating compactor walk behind machine (lots of drieway, big project)? Some variant of a sheep's foot packer sized for my tractor? Gasoline vapor bomb, well maybe not, too close to standing buildings but develops a lot of compacting force over a large area for a reasonable up front investment. Drive on it with loaded pickup, 10-12000 lbs.?

Bribe county workers to do my drive way with their machines?

Patrick

 

[ERNIEB]

With the exception of the vapor bomb, any of the methods you mentioned will work. On my driveway, the majority is road base and I used a small ride on vibrating compactor. I went over it about 4 or 5 times.
I have about a 100 yd stretch where I have used different materials. Sort of experimental. I did it sections that used 5 or 6 yds. On these sections I just wet them down and went back and forth with my truck. This section is flat so not much chance of it washing away.

Ernie

 

[patrickg]

Thanks Ernie, But what you got against a guy having a little fun (vapor bomb)? Actually what I wanted to ask is how big of a compactor compacts how big of an area how fast. I know it is like asking how high is up or how long is a roll of string with an answer something like, it depends B U T is there a ball park for planning purposes or any sort of rule of thumb? Even chemical plumes from terrorist attacks have rules of thumb for estimation purposes. I don't want to rely on the tender mercies of the rental shops which sometimes tout whatever they have or makes money quickest and either end up ready to put in a four lane interstate or underequiped to make a path to the little crescent moon adorned house out back. If I can get close to the middle, I'll make out.

Patrick

 

[ERNIEB]

Patrick, short answer I really don't know. On my driveway, I did about a .5 mile stretch . At that time I had a 500 gal. tank mounted on a trailer. My brother helped me out, and would wet down an area and then I would go back and forth over it . It took us the better part of a day. But we stopped often to admire our work, I would end up waiting on him when he went to refill the tank. We went to the truck stop for lunch, and that took awhile. I had borrowed the compactor for the weekend, so I wasn't really in a hurry.
The stuff I drove over with my truck ( a tandem axle empty weight is about 10 tons) I just went back and forth until I got tired of doing it, maybe 15 or 20 times. These sections were only about 15 yards long, maybe 30 minutes?
One job I was on, they had a hole about 12 ft X 20 ft with a depth of about 3 ft. They were putting a slab on this. I brought the first load of base, and they had one guy on a skid loader picking up the base and dumping it into the hole. A second guy was spreading the base around with a shovel. A third had one of these hand operated drag aound compactors. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to go around, and when I got back with the second load, they had just about used up the first. Third load, same thing. Now I'm sure that the guy draging that thing around does it all the time. I'm also sure I would last about 15 minutes trying to do it/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
I know it's not much help, most of the jobs I go on use the small two roller, ride on type compactors.


Ernie

 

[patrickg]

Thanks, Ernie. That puts it into perspective for me, much better. Damn, it is a bigger job than I feared. I could end up with over a 1/2 mile driveway. Don't want to go the shortest route. Want to go more rectilinearly, east then south at rt angle. This will have a good long run on higher ground. Don't want to build where washout would be more likely. Hopefully the extra work will pay off in longevity and turn out to be a good investment of resources.

Patrick