Should I put in my driveway myself?

[geobar]

I need to put in a new driveway to a new house that will soon be going up. The first 300 feet is an existing solid driveway, but I will need to go another 1000 feet to the new location. Three years ago, I used my 2wd Case 580 TLB with 7/8 yard front bucket along with my compact 28 hp 4wd tractor/loader with a 6 ft rear blade to spread and level 220 tons of modified for the site of a new barn. They worked great for this purpose, but I am wondering if the driveway is too big a project for this equipment or if a dozer will be required. How much money can I expect to save by doing it myself, or should I just let someone with the right equipment do it right off the bat.

I am told that the grass and other organic matter will have to be scraped off the driveway path. The route is dry with only a slight grade. If I scrape with the TLB, would downhill be much preferential to uphill? The pitch of the tractor backblade can be changed to slightly dig as it is pulled, and of course, it can be angled to the side. Weights are easily added as well. Would just running this back and forth accomplish anything? I kind of like this idea better then the TLB if it will work.

If anyone has experience using this equipment to do this type of work, your input and suggestions would be appreciated. How much top soil should be scraped off? Thanks.

 

[dmccarty]

I built our driveway which is about 700 feet long and 13 feet wide. There is also a wide area in the back that is about 26 feet wide so maybe a total of 900-1000x13 feet. It was built with the JD4700 which is a 48 HP tractor. Did it with the 4n1 bucket and the boxblade.

My soil is rock and clay. Some places more rock than clay. part of the drive is through woods. The mistake I made was trying to get all of the rocks and roots out of the way. Not really possible and all I did was make a 13 foot wide shallow ditch that had to be filled up with ABC gravel. I only made that mistake for a few hundred feet of the drive.

I use geotextile fabric and most of the drive only has 3-4 inches of ABC. I need to put down more since it would raise the drive enough to help keep water off. You can see the fabric here and there where there was a rock or root. It would be nice to cover it up.

The drive way handled hundreds of tons of gravel deliveries, cement trucks, logging trucks and construction traffic just fine. That is a because of the fabric.

The big question for you is do you have to remove the topsoil. And that I can't answer.

I don't see why you cant do the drive with your equipment. I certainly would do it and save the money. The last section I did was done in less than a day.

Later,
Dan

 

[geobar]

Thanks for your reply, Dan. I was told that unless the organic matter within the top so many inches were removed, then soft, spongy, eventually muddy areas would develop in the driveway and I would be sorry for not doing it right the first time. That to do the job right, 4 to 6 inches should be removed, replaced with stone, then topped with modified (sometimes called quarry run?). Since 4-6 inches 12 feet wide over 1000 feet is a lot of material, I wonder if my equipment is too feeble or it will just take too long to do, or not worth the wear and tear on the machines, or not be able to do the job properly (nicely pitched, level surface).

 

[flusher]

I need to put in a new driveway to a new house that will soon be going up. The first 300 feet is an existing solid driveway, but I will need to go another 1000 feet to the new location. Three years ago, I used my 2wd Case 580 TLB with 7/8 yard front bucket along with my compact 28 hp 4wd tractor/loader with a 6 ft rear blade to spread and level 220 tons of modified for the site of a new barn. They worked great for this purpose, but I am wondering if the driveway is too big a project for this equipment or if a dozer will be required. How much money can I expect to save by doing it myself, or should I just let someone with the right equipment do it right off the bat.

I am told that the grass and other organic matter will have to be scraped off the driveway path. The route is dry with only a slight grade. If I scrape with the TLB, would downhill be much preferential to uphill? The pitch of the tractor backblade can be changed to slightly dig as it is pulled, and of course, it can be angled to the side. Weights are easily added as well. Would just running this back and forth accomplish anything? I kind of like this idea better then the TLB if it will work.

If anyone has experience using this equipment to do this type of work, your input and suggestions would be appreciated. How much top soil should be scraped off? Thanks.

My driveway is 20ft wide x 330 ft long. Roadbed is Tehama Co roadbase (IIRC 3/4" crusher run). The contractor used a JD 210 LE TLB with a big Gannon box to do the excavation. About 6" of soil was removed.

The roadbase was laid in 2" lifts.

Mike, the ace TLB operator, dropped the Gannon box and picked up a float to spread the roadbase.

The lifts were sprayed with water

and then compacted with a vibrating roller

It's been 3.5 years since the driveway was installed. No ruts, Zero maintenance.
Cost about $7K to do the job right.

 

[ray66v]

An easy and overlooked way to dig a drive, is to run a moldboard plow along the path, at the depth you want, and simply scoop out the dirt with a loader. I have found it to be cheap, fast and easy.

What ever you do make sure you use the fabric, under the stone.

 

[DK35vince]

An easy and overlooked way to dig a drive, is to run a moldboard plow along the path, at the depth you want, and simply scoop out the dirt with a loader. I have found it to be cheap, fast and easy.

I used a rototiller. It works very well for this also.

 

[rtimgray]

I would scrape the topsoil - 4" to 6" deep and put down the stone. We put in our driveway (about 1300') and put on about 6" of creek rock. We drove on it for a few years while building the house (along with delivery trucks, concrete trucks, and heavy equipment). After we moved in, we put a few loads of dense grade on it. It still needs a few more loads to smooth it out, but it's solid enough, and right now I'm too poor to buy more rock.

 

[crashz]

You should remove all of the topsoil before placing fabric and/or gravel. Your right about the organic mater creating soft spots and mudholes.

If I were you I would definately do this myself with the 580. If the ground is to compacted to do with the loader, I'd spend the time stripping the topsoil and removing any boulders with the backhoe. It might take more time, but would come out nice. Then compact, rol out some fabric, spread gravel over it, grade and finally compact.

 

[dmccarty]

Thanks for your reply, Dan. I was told that unless the organic matter within the top so many inches were removed, then soft, spongy, eventually muddy areas would develop in the driveway and I would be sorry for not doing it right the first time. That to do the job right, 4 to 6 inches should be removed, replaced with stone, then topped with modified (sometimes called quarry run?). Since 4-6 inches 12 feet wide over 1000 feet is a lot of material, I wonder if my equipment is too feeble or it will just take too long to do, or not worth the wear and tear on the machines, or not be able to do the job properly (nicely pitched, level surface).

If you have a TLB I think you have enough equipment. Even the smaller tractor you mentioned should be able to do the work it just might take longer. Moving gravel is not hard on a tractor. The dump truck and back up and slowly dump the gravel so you don't have to move as much material with the tractor.

Since I use fabric I have them just dump in one spot and then use the tractor to move the gravel. Its a bit more work but it keeps the fabric from moving with my soil conditions. I have seen crews building roads driving the dump truck on the fabric with no problems but they have nice smooth compacted soil with not rocks and roots.

In NC I use what is called ABC gravel. Its a mixture of rock from fine dust to maybe 2 inches. The dust is very important since it locks the bigger gravel togather. Its almost concrete when its been compacted and dried a bit. I compact the gravel by traffic. Nothing special. ABC is what is used here as the road base before concrete or asphalt is laid down.

I simply don't know about your local soil conditions to know if you should removed the organic material. If it would be good material for a garden or to put in the yard it might need to be moved. But it will cost that much more to fill the trench with material for the drive.

Later,
Dan

 

[geobar]

Thanks for all the help, I think that I may try it myself. It is amazing how many names there are for the dust to stone stuff that comes from the quarry, as you hear from around the country. One last question -- what type of outlet or source will I find the driveway fabric?