Too thick of gravel drive?

[topbuilder]

"Topsoil is very handy to have a pile laying around if needed. "

By my numbers he's going to have close to 250 cubic yards of material to do something with. Quite a project.

 

[Nic3456]

Any updates here either?

Supposed to start next week if all goes as planned

 

[topbuilder]

Down here you could concrete the drive for 19-20,000. It seems like your costs will be bumping up against that. But for my area a 15 ton load of limestone/crushed concrete runs 5-$550.

 

[Nic3456]

Down here you could concrete the drive for 19-20,000. It seems like your costs will be bumping up against that. But for my area a 15 ton load of limestone/crushed concrete runs 5-$550.

I just moved from TX (against my will lol) - I love concrete and would definitely prefer it, but I think it would be around $40k for my drive up here! I can get crushed concrete from around $2-250 for 15 ton, but have heard mixed info on using it.

 

[topbuilder]

That does change the change the math! I have laid hundreds of tons of crushed concrete. I don't know if it acts any different above the frost line. It was a great product here until they started adding too much sand to it. And they raised the cost to almost equal with crushed limestone. I have been using limestone lately. The way you are doing it, you should have no problems.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I don't think I have ever heard of removing ALL of the topsoil, just removing the top 3-4 inches which contains the organic matter. Of course your topsoil may be different from what I have seen in the south which is usually a clay mixture.
How does digging a hole 12" deep and filling with gravel differ from digging a pond to hold 12" of water. Unless you have some kind of drainage pipe installed to let the water out of the hole, it seems it would just be a quagmire. At least that would be the case here with clay soil.
We always build up a road 8-12" with large rock topped with smaller rocks rather than cut a trench and fill it with rock. I am not familiar with the practices in the freeze zones though.

 

[Egon]

Little different process between building a road and building a driveway.

Removing organic top layer is the same as building a road. But once there, instead of tearing up the rest of the property to "borrow" clay from, and have compactors, and lots more excavation work involved, it is simply cheaper and easier to truck in base rock to build/shape the drive. Which sounds exactly like what they are going to do

Guess the drainage must suck!

 

[LD1]

"Topsoil is very handy to have a pile laying around if needed. "

By my numbers he's going to have close to 250 cubic yards of material to do something with. Quite a project.

Closer to 200 yds. But after all said and done, and drive is 4" above grade as per plan, alot of that can go around the edges. To slowly feather the 4" drive out to the rest of the yard. Starting at 4" and feathering down to nothing over say 6'-7'.... will get rid of ~1/4 of that. Then all the construction of doing a house and septic. The remaining 150-160 yards will disappear quick

Down here you could concrete the drive for 19-20,000. It seems like your costs will be bumping up against that. But for my area a 15 ton load of limestone/crushed concrete runs 5-$550.

Would have about 70 yards in concrete.....or about $7000. Plus $6000-$7000 to finish it. So would be looking at about 12k ON TOP OF doing a gravel. Because the process would be the same up to the last 4". Still need to remove top soil, and add gravel for a base. So the only difference in method between concrete and gravel.....would be the last 4" top-coat. 4" of gravel spread is going to be significantly less than 12-13k worth of concrete.

I just moved from TX (against my will lol) - I love concrete and would definitely prefer it, but I think it would be around $40k for my drive up here! I can get crushed concrete from around $2-250 for 15 ton, but have heard mixed info on using it.

I'd avoid the concrete. I got two loads and still had alot of wire in it. One found a tire.

I get ~22t truck loads of 304's for $16/ton.....same price for the #2's. Top coat stuff like 57's and 8's is 18.50-19.00 per ton.

To do the 12" base.....that should be ~ 300t of #2's.....or about $5k
The 4" of 304's should be ~100t....or about ~$1600.

Maybe I missed it in this thread......what are they quoting you for the above? Including the dozer work and spreading? Cause you can kinda take whatever quote you got.....subtract the $1600 for the 304's top coat, then add ~$12k and that would be close to what a concrete drive would cost you.

 

[JMER817]

Is it possible to have to too thick of a gravel driveway? My contractor is mixing what he typically does with what the builder is recommending and I think it might be overkill. I will have a 550 foot long drive, 10 feet wide, Pretty flat, and no trees. He's going to dig 12 inches deep (I think the topsoil is 9-11" deep) and then fill with 12" #2 stone and then 4" of #304. He recommends not spending more on the geofabric since we will have so much stone, but will put it in if I want. I feel like it's overkill, but his bid is in line with others. We'll do top too dress later which would add another 2-4" down the road.

Sounds like a good plan

 

[Nic3456]

Starting the driveway Friday finally - I'm back towards thinking about putting in a little of the geofabric in the softer spot near the culvert. My net price for getting a 400' section is only ~$250 as my driveway guy said he will install for free and the place shipping my culvert pipe will give me free shipping on my order if I add more to it. I'm assuming there aren't any negatives to adding the geo, worse case is just overkill?

Also if geo is 12.5 ft, but my driveway is only 10' will we have to cut the excess or just run it up the sides?