Top Dressing Driveway - Gravel or Crushed Concrete

[Hay Dude]

Maybe crushed concrete for a lower layer with a gravel topping?

Bruce

Tried that once and the top layer of 3/4” granite mushed into the bottom layer and it looked like a mess. The larger white chunks of concrete showed through the top layer

 

[oosik]

All of my mile long driveway is "top dressed" with the help of Mother Nature. Fine gravel, sand, silt & volcanic ash( Mt St Helens). When it dries out in the summer - hard as concrete. So hard - you can spin your tires and leave black marks. I try to get all my driveway "corrections" done in the spring or fall when it's still damp.

A fellow down the road about 60 miles - top dressed his driveway with 1/2" to 1" round river rock. About 6" deep. I will NEVER AGAIN visit him while riding my motorcycle. That 400' experience was not a whole lot of fun.

 

[mwayne]

Maybe crushed concrete for a lower layer with a gravel topping?

Bruce

A second for this.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

All of my mile long driveway is "top dressed" with the help of Mother Nature. Fine gravel, sand, silt & volcanic ash( Mt St Helens). When it dries out in the summer - hard as concrete. So hard - you can spin your tires and leave black marks. I try to get all my driveway "corrections" done in the spring or fall when it's still damp.

A fellow down the road about 60 miles - top dressed his driveway with 1/2" to 1" round river rock. About 6" deep. I will NEVER AGAIN visit him while riding my motorcycle. That 400' experience was not a whole lot of fun.

My neighbor put a top coat of 1/2" minus river pebbles.... He is constantly grading most of it back onto the driveway. You can't barely touch the gas without spinning out, let alone try and turn....

Basically driving on a bunch of marbles!

 

[Loaderman22]

My neighbor put a top coat of 1/2" minus river pebbles.... He is constantly grading most of it back onto the driveway. You can't barely touch the gas without spinning out, let alone try and turn....

Basically driving on a bunch of marbles!

A second on not using anything round on a driveway. Stones slide on each other, instead of bite and grip. Add a snowplow into the mix and you might as well have a stone lawn because that's where they all will be.

 

[robisinwa]

Here's another vote for NOT using as a driveway topping, but it does ok as a compacted base in my experience. The stuff I've gotten, after compaction or just natural settling, didn't have enough fines in it... I've dumped sand on top and leveled that over to help smooth it out and make it stay in place, but then I'm buying another product to fix the first product.

 

[JohnnyMX]

I know enough to stay away from round. I'm not really looking to add as much base as I am trying to keep cars out of the existing fines (clean) that are already packed extremely hard. Anything I get will also push into the fines as my base layer contained more fines than I would have liked. They also sell the "chips" that are used on chip-sealed roads.

The person said if I was worried about trash/metal in the concrete I was invited out to the quarry to see the materials before buying. He said I can get anything from 1/2", 1" or larger with fines. He stated they run this through the same process as the crusher for sizing and it will contain various sizes and fines just like the rock. He also gave me an address near me that just put in a concrete drive with their material which I need to go look at. I am wondering if I just order a truckload and spread it, I may know more before I order the entire run.

This thread seems 50/50 on crushed concrete so far...

 

[Paul12210]

I have a 1/2 mile driveway that I need to do something with. I was thinking about just adding some gravel, but the person at the quarry said they have recycled .5-1" crushed concrete for $9/ton vs $20/ton. I haven't worked with it ever and couldn't find much online.

I have a tractor, loader, boxblade and am considering a land plane for spreading and maintaining. Will a crushed gravel surface allow me to freshen it up with a land plane just like gravel would? Any downsides to that material from anyone who's used it?

Slag, if you can get it.

 

[sallyb]

Seems I see cliche around here in west Texas.

 

[Danno1]

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Crushed sea shells make a nice driveway. Of course Rochester's no where near the coast...



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