wood pallets under gravel driveway?

[streamin]

I was curious, has anyone tried bury wood pallets in the mud to then give gravel support on a parking area? I know the right way to dig it out and spent a lot of money with big rock But I already put clay down and then some gravel. The area stays wet to some degree all year, may be due to high water table or something, but select fill and gravel is not working, still sinking. I know the pallets will eventually rot away but hopefully it will stabilize before that happens. about a 20x 30 area... Thoughts?

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

the nails might be something to worry about over time as wood rots
how about HD plastic snow fencing as underlayment.

 

[bmaverick]

I was curious, has anyone tried bury wood pallets in the mud to then give gravel support on a parking area? I know the right way to dig it out and spent a lot of money with big rock But I already put clay down and then some gravel. The area stays wet to some degree all year, may be due to high water table or something, but select fill and gravel is not working, still sinking. I know the pallets will eventually rot away but hopefully it will stabilize before that happens. about a 20x 30 area... Thoughts?

We'll nickname you the MUSHROOM MAN some time next year. LOL

The wood rots and mushrooms will be populating the driveway. The rotted wood also turns into SAND.

My region is all sandy soil. Every 2 years, we lay another 4-inch gravel coat on the driveway. All the neighbors do this too. The older driveways need it far less often.

 

[Have tractor did travel]

Available now are plastic pallets. That solves the nail problem and the mushroom name calling.
The pallets are strong. Using them, your idea is an excellent idea.

 

[paulsharvey]

If you want to stabalize the gravel, they do make geotextile fabrics, and plastic netting stuff. They do Not solve the problems of the subgrade, but they are do delay it, and are a lot cheaper then removing the unstable material. In the past, and I'm sure some people still do it, for really swampy areas, they would lay rail road cross ties perpendicular to the roadway, and basically bridge the bad area. This works, But, the approach on either end will eventually settle a Lot, and if the cross ties shift, ie left side of one sinks, but the right side of the next sinks, it's a real pain.

WF200 6 ft. x 100 ft. Polypropylene Black Woven Stabilization Underlayment 200-6-100 - The Home Depot sounds like a single roll will so the area you want. I would put it down on top of what you have, and add material to the top. You'll need new/more base, but you would need that anyways with the pallets.

Edit; if the the problem is isolated to one fairly small area, you could look for used composite crane mats. No idea what they cost new, but some times when a power line or pipe line job is done, they will sell the damaged ones for next to nothing.

 

[Rustyiron]

Around here, if you hit clay you dig it out. It doesn't let water pass through and stays "flexible". Geo fabric as mentioned above is a cheaper than gravel long term fix.
I've seen it work for about 6' of sawdust at a sawmill!

 

[streamin]

Mushroom man?, those may be kinda cool. so does the geo fabric keep it from pushing through the mud? I may do that. Thanks for all the comments!

 

[Creamer]

On a road around here they dug out the muck soil and put in huge styrofoam blocks - like 6' thick. The wole road is carried by these rocks with 4-5' of gravel over it and covered with Asphalt. The rode would only last 3-4 years before they did this about 15 years ago and it looks great. It is on a very heavy use US Hwy with lots of trucks. I know I am impressed.

I sure wouldn't use wood because of having a short life. - so will the nails by the way so no concern there. But something like plastic pallets has a lot of potential to spread the weight of what is above it.

 

[chuck9832]

I was curious, has anyone tried bury wood pallets in the mud to then give gravel support on a parking area? I know the right way to dig it out and spent a lot of money with big rock But I already put clay down and then some gravel. The area stays wet to some degree all year, may be due to high water table or something, but select fill and gravel is not working, still sinking. I know the pallets will eventually rot away but hopefully it will stabilize before that happens. about a 20x 30 area... Thoughts?

Put down some Typar underlayment fabric and then top cover it and the fill won't sink and it will stabilize after driving over it I would not open the pallet can of worms

 

[grsthegreat]

Ya, i had that issue when i first moved onto my property. Had 1 area that pumped after a rain. Actually got a cat dozer stuck in that area, and contractor had to bring in another machine to get it out. We removed all the clay, down to bedrock, hauled in new rock and gravel. That was 26 years ago. Never had an issue there again.