wood pallets under gravel driveway?

[scootr]

Another thought is drainage. Tend to any drainage issue that may be contributing to exasperating the water collection problem. You may need to divert or drain water from the problem area.

 

[Rustyiron]

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!

Yes it keeps the stone on top of the clay. You probably should have a word with a local dirt guy (contractor), he'll know the local soils and how to handle your situation better than internet solutions. For instance the depth of cut for the right depth of stone on top of the type and behavior of your clay. It's not exactly just rolling out a layer of fabric and dumping on 6" of crushed stone on top.... but it can be.

 

[paulsharvey]

You want a fairly uniform surface and material under the fabric/netting material, as free from organic material as possible, place the fabric, then some of them are made to basically create pockets of gravel, others, you just spread whatever locally used road base on top of.

Basically, you don't want plastic (gumbo clay/fat clay) or organics below the road bed. Either will pump when wet, but with organics, you also are dealing with long term deterioration of the material, that also leads to settlement. This goes for any type of roadway. Water makes everything worse.

In principle, to create a good road bed, you first cut the ditches, rolling good material up on to the road bed, then box it out, and place your base. So, by default that creates a road bed approx 6"-12" higher then the virgin ground was, and also gives an area to contain/channel water. If the subgrade (soil below your base material) is suspect, and the ditch/scale Hold water, that is also a problem, as the water will get to the subgrade from the side ditch, and cause problems over the coming years.

 

[paulsharvey]

For unpaved road surface, around a 6% cross slope or crown (depending on what the area is doing) helps clear what from the road bed. Here's a random cross section from google.

 

[scaredychicken]

I would not use wooden pallets for a driveway area. They make a pretty good redneck fence though.

 

[streamin]

You want a fairly uniform surface and material under the fabric/netting material, as free from organic material as possible, place the fabric, then some of them are made to basically create pockets of gravel, others, you just spread whatever locally used road base on top of.

Basically, you don't want plastic (gumbo clay/fat clay) or organics below the road bed. Either will pump when wet, but with organics, you also are dealing with long term deterioration of the material, that also leads to settlement. This goes for any type of roadway. Water makes everything worse.

In principle, to create a good road bed, you first cut the ditches, rolling good material up on to the road bed, then box it out, and place your base. So, by default that creates a road bed approx 6"-12" higher then the virgin ground was, and also gives an area to contain/channel water. If the subgrade (soil below your base material) is suspect, and the ditch/scale Hold water, that is also a problem, as the water will get to the subgrade from the side ditch, and cause problems over the coming years.

This is basically in front of my shop in the back yard so it doesn't really have much drainage. However, including the diagram you sent, I have another project on old logging roads on our mountain property where that road drainage will be really helpful. Not going to start that till the spring. Thanks for looking that up!

 

[streamin]

I would not use wooden pallets for a driveway area. They make a pretty good redneck fence though.

Ha, that is correct! I have access to several pallets a week free. some are long like 16 ft.

 

[paulsharvey]

This is basically in front of my shop in the back yard so it doesn't really have much drainage. However, including the diagram you sent, I have another project on old logging roads on our mountain property where that road drainage will be really helpful. Not going to start that till the spring. Thanks for looking that up!

If it's right there by the shop, I know you don't really want to hear this, but keep adding material as the old gets pushed into the subgrade, as long as building it up doesn't cause flooding at the shop might be your best bet. The geo fabric won't hurt either. Eventually, enough good material will get pushed into the pumping material to stabilize it, unless we are dealing with just plain swamp... there are cases where muck just goes down 20-30 vertical feet or more, and thats where bridging over with crane mats or something becomes the most cost effect solution.

 

[paulsharvey]

Another option, is rip/scarify the area Really well, then evenly spread and mix in say 24 bags of Portland cement (not concrete, actually Portland cement), regrade and compact. Creates soil cement, don't know your local soils to know if this is an option.

When I say compact, I dont mean run it over 4 or 5 times, I mean a 2 ton roller, or possibly a large, reversible plate tamp.

 

[paulsharvey]

Keep in mind, I have no idea where you are; and if your up there where you deal with freeze/thaw stuff, I'm the wrong guy to give advice.