Portland cement or other trick for turning a soup pot into a driveway?

[KYErik]

I layed quite a bit of fabric without pins. Just throw a few shovel fulls of gravel on the fabric to keep it from blowing out of place before the rock is dumped on it. I know they will be buried, but to me, the pins seemed to increase the chance that a tire gets punctured in the future (murphys law).

 

[dirttoys]

Your guy gave you costly advise. The trick is to lay road fabric down and then 6” or so of base. You will be into cement with way more time, money and effort.

Good to see this answer so quick. Couple of my thoughts after doing this on 40 acres over a couple of years, with a half mile of drive, another not quite mile of shared road that no one else works on, and miles of trails.

Build your shape, easier when dry, but, can be done damp. Get the road way up above the surrounding ground. Use what you pull out for ditches, or haul in junk or sand.

Get your fabric down. The above advice is good, however, I have had luck with 3" of 1" base (again shaped and crowned, and now we are at least 5" above the sides/ditches.

Spread over that 4 inches of road rock (dirty 3/4 minus. Spread is important, the less you work it, the better the result, Good driver will make it even and look nice.

Nothing lasts forever, but, unless you are driving heavy gear, that will last a long time. Work it as little as possible.

Best,

ed

 

[dirttoys]

I don't really know what to be leery of. Please, nobody here take this personally, I appreciate the time everyone took to offer advice, but the suggestions in this thread range from "just put down some road fabric" to what amounts to a civil engineering project. I'm really lost, and feel inclined to listen to whoever is geographically closest to me and deals with my type of soil and is in "the industry." That being said, his suggestion does seem a bit weak to me as a layman.

I wish you were closer I would come help, dump trailer x and skid make the job alot more fun.

The advice above is good. You will not like the results if you can't get the road above the ditches.

For the spot you are just going to park stuff on, if you want to save money, wait till it is as dry as you can stand, get your fabric down and dump 4" of 2" rock on it.Drive on it carefully.

If you want to save the cost of the fabric; put down 6" of 3" base, top with 2 inches of road rock, and take it easy on it.

There is no project I can think of where I would use cement unless I was going to pour a pad.

Best,

ed

 

[dirttoys]

Nope. No pins. I guess I need to get some. What size would you recommend? I'm looking at some on Amazon right now and it seems the most common size is 6" but I don't know if that's going to be enough (I assume they need to go deep enough to hit hard[er] soil?)

depending on what you are driving pins into, a few rocks placed in the same place seems to work as well for me. Get the seams right, and the drivers will get it done for you.

Best,

edd

 

[jyoutz]

I would use the fabric then large rock (3”), then the road base.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Washout from a concrete place. You could be pumping water out now. Dig a well point off to the side and keep it pumped out and dry that place somewhat. You're going to have to build a pretty good road to have something you can use.

 

[Jstpssng]

I hope that after 3 years he’s gotten his driveway problems solved.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

I've been planning a gravel driveway up to my shop, extending around the side (with a lean-to addition covering it), and turning into a fenced-in gravel yard behind the shop for my unsightly collection of half-finished projects (junk, for everyone who isn't me... it's a junkyard). In order to do it I need the planets to alight just right; have enough money, enough help, and enough dry weather. Right now I have the first two. My brother and my cousin are both here for an extended stay so I have all the labor I'll ever have, and I just received several checks so the money is there. The weather is not there. This has been the wettest 12 months I have ever seen. My property has had standing water since summer, and even if I wait until the middle of this coming summer (when I'll probably no longer have help and money) it STILL might be "too wet" for this kind of work. I'm trying to take advantage of this opportunity now, despite the mud. What are my options?

I talked to a guy on the phone yesterday at the local place who sells road base and what not, and he said putting down road base right now would be a waste of money. It would just be claimed by the mud underneath. But he suggested covering the mud with Portland Cement before gravel, and asserted that it would give a firmer foundation for the gravel to rest on. But I don't know how much it would take. Do I need a truckload of it or just a few bags from home depot? Just sprinkle it on or do I need an inch thick of it? Will it even work at all? Would it be as good or better to broadcast dry concrete mix over it (that's cheaper)?

I've read in multiple places that the way this is supposed to work is that you scrape away the muddy layer and put large (4-6") gravel down, then medium gravel, then the fine stuff. Well I've discovered with my PTO auger that there's about 40" of saturated black dirt mud before you hit hard clay, and the water table table is about 2" below the surface. You can see in the attached pictures, the 40" auger holes (shallow wells) fill in with water in about 10 minutes. So if I grade this whole area down to the dry hard stuff, I'll be digging a 6000sf self-filling swimming pool 4ft deep and then filling it with $20k worth of gravel. That's not going to happen. So I ask again, what are my options?

Put down as much 2 inch to 4 inch rock as it takes to cover the whole drive. Drive on it all summer. Put a good thick layer of roadpack on in late summer/early fall. When I started my driveway you could sink a pickup truck to axles in it, and I did.

 

[jyoutz]

Put down as much 2 inch to 4 inch rock as it takes to cover the whole drive. Drive on it all summer. Put a good thick layer of roadpack on in late summer/early fall. When I started by driveway you could sink a pickup truck to axles in it, and I did.

View attachment 742826View attachment 742828

This is the best long term solution. Firmly seat a base of large rock, then cover with road base to finish.

 

[bcp]

I hope that after 3 years he’s gotten his driveway problems solved.

Disappeared in a pothole.

Bruce