2A Limestone for driveway

[EddieWalker]

Make sure that your road is elevated with good drainage before spending money on rock.

Limestone is a soft rock that wears fairly quickly. I'm not familiar with the "2A" label. Here it's called "Road Base" or "Cliche" It's crushed rock with jagged edges in all sizes from two inches down to fines. The different sizes lock together to form a solid surface that will shed water when it's 4 inches thick or thicker. Big mistake people make is not installing it thick enough to lock together.

Slag is one of the worse materials that I've ever seen used for roads and parking areas. It does not lock together; it sticks to your shoes and then ends up all over your floors. And worse thing about is that it's so soft it just wears away quickly.

Used Asphalt might be OK over a solid rock base if it's thick enough and rolled to compaction. It has no strength, it does not lock together and it fails very quickly. To use it when make a road, hot oil blended specifically for roads needs to be mixed with it, and then rolled.

Crushed Concrete is what I've been buying and my favorite material by far. It's super hard, it compacts into a solid surface quickly and easily. You can get by with less then 4 inches depending on your soil. And once it's in place, it never seems to break down or wear away. The big negative to it depends on the plant it comes from and how clean it gets there. A lot of the time you'll find plastic and small pieces of rebar in it. After spreading it, you need to walk the area and pick up the trash that came with the load.

 

[deezler]

Make sure that your road is elevated with good drainage before spending money on rock.

Limestone is a soft rock that wears fairly quickly. I'm not familiar with the "2A" label. Here it's called "Road Base" or "Cliche" It's crushed rock with jagged edges in all sizes from two inches down to fines. The different sizes lock together to form a solid surface that will shed water when it's 4 inches thick or thicker. Big mistake people make is not installing it thick enough to lock together.

Crushed Concrete is what I've been buying and my favorite material by far. It's super hard, it compacts into a solid surface quickly and easily. You can get by with less then 4 inches depending on your soil. And once it's in place, it never seems to break down or wear away. The big negative to it depends on the plant it comes from and how clean it gets there. A lot of the time you'll find plastic and small pieces of rebar in it. After spreading it, you need to walk the area and pick up the trash that came with the load.

Great point about elevation and drainage - much more important than actual surface material. All material choices can result in a failed driveway if your road is a trench holding water.

I built most of my driveway base using crushed concrete chunks up to 3" max size and it has held up tremendously well (over a sandy base soil, also helpful).

2A limestone is 1-2" max down to fines. Also called "57" in many places.

My landscape stores around here just call the limestone/gravel by the size of the rock, IE I tend to order " 3/4 minus " meaning 0.75 inches and smaller.

2B is clean, washed limestone (my preference, fines definitely lock things together but I absolutely hate the mess).

 

[General Lee]

Well, I regraded the road, the section that sees the most traffic from others. Took the excavator out there and dug out the potholes. Set the rear blade on the tractor to a crown position and let'er eat. Was able to reclaim a good bit of material and finished it off with the box blade. Turned out decent, and hopefully it'll hold for a while. If the neighbors wanted to pitch in for more material, great, I'll use my equipment and time. If not, they get what they get. On my section, I got some millings coming and I'll freshen my section with that. At least with millings, I know what I'm getting.

 

[camshawn]

Now you have fixed the problem, it will last a lot longer if you can use a compactor on the repair. I have a mid sized plate compactor and it has cut down on the frequency of potholes.
I used limestone in the past (3/4 minus) on our hill section 15 yrs ago and it did not stand up. The tires slowly crushed the stone down and the rain washed the fines to the bottom of the hill where I ended up with a 3/4 inch deep mud hole in the wet and a dust bowl in the dry.
I went to asphalt milling 2 yrs ago and compacted it all 3 times with the plate compactor and lots of water. It is standing up better than anything else I have used. The driving track is like pavement now and the less travelled is looser. This seems to help with the drainage. I would get erosion in a heavy rain storm on the hill and potholes would develop anywhere there was a small puddle. I don’t have that problem anymore. The only down side is there is less tractor time needed.

 

[civilian]

Compaction is needed any time you rework or lay gravel down. And having water available is nice, but us with 1/4 mile drives and longer, dry compaction is what we get. Jon

 

[ponytug]

Now you have fixed the problem, it will last a lot longer if you can use a compactor on the repair. I have a mid sized plate compactor and it has cut down on the frequency of potholes.
I used limestone in the past (3/4 minus) on our hill section 15 yrs ago and it did not stand up. The tires slowly crushed the stone down and the rain washed the fines to the bottom of the hill where I ended up with a 3/4 inch deep mud hole in the wet and a dust bowl in the dry.
I went to asphalt milling 2 yrs ago and compacted it all 3 times with the plate compactor and lots of water. It is standing up better than anything else I have used. The driving track is like pavement now and the less travelled is looser. This seems to help with the drainage. I would get erosion in a heavy rain storm on the hill and potholes would develop anywhere there was a small puddle. I don’t have that problem anymore. The only down side is there is less tractor time needed.

Which model/size compactor do you have and what does it weigh? (I'm on the verge of buy some sort of compactor.)

Any thoughts on plate versus vibratory rollers for efficacy?

All the best,

Peter

 

[deezler]

Compaction is great, sure. Most of us don't have a roller on hand or want to pay someone to bring one out. I have a walk-behind plate compactor myself, but it would take all day long to compact 1000' of 10' wide driveway, no thanks. So best bet seems to be wait for a light rain, damp but not fully soggy conditions, then just drive up and down over all of it with your vehicle. A truck with 50 psi in the tires works well.

 

[ponytug]

Compaction is great, sure. Most of us don't have a roller on hand or want to pay someone to bring one out. I have a walk-behind plate compactor myself, but it would take all day long to compact 1000' of 10' wide driveway, no thanks. So best bet seems to be wait for a light rain, damp but not fully soggy conditions, then just drive up and down over all of it with your vehicle. A truck with 50 psi in the tires works well.

Personally I'd hire someone for a day's work to do the walking and compacting, as I suspect it would be money well spent for me. They could walk, and I could water.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Midniteoyl]

That grass on the center strip or the edges might not be a "pretty" gravel drive, but it isnt hurting anything.

I like the grass going down the center. Looks more 'country', which I am

Of course, I don't actually gravel the center anyways, just the tracks, and mow the center.

 

[deezler]

I like the grass going down the center. Looks more 'country', which I am

Of course, I don't actually gravel the center anyways, just the tracks, and mow the center.

My wife likes the rural "2-track" look also, but I can't bring myself to leave the driveway alone long enough to allow it to develop. The best we get is some summer weeds in the middle here and there.

I wouldn't mind grass in the middle aesthetically, but maintaining a full crown for drainage and getting good snowplow clearing is my primary goal. Doesn't snowplowing scrape the grass off?

 

[Midniteoyl]

I wouldn't mind grass in the middle aesthetically, but maintaining a full crown for drainage and getting good snowplow clearing is my primary goal. Doesn't snowplowing scrape the grass off?

Nope.. the racks are a little lower, sunk in, and I dont scrape all the way down.

 

[Midniteoyl]

 

[camshawn]

We have a Mikasa 20 inch plate tamper, don’t remember the model number. It was fairly big in the smaller sized units, enough hit to compact without being too heavy.
I used all my hose to add water (300 + feet) then used a water tote and small pump to water the area further away. I also re tamped after we had a good rain a few weeks later.

I did ours in small bits, just under 1000 feet over a few days.

Just tamping pothole repairs made them last a lot longer