Circle Driveway or No?

[Larry Caldwell]

Is there no way to have the driveway go around the house? My parents had a driveway like that, and it was very handy. On the right side of the house the driveway continued to outbuildings, but another section curved around the back of the house with landscaping on both sides of the drive.

 

[deezler]

I would definitely put in a circle out front. As small a diameter as is reasonable for trucks+ trailers to navigate easily. We definitely knew we wanted this on our new home build, 5 years ago. All the intelligent delivery drivers swing around it at speed and park closest to the house facing out for a quick getaway. The less intelligent delivery drivers don't even see that the circle exists, somehow (I guess it could use a fresh layer of gravel to hide the grass).

I don't get the driveway going around the whole house idea. First of all, that makes for a huuuge circle, and thus a pretty expensive install/maintenance. And then you lose all privacy and aesthetics in the backyard. I want my side and back yards to be private and natural, not an ugly driveway that strangers could come bombing around any moment.

 

[RalphVa]

Is there no way to have the driveway go around the house? My parents had a driveway like that, and it was very handy. On the right side of the house the driveway continued to outbuildings, but another section curved around the back of the house with landscaping on both sides of the drive.

That's one reason for grass, e.g. to drive on it. Why pave over it?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

just had to back up a trailer up my in-laws drive, that is barely wide enough for both tires to fit on, yes do it.

 

[dodge man]

A picture of mine. If the planets are aligned I can get my truck around it I normally have to back up though. Cars can go around easily. A truck and trailer not even close. It would have to be quite a bit bigger to make it with a trailer, I’m not sure I’d want it that big even if I had room. I just use the grass if needed.

 

[i7win7]

Heard that's how you keep a blond at home

 

[MossRoad]

I drew up a quick pencil drawing of what my father did at his house/office from long ago memories. It's not to scale. But there was a nice circle in the middle with 2-3 large trees, ivy, and maybe 12" and less round rocks for the circle edging, sunk into the ground so that cars couldn't scrape them by accident. Circle was maybe 20' in diameter.

Come down the drive and go to the right, you have your choice of 4 staggered parking spaces. Easy to park and easy to back out and continue around the circle.

Go in to the left and you could pull into the car port or park on the pad outside the carport. Also easy to back out in either direction and go around the circle.

There were a few grass parking spots for overflow on the far side of the driveway.

The parking spaces were edges with railroad ties sunk into the ground. Looked nice as it was dark wide edging, yet you could mow over them. They had to be changed out after about 25 years as they rotted. But still looks nice for decades before needing any work.

As I recall, that allowed parking for 10 cars with only two trapped in the carport.

Could a semi turn around in there? NO.

But we did have 20 yard dumpsters delivered to the parking spaces with no problems on several occasions. Cement trucks could get in there as well. A pickup with a car hauler could make it, too, provided there were no cars in the parking spaces. Goodwill box trucks. U-Haul trucks. Normal residential delivery and pickup type stuff. So could a city dual axle dump truck with large plow on front (a sister of mine was dating a street department worker = free snow plowing in winter when he'd stop by for lunch ).

So there's some food for thought. Good luck with your project.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I don’t have a gravel circle, but I have a split rail fence in front next to the road. One post is sleeved, so I can easily pull down 2 sections of fence to drive thru. One truck delivering trusses for my barn used it.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Yes, and leave plenty of room. One thing I didn’t do.

same here only i didn't have much room to start with. the truck that brought in the 48 ft trusses in the mud wishes i had a circular drive! and every other visitor!

 

[deezler]

I forgot I had this sorta recent drone pic of my driveway. The "circle" goes around the island in front of the garage there. Two of my buddies are parked in it on the house side. It's plenty big for delivery vans and trucks with modest trailers, but no you probably aren't gonna swing your 40' gooseneck around it. There's plenty of options for backing up longer trailers into the grassy areas when necessary.

IMO, you don't need to size it for semi trailers, as long as they have a 3-pt turn option somewhere. Keeping the center-island and circle a bit smaller means less tree/forest removal and less expense to install, plus quicker snow plowing.