Driveway help

[wmonroe]

My wife and I are about to close on a piece of property that we want to build a house on next summer, and my plan was to put the driveway in this summer. After a lot of searching I still can't find any general rules as to depth or size of stone. The driveway will be approximately 1200' long and will be gravel. My plan was to use fabric then about 6" of #4 stone and then top it with 2B modified. I want the drive to be solid but don't want to waste money adding unnecessary stone. Does this sound like a reasonable plan or not.
Thank you for any help.

 

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum
So much depends on what your soil/land/slope/etc. is that it is hard to answer.

If you are in the mountains or hills, it is one thing. Across a swamp another.

I'd go to a local contractor who has the experience and have them rough grade for good slope, ditches, drainage that will be a base for your fabric and gravel.

Browsing some past threads on TBN will show some good and some bad results of trying to build a gravel drive.

Any pics of what the area looks like now and what limitations you have if doing it yourself?

Hopefully a good answer for you will pop up. ")

 

[wmonroe]

I will be scraping the topsoil off which will leave a hard clay, and yes there is a slope involved. Here are a couple pictures that I've highlighted where the drive will be, there not the best but till I get home in a couple weeks its all I have.

Thanks

 

[beenthere]

The clay will require very good drainage from ditching, to get the water from above the drive away from the clay beneath the drive.

If eventual plan to put a concrete or asphalt-type topping, then all the more reason to put in a solid rock base of several inches (local people would know best) down, then a good crowned top of finer gravel to shed water to the sides. From the looks, frost will freeze the water in the clay and give you spring heaving when the frost thaws out.
Culverts where you can (see a field that you may not want to run water across). Appears to be plenty of slope.

Beautiful view for your house. Reminds me of my countryside. Looks like it could easily be south western WI.

 

[MarkV]

Like said, it really depends on your soil. In my area, with red Georgia clay, your plan of 6" of #4 topped with 2B, if that is what we call crusher run, would work fine. We don't use fabric here. On steeper grades we use just the 2B.

MarkV

 

[quicksilver52214]

Hi, I am fairly new to here but have just done a driveway myself and the soil sounds very similar. We did just what you said scraped away top 4-6" put down fabric and put about 4-6" of large #2 I think it was If I had to do it again I think I would put down 1-2" of packing lime then put rock on top of it we did get very7 bad heaving this spring but I think with a new driveway with a freeze and thaw you are going to get that anyway. It will work but you will still have to add some rock to it next spring would be my opinion.

 

[Egon]

Look at your road location and make an attempt to get it off the sidehill as much as possible.

 

[wmonroe]

Look at your road location and make an attempt to get it off the sidehill as much as possible.

I'm going to bring the drive perpendicular to the road. I didn't spend much time drawing those lines on the pictures, but I plan on spending a lot of time driving all over making sure where the driveway finally goes is the most comfortable spot.

 

[mojoinco]

I see in the first picture that there is a lot (relatively) of snow in the lower area. I have problems with drifts in my driveway where it is lower. You might want to consider which direction the prevailing winds are when it snows, and over winter when it doesn't. Raised a bit extra will likely leave it clearer.

 

[sal64]

hello i have a 1000 ft gravel driveway, all i did was dump the gravel down i graded it about 6 to 8 inches deep no fadric never got any weeds i mow the sides so grass dont grow in. here we have quarry prosses its 3/4 stone mixed with stone dust it packes like concrete after a while.