Driveway Materials?

[dlroy101]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Howz 'bout you ask them to tell you where you can see their work, and see what it looks like after some seasons?
)</font>

Duh! Why didn't I think of that? Thanks, Darrell

 

[flusher]

Here in the North Valley, we use the same road base for driveways that the county uses on its roads. It's crushed rock from the local creeks sieved through a 3/4" screen. So it's "dirty" crushed gravel.

My driveway is 20 ft wide, 260 ft long and 6 inches thick.

The contractor used a JD 210LE and a box blade with hydraulic scarifiers to scrape about 4" of turf/soil before the road base was laid (see attachment)

The driveway was laid in 2" thicknesses with watering from a tanker truck and rolling with a vibrating "steam roller" for each layer.

Total cost, including asphalt paving on the last 30 feet of driveway to satisfy the county encroachment requirements, was about $8K.

 

[5030tinkerer]

I have the FEL and will be getting the box blade. Have others also had a water truck come out between layers to get everything set up or would it be just as good to just do a few inches, use it for a bit, re-grade, add some more base, wait, etc.?

 

[inveresk]

Tinkerer, I didn't use any water on mine. It compacted pretty good dry but as I'm building soon I've left the topcoat off because the road will get pretty beat up - and well consolidated - by construction trucks. I'll do a regrade and lay the topcoat once we've done building.

I think laying down in layers and trafficking in between to compact should work fine.

 

[KubotaSteve]

They didn't use water on mine either. I think what really helped tighten mine up was that they put the shale down first and then ran over it with a track loader and then all the construction trucks in and out really packed it down nicely. Then towards the end of construction, they put the crusher run on top.

 

[rswyan]

I didn't use water on mine - it didn't need it since it was already plenty wet coming from the plant.

 

[5030tinkerer]

Thanks for the info, guys!

 

[scesnick]

I live very close to the area you are talking about getting your shale. I have a shale ( not by choice) 2.5 mile driveway and it is full of potholes. If I had to do it, I would put down dirty crush and run. It is fairly cheap and packs well. then if it ever starts to break down on you you can always hit it with a box blade and " freshen" it up.
this is a topic that has been debated in my rural area forever. I just don't think there is one correct answer.