Driveway Problem

[mjncad]

Dahammer,

Have you looked into chip seal (also called tar and chip seal)? I really don't know a lot about it, especially how well it holds under the weight of your truck, but I have seen it used on several drives. It's basically a base layer of asphalt with finely graded aggregate. It is significantly less expensive than asphalt. Might want to check around your area, could be an option.

The cheap county with high property taxes uses chip seal on their roads, and it sucks. I live at the end of a cul-de-sac and the sack isn't large enough for the trash trucks to make a complete turn without backing up and other gyrations. Hence the tires have removed the chips from the road. Plus until the oil in the asphalt dries out, you'll be tracking the stuff into your garage and possibly your house if you walk on it.

Maybe it would work on light duty residential drives; but I still wouldn't use the stuff. It's evil.

 

[MarkV]

I think you are headed in the right direction to fix the road. You said the road started with about 6" of stone and you had a drainage problem in the area that is rutting. As said the drainage is the key and you have addressed that. If you need a culvert in that area put it in before spending more on stone. Six inches just isn't enough stone for the size equipment you are running when wet. I would put a load of larger, 2-3", stone on the problem area and drive it in for a few months.

When we built our road the first 4 or 5 years I was adding gravel every year. Once the base was built up enough we haven't added any for 6 years.

MarkV

 

[Ken45101]

I agree that the 2-3# stone works well as a base in wet ground.

Ken