Landscape fabric under the driveway gravel or not?

Fallon · Jul 5, 2019

We just tore out & replaced the concrete sidewalk/porch/driveway apron. The old concrete was tilted draining towards the house. I've been waiting for a few years to re-grade the driveway properly & match the new concrete.

New concrete is in & I've started scraping off the gravel from the driveway & then scraping off several inches of clay underneath to grade things out. The gravel is rather dirty, but I think it's mostly organic matter or silt from ontop as I don't think it's clay from underneath. At any rate I've got about 1/3 stripped & partially graded. The clay is the yellow stuff closer to the concrete & I have a little ways to go to finish grading it out properly so it all flows away from the house. Not to mention stripping & grading the remaining 2/3 of the driveway along with hauling the clay off to a far corner of the property.

I'd rather not put the dirty gravel back down where it can push up through, but it's not that bad & there is probably several grand worth of gravel there. I sorted the the dirtier material out to the right. All things considered I'll probably put the worst on the bottom. I'll be getting several semi's of recycled concrete in to go ontop. A neighbor has a source & likes me paying him to haul a load home rather than deadheading. Still $450 or so a load. Material has worked great in front of my shop.

I've got a pile of new 8' wide landscaping fabric that was given to me. It's not geotextile, but I'm debating if there is value in putting it over the clay & under the gravel to help prevent the rock from sinking into the clay. What would you guys do? I'm not sure if the previous rock settled into the clay that much or what, but it would get really muddy during the rain. At one point the UPS truck nearly got stuck & left 4-5" ruts in the middle of the driveway. A good part of it was improper grading, but I'm not sure how effective burying the muddy rock under fresh recycled concrete will end up being.

strantor · Jul 5, 2019

If you have it, use it. It can't hurt. I used geotextile under my crushed concrete driveway and it made a huge difference. But it is quite different than weed barrier fabric. I imagine the weed barrier would do the same thing, you'll just have to be real careful. Don't drive over it bare. Lay it out, dump gravel, then drive over it. I didn't have to worry about that with the geotextile.

RNeumann · Jul 5, 2019

You want the fabric between the clay and imported material. Best way to protect your investment in time and material.

tommaple · Jul 31, 2019

We used this under crushed limestone drive while the house was under construction. After it had been driven on by all the heavy trucks we poured concrete.
Never had a muddy spot while it was just stone.

US 2 - Woven Geotextile - US Fabrics

Fallon · Jul 31, 2019

I ended up getting a roll of woven 200 weight geotextile. 17.5' wide & I think the roll was 330' long. $600 something online or $260 from a local dealer. A truck with a pipe rack made transporting it easy.

A flat at the start delayed covering it & wind pulled it apart. Had to lay it out & stake it again, which was annoying. Wear gloves as that woven stuff is rough. Seems to be performing well & I'm glad I got it instead of using the thin felted landscaping fabric.

Need to get a pic of the finished job. $2,000 of recycled concrete now graded out within 1" of a .7% slope away from the house & retaining wall. Will likely need a bucket or 2 of material in the low spots, especially as it settles a little.