strantor
Platinum Member
I've been planning a gravel driveway up to my shop, extending around the side (with a lean-to addition covering it), and turning into a fenced-in gravel yard behind the shop for my unsightly collection of half-finished projects (junk, for everyone who isn't me... it's a junkyard). In order to do it I need the planets to alight just right; have enough money, enough help, and enough dry weather. Right now I have the first two. My brother and my cousin are both here for an extended stay so I have all the labor I'll ever have, and I just received several checks so the money is there. The weather is not there. This has been the wettest 12 months I have ever seen. My property has had standing water since summer, and even if I wait until the middle of this coming summer (when I'll probably no longer have help and money) it STILL might be "too wet" for this kind of work. I'm trying to take advantage of this opportunity now, despite the mud. What are my options?
I talked to a guy on the phone yesterday at the local place who sells road base and what not, and he said putting down road base right now would be a waste of money. It would just be claimed by the mud underneath. But he suggested covering the mud with Portland Cement before gravel, and asserted that it would give a firmer foundation for the gravel to rest on. But I don't know how much it would take. Do I need a truckload of it or just a few bags from home depot? Just sprinkle it on or do I need an inch thick of it? Will it even work at all? Would it be as good or better to broadcast dry concrete mix over it (that's cheaper)?
I've read in multiple places that the way this is supposed to work is that you scrape away the muddy layer and put large (4-6") gravel down, then medium gravel, then the fine stuff. Well I've discovered with my PTO auger that there's about 40" of saturated black dirt mud before you hit hard clay, and the water table table is about 2" below the surface. You can see in the attached pictures, the 40" auger holes (shallow wells) fill in with water in about 10 minutes. So if I grade this whole area down to the dry hard stuff, I'll be digging a 6000sf self-filling swimming pool 4ft deep and then filling it with $20k worth of gravel. That's not going to happen. So I ask again, what are my options?
I talked to a guy on the phone yesterday at the local place who sells road base and what not, and he said putting down road base right now would be a waste of money. It would just be claimed by the mud underneath. But he suggested covering the mud with Portland Cement before gravel, and asserted that it would give a firmer foundation for the gravel to rest on. But I don't know how much it would take. Do I need a truckload of it or just a few bags from home depot? Just sprinkle it on or do I need an inch thick of it? Will it even work at all? Would it be as good or better to broadcast dry concrete mix over it (that's cheaper)?
I've read in multiple places that the way this is supposed to work is that you scrape away the muddy layer and put large (4-6") gravel down, then medium gravel, then the fine stuff. Well I've discovered with my PTO auger that there's about 40" of saturated black dirt mud before you hit hard clay, and the water table table is about 2" below the surface. You can see in the attached pictures, the 40" auger holes (shallow wells) fill in with water in about 10 minutes. So if I grade this whole area down to the dry hard stuff, I'll be digging a 6000sf self-filling swimming pool 4ft deep and then filling it with $20k worth of gravel. That's not going to happen. So I ask again, what are my options?
