RDrancher's Photo Thread

[RDrancher]

Finished up the storage place today.


And closed out the week by spreading a very thin layer of road base over an impound yard.

 

[dex3361]

Good looking work. I put my driveway in about 20 years ago and I rolled it in with a vibratory roller that made a huge difference in how well it has held up.

 

[RDrancher]

Thanks Randall! And yes, using a roller makes a world of difference when it comes to the gravel driveway longevity.

Here's another storage parking area I did yesterday. The tenant runs a fleet of mobile sign trucks. I had to move piles of banners as I worked and some framework too. Glad the frames were made out of aluminum.

 

[dex3361]

Again your gravel work is professional and very neat. You going to roll this in or is that an option that you leave up to the customer?

 

[RDrancher]

No compaction for these particular storage lots, although I always offer it to the customer as an option.

 

[swick1]

What is your opinion of using a sheepsfoot on a gravel driveway? I assume smooth vibrating plates would be best for gravel but I wonder if it would pack enough to get the sheepsfoot to run out of the material?

This is just hypothetical. I want to build a roller and am trying to figure out what I want to build. 80% of my work is in dirt.

 

[RDrancher]

A sheepsfoot is designed to lock layers (or lifts) of dirt and other materials together. It wouldn't work to well on gravel unless there were several lifts involved, but it would work great for the subgrade soil. Even if it were used for gravel lifts the surface would have to be bladed to achieve the final profile.

 

[swick1]

Thanks. I just dressed up a 300yd driveway and I rolled it with my srw ram with a cummins. It did fairly well but I think a real roller would work better

 

[RDrancher]

The vibratory feature of the compactor is really what helps to lock in granular gravel materials, but a Cummins is better than no compaction at all!

Edited to add: Make sure that you turn the vibrator off before you roll from the gravel to any concrete since it will easily break off the edge.

 

[dex3361]

The vibratory feature of the compactor is really what helps to lock in granular gravel materials, but a Cummins is better than no compaction at all!

Edited to add: Make sure that you turn the vibrator off before you roll from the gravel to any concrete since it will easily break off the edge.

Thanks, you learn something new every day. I had never thought of this.

 

[RDrancher]

Removed a bunch of grass then graded and spread 40 yds of road base in a landscape storage yard today. Limbs and trash everywhere when I got there this morning. Glad that I brought the Ratchet Rake! Had to jockey around and move a couple trailers that didn't fit under the shed, then grade, spread and move them back. Then jockey around the roll off bin then grade and spread after it got picked up. The dump is right down the road so I only had twenty minutes to get it done before the bin got back.


A cold front blew in just before I finished. It dropped from 80 to 60 degrees in a few minutes along with a little rain. Summer and Fall all in the same day. That's Texas!

 

[jinman]

RD, did you have to pay for the roll-off to be picked up? Do you know what the City of Denton charges for delivery/dumping a 30-yd roll-off? I think it was in '98 that I had several roll-off loads hauled off and it was something like $50 for pickup/delivery and around $150 to dump. I'd bet the prices have gone up a bunch since then. Also, back then, Bartel was the rock hauler I used. I think it was 'Bartel Brothers' out of Ponder in those days. I think now there is a Bartel trucking in both Aubrey and Ponder.

 

[RDrancher]

Jim, the roll-off is a rental for the landscape contractor. I didn't ask, but I think it runs about $350 plus dump fees from Denton.

As far as Bartel goes, I can get a little cheaper pricing from smaller hauling companies but they treat me really good. I've never met anyone else that will deliver $25K + worth of aggregates (with payment two weeks out) on just a handshake and pull trucks off of other jobs to get me loads about anytime I need them. For instance, the first three loads I received at the storage place were delivered on a truck and pup, a semi and a belly dump. I waited no more than a half hour between loads. Same thing on the Krum parking lot, but more trucks and twenty minutes apart. The dispatcher asks me what kind of truck I need and I usually just tell him "Send it and I'll deal with it." Within reason of course. Since the bulk of their deliveries are for local concrete plants and their own plant, the drivers love to deliver my loads since they pay more per load. Funny that the dispatcher's nephew has become my main delivery driver. :laughing: The main company is in Aubrey, but there's one brother that still runs out of Ponder and one in Sanger. They also have a heavy equipment repair shop somewhere close to Weatherford IIRC.

John

 

[RDrancher]

Here's a few pics from a landscape grading and base installation job, performed off and on over a few weeks, from early this year. A lot of trash removal,select fill lifts, compaction and contouring. Now that I've had a bit more time working my landplane, I sure wish I'd had it for this job!

 

[lockhaven]

what is that place RD?

 

[RDrancher]

Just a little cottage for a family of four.

 

[swick1]

Rd, I'm installing a parking spot in sand next week and I need some advice. I was thinking about geogrid over compacted sand then 4 inches of compacted crusher run over that. Do I need anything else?

 

[RDrancher]

I've never used geogrid, but from what I've seen it looks like a great product. Is your sand a sugar sand, heavy granular, or clay based?

 

[swick1]

Its from a river bottom and has sat for a few thousand years with only grass and trees on it. It had been orchard for hundreds of years before it became a lawn. Its on the Ohio river

 

[RDrancher]

Well, the sand we have around here is clay based and actually compacts when its saturated. It makes a good base without any stabilization, although geotextile can still be beneficial to separate the two materials. When I lived in SoCal, beach or desert sand was more granular and easy to get a vehicle stuck in. THAT kind of sand I could really see using the grid for stabilization. If that's the case I'd do it just like you described unless you're going to run a roller over it for compaction. The only change I would make is to use a 5" thickness of crusher.