the perfect gravel driveway

[farmerpsv]

Hey all,
Am getting a new grading box. Have never used one before. i currently have a gravel driveway with lots of grass growing up through it. i would like to widen it and neaten it up. how do i go about doing this? do i scrape off all the existing gravel, put down weed block and put the gravel back? or is that way to complicated? also, i have this concern that if i just add gravel then grade that the gravel will be to loose. do you need a roller with some weight to solidify things? how do y'all do this?
thanks
paul

 

[rdam]

While they're at it, how do you "make" a gravel driveway from scratch?

 

[CTyler]

I can tell what we did to build our 650'+ drive.

I drove down the hill through the corn stalks to get an idea of where I wanted the drive. Did this several times.

Scraped off all the corn stalks where my tracks were with my tractor. Used my L3130 to cut through the terrace build a ramp and wrap the terrace back into the hill. Then setup flags where we wanted the final drive layout. The drove it again going forward and backward to see what it would be like up/down the hill. Might have to back down thing every now and then in the snow/ice.

Rented a CAT 613 paddle wheel scraper and removed the top soil. Then pulled dirt from the high side of the hill and built up the drive.

Used my tractor to smooth things out after the scraper was dropping loads and build shoulders. We also used the 613 to pack some of the dirt until we got the CAT 815 sheep foot to really pack the crap out of it.

We then had five loads of 3" rock spread down the drive. Took the rear blade and smoothed it out a little. We drove on that for a few weeks and then had four more loads of 3" dropped on it to add more depth and make it wider. Then let all the lumber trucks, cement trucks and other Semi truck deliveries pound on it while building the house.

Had to keep grading it every couple weeks to keep it half way smooth.

 

[CTyler]

That picture in the last post was from 3/22/03 just before we had rock put on it.

Now that the house is almost done and most of the trucks are done I'll have the 1 1/2 crusher run spread on the drive in the next 3-4 weeks. I've thrown a little here and there in spots and spread extra sand and road gravel from other projects on the drive as well.

This is a pic with only five 15 ton loads on the drive.

 

[CTyler]

I don't really have any good pics of the drive. This is after 10 loads total have been spread on the drive.

The rest of the piles are part of the 3/4 crusher run that went inside the shop prior to the concrete.

 

[CTyler]

This is what it looked like to start with.

 

[Casimir]

Making a driveway from scratch kind of depends on the soil type you are starting with. If it tends to get really muddy when wet, the best is probably to take off about 6-8 inches and start with a layer of larger rock (2-3 inch). Roll it in, or drive over it awhile with heavy trucks, then add a layer of smaller material (No 5's or 57's). Make sure it is crushed rock, and not round river rock. At my last place the previous owner put river gravel on the front circular driveway, and it never would pack. It was like walking or driving on marbles /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif.

You could add a final layer of crusher run. The fines in the crusher run cause it to pack pretty solidly, but some folks feel they get too much dust from the crusher run.

In farmerpsv's case, if the driveway is solid now, and you don't have problems with potholes that keep recurring, you may not want to disturb the base. Roundup will kill the grass, then use the ripper teeth on the box blade to just rip up the top couple of inches, so the box blade can smooth it out. Make sure the box blade is tipped back, so the rear blade hits the ground first, when you are doing the final smooth grading. If it is tipped forward, so the front blade hits first, it will try to dig -- OK for taking off the high spots, but not for final levelling. Hope this helps /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.

 

[CTyler]

Other peeps on this board have talked about laying down material to help keep the rock from sinking into the dirt. I didn't do it myself though.

I'll try to remember to get a current pic of the drive and post it.

 

[Dave___in___CT]

Hi...


You don't mention any wet/muddy problems so the drainage is likely OK... if not... a well drained base is the 1st step...

You can level the existing surface... and build on top of that... or excavate some...

If you want to prevent the soil fines from comming to the surface of the gravel... i.e. "sinking gravel"... use a commercial "roadway" barrier (~weed) fabric... it's made in different degrees of durability... It comes in like 10-12' wide rolls... 100+ feet long... works well !

For the "gravel" surface layer... DO NOT use stone that's all about the same size... "marble" affect as already mentioned...
Used a mixed-size stone aggregate... this material around here is made from different size... jagged edge (not rounded)... crushed stone that varies from stone dust to 3/4" stone... it packs well from just driving over it...

In some areas... there's other driveway surface material available... like re-claimed asphalt grindings... ask some driveway contractors...

Good luck... !


Dave...

 

[RobS]

That's a pretty impressive drive CTyler! we did just about the same thing using crushed concrete. Large chunks (fist size) for a base then a topping of 3/4 inch and fines. The problem I've been having is when I try to grade it I'm picking up the larger chunks from below. I suppose I don't have a thick enough top coat on, eh? How thick is your topping?

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[CTyler]

Thanks.

We haven't put the smaller stone on the drive yet. What you see is the 3" crusher run. I'm not sure exactly how deep the rock base is. Nobody ruts it including Semi's. I'd take a guess its about 10-12".

When we put the 1 1/2" down it will be about 5" maybe 6" thick.

 

[PaulT]

If you have a pretty good, hard driveway to start with, and you are just looking to widen and de-weed it, I would start by "scratching" up the gravel with the ripper teeth on the boxblade set to about 3" below grade, and angle the box so that it is very slightly angled back. That is, the front cutting blade should be only slightly higher than the back cutting blade.

This should scrape up a fair bit of the existing gravel, and the box will carry it along and spread it out pretty smoothly once the box fills up. After a few passes this way, you will get a feel for how much of the driveway is gravel and how much is dirt. If you get very little gravel, you should buy a few loads, depending on your length, width and how deep you want it spread.

The resurfacing work could be very major, including lots of additional gravel, or it could be very minor, requiring only to scrape it loose and re-spread it. It really depends on what is on top already and what the top layer is supported by - earth or crushed rock.

Anyway, the best way to learn this stuff is to get out there and do it. Just give it a try, and don't try to go too deep in any one pass. That way, if you make any mistakes, they are easy to correct. Once you have spent some seat time with the box blade, you may find that a landscape rake works well in conjunction with the box blade to "finish off" the surface.

Good luck and have fun /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[farmerpsv]

thanks for the info everyone. i'll give it a shot.
paul

 

[dmccarty]

Paul,

I like to use ABC gravel. It has a mixture of fines and rock that
locks togather like concrete.

For the grass on the gravel I would just leave it alone. Its going
to grow back anyway. My 900 feet of road is covered in grass
since it gets very little traffic. My driveway started growning
grass this year as well....

I have learned that if you want to grow grass put down gravel.
All this nonsense about fertilizing the grass, plugging the soil,
dethatching, etc, is for the the birds. Put down gravel and
grass will grow.

You can put down geotextile fabric. This is to keep the gravel
from being pushed into the dirt. If your gravel is staying on
top of the soil you might want to forget about the fabric. If
you want to use the frabric it will make your life much easier if
it is put down on a flat surface. In this case you want to mow
or remove as much of the grass as possible if you put the
fabric on top of the existing gravel. Of course if you do this
you have to buy more grave to put on top of the fabric which
costs more dollars... You could scrape off much of the gravel
and grass to get a level surface, put down the fabric, and
then push the gravel back on the fabric.

The fabric I bought was 12.5 feet wide and on a 360 foot lond
rool. It was about $300 for the roll. The fabric is used to
stabilize the roadbed so that you don't have to bring in lots
of rock to build up the driveway/road.

I put the fabric down on my driveway. So far its holding up
reall well. I don't put alot of traffic on it yet but it held up the
50,000#+ dump trucks without a problem. No rutting. Time and
the house construction will be a better test....

Later,
Dan McCarty

 

[have_blue]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My 900 feet of road is covered in grass since it gets very little traffic. My driveway started growning grass this year as well...)</font>

Dan,

I have a 500' road, and used rough sand instead of gravel. I sewed bermuda turf on it, and it's beautiful and rides very smooth. Traffic and hot weather kills other grasses and weeds, and the bermudagrass thrives. Rain is no problem. Neither are cement trucks or dumps. No need to fertilize, but I do just to make it greener. Everyone loves my road, and lots of people stop to ask me about it.

 

[CTyler]

Lets see some pics. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[have_blue]

Well, the timing is bad because the grass goes dormant from Nov-Mar. So it will look off-color. But I'll dust off the camera and shoot a couple of pics. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[CTyler]

Sometimes stuff dieing off or going dormant this is a good thing. I can finally see where I left all those log piles sitting in the trees /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[dmccarty]

have_blue,

My road is pretty as well. Once we move out there I'm sure we
will have two gravel tracks that will be grass free but I like the
looks of it. The driveway looks icky because the grass is only
clumped up and not covering the gravel. Once the house
building is finished I'm going to put down a few more loads of
ABC and finish the drive. If the grass takes over its ok with me!

Course it is one more thing to mow!

Later,
Dan

 

[have_blue]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My road is pretty as well...ourse it is one more thing to mow! )</font>

Dan,

Yea, mowing is not my favorite thing. It makes me think too much /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

I live over 5 miles from my land, and don't drive on my grass road every day. If I did, I guess it wouldn't be nearly as pretty.

I'm working on a bike trail around the premiter of my property. It already looks nice, but I have to add sand and get some better grass growing and it will look great.

I bet all that stuff looks unusual from the air. Time for another arial picture.