Top Dressing Driveway - Gravel or Crushed Concrete

[JohnnyMX]

I have a 1/2 mile driveway that I need to do something with. I was thinking about just adding some gravel, but the person at the quarry said they have recycled .5-1" crushed concrete for $9/ton vs $20/ton. I haven't worked with it ever and couldn't find much online.

I have a tractor, loader, boxblade and am considering a land plane for spreading and maintaining. Will a crushed gravel surface allow me to freshen it up with a land plane just like gravel would? Any downsides to that material from anyone who's used it?

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

.5 to 1 inch is pretty big to get a good finish....as a base, it would work good. If the max was .5", I would jump on it immediately.

Does the concrete have any fines in it? If your using it as a top dressing, it should really have a lot of fines and dust in it to lock in the chunks.

Part of our 1/2 mile drive, on a slight incline, has now lost most of the fines (25 years old) and a bunch of the 1" rocks are now loosening.... talk about a rough ride.... and it's now about impossible to grade it smooth.

I am planning on dropping about 200 tons of 3/4" minus.... about 50% of the mix is 1/4" down to powder. Easy to grade and smooth. Packs in like concrete.

 

[s219]

I used crushed concrete for a project last year and did not like it. The fines were more sticky (almost like mud) than the fines in a crusher run material. And there was still a fair bit of metal scraps in the material. We wasted a lot of time with a metal detector and magnet trying to get it all. I went back to regular crusher run for my next project.

 

[dodge man]

I’ve seen it before and it looked ok. I’ve never used it though.

 

[Praff990]

I used crushed concrete for a project last year and did not like it. The fines were more sticky (almost like mud) than the fines in a crusher run material. And there was still a fair bit of metal scraps in the material. We wasted a lot of time with a metal detector and magnet trying to get it all. I went back to regular crusher run for my next project.

I agree, watch out for metal. Asphalt grindings make a nice top.

 

[Hay Dude]

Another for crushed concrete. Its got wire in it and IMO, doesn’t look as nice as granite of limestone. I did asphalt grindings for a customer last summer and it looked great.

 

[rademamj1]

From my experience, you really want to see crushed material that has a good balance of both coarse material and fines. When they are spread on the driveway, and after the first rain, all the fines are washed into the porous spaces between the coarse and makes for a very good solid driveway.

I use crushed limestone, which is about 80% coarse 20% fines, and after the first rain all the fines settle in, and it sets up almost like concrete.

 

[bcp]

Maybe crushed concrete for a lower layer with a gravel topping?

Bruce

 

[mikester]

My favourite is crushed limestone, it packs like concrete. Unfortunately its relatively expensive. I used 1" of 1/4 crusher run on 4" of 3/4 crusher over a 12 inch base of cheap B gravel. Takes heavy trucks nicely and no potholes anywhere. Easy to maintain.

 

[EddieWalker]

This must be a regional thing. Here in East Texas, where rock is a rare thing and there are only a few quarries, and the choice between limestone or crushed concrete is like night and day.

Our limestone is fairly soft, so it wears out the more you drive on it. Over time, it breaks down, and eventually, just disappears into the soil, or washed away in the rain.

Crushed concrete is VERY HARD. You can use half as much to get the same compaction, and it never seems to wear away.

With limestone, 4 inches is the minimum, with more being better. Everywhere that I've added crushed concrete, it's solid no matter how much rain we get. It also doesn't break away and leave loose rocks on the surface like the limestone does. Both come mixed with different sizes from an inch and a half or so, on down to fines. Metal is very rare, but I have seen it in the crushed concrete. I just pick it up when I see it. Cost is about the same.

 

[Hay Dude]

Maybe crushed concrete for a lower layer with a gravel topping?

Bruce

Tried that once and the top layer of 3/4” granite mushed into the bottom layer and it looked like a mess. The larger white chunks of concrete showed through the top layer

 

[oosik]

All of my mile long driveway is "top dressed" with the help of Mother Nature. Fine gravel, sand, silt & volcanic ash( Mt St Helens). When it dries out in the summer - hard as concrete. So hard - you can spin your tires and leave black marks. I try to get all my driveway "corrections" done in the spring or fall when it's still damp.

A fellow down the road about 60 miles - top dressed his driveway with 1/2" to 1" round river rock. About 6" deep. I will NEVER AGAIN visit him while riding my motorcycle. That 400' experience was not a whole lot of fun.

 

[mwayne]

Maybe crushed concrete for a lower layer with a gravel topping?

Bruce

A second for this.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

All of my mile long driveway is "top dressed" with the help of Mother Nature. Fine gravel, sand, silt & volcanic ash( Mt St Helens). When it dries out in the summer - hard as concrete. So hard - you can spin your tires and leave black marks. I try to get all my driveway "corrections" done in the spring or fall when it's still damp.

A fellow down the road about 60 miles - top dressed his driveway with 1/2" to 1" round river rock. About 6" deep. I will NEVER AGAIN visit him while riding my motorcycle. That 400' experience was not a whole lot of fun.

My neighbor put a top coat of 1/2" minus river pebbles.... He is constantly grading most of it back onto the driveway. You can't barely touch the gas without spinning out, let alone try and turn....

Basically driving on a bunch of marbles!

 

[Loaderman22]

My neighbor put a top coat of 1/2" minus river pebbles.... He is constantly grading most of it back onto the driveway. You can't barely touch the gas without spinning out, let alone try and turn....

Basically driving on a bunch of marbles!

A second on not using anything round on a driveway. Stones slide on each other, instead of bite and grip. Add a snowplow into the mix and you might as well have a stone lawn because that's where they all will be.

 

[robisinwa]

Here's another vote for NOT using as a driveway topping, but it does ok as a compacted base in my experience. The stuff I've gotten, after compaction or just natural settling, didn't have enough fines in it... I've dumped sand on top and leveled that over to help smooth it out and make it stay in place, but then I'm buying another product to fix the first product.

 

[JohnnyMX]

I know enough to stay away from round. I'm not really looking to add as much base as I am trying to keep cars out of the existing fines (clean) that are already packed extremely hard. Anything I get will also push into the fines as my base layer contained more fines than I would have liked. They also sell the "chips" that are used on chip-sealed roads.

The person said if I was worried about trash/metal in the concrete I was invited out to the quarry to see the materials before buying. He said I can get anything from 1/2", 1" or larger with fines. He stated they run this through the same process as the crusher for sizing and it will contain various sizes and fines just like the rock. He also gave me an address near me that just put in a concrete drive with their material which I need to go look at. I am wondering if I just order a truckload and spread it, I may know more before I order the entire run.

This thread seems 50/50 on crushed concrete so far...

 

[Paul12210]

I have a 1/2 mile driveway that I need to do something with. I was thinking about just adding some gravel, but the person at the quarry said they have recycled .5-1" crushed concrete for $9/ton vs $20/ton. I haven't worked with it ever and couldn't find much online.

I have a tractor, loader, boxblade and am considering a land plane for spreading and maintaining. Will a crushed gravel surface allow me to freshen it up with a land plane just like gravel would? Any downsides to that material from anyone who's used it?

Slag, if you can get it.

 

[sallyb]

Seems I see cliche around here in west Texas.

 

[Danno1]

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Crushed sea shells make a nice driveway. Of course Rochester's no where near the coast...



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