Driveway Options

[lindy rig]

I have about 750 ft driveway. It is gravel, but most of the rocks are gone leaving mostly hardpack sand. We are on sandy soil.

This is our first spring in a 10 yr old house. The driveway isn't horrible, but a little rutted and some shallow potholes.

What are my options? Maintain myself, with what equipment?

Hire someone to bring in more gravel? Are there better types of rock than others? One thing I don't like is how much sand we track into the garage/house.

I obviously dont' have any experience with this, any input welcome

[leechlake]

over the years at my parents cabin we've maintained the road with old school wheelbarrow and shovel. Rock works great to fill the potholes but generally we have a pile of what really ends up as a low grade "pit sand" that is in the area. Frankly, it does ok but it's too sandy and doesn't bind well. Next load we're going to specifically ask for a class 5 type product that they asphalt companies use before laying the asphalt.

Obviously, you could get a bobcat and grader attachment but in our case we have chosen to maintain it rather than make it perfect, I guess if we lived there all the time like you do we'd do it differently.

[picksbigwagon]

usually, when you call for a truck load of rock, if you tell them it is for a road, they will put a timber in the back of the dump truck so and it tips the bed of the truck, it comes out in two lanes. Then when they are done, you can rake in the extra rocks back into the pathways and drive over it. At least that is how we did it down in Iowa

[fishwater]

We've got a pretty long driveway, it's packed dirt and gravel with some really old patches of decaying asphalt. Essentially every third year we get a few yards of class 5 delivered, more than we need in one year anyway since most of the cost of the material is delivery. I usually spread about half right away to the areas in need of grading, then I move the remainder to a concrete pad for use in the subsequent years to fill as needed. I have a compact tractor with loader bucket, but a wheelbarrow would certainly work to get it to the areas needing the fill. Most of the work is done with a spade and rake.

[tazimna]

A 4 wheeler and a drag can do wonders for a driveway. Can be as simple as pulling a drag or even an old bedspring or a chunk of chainlink to keep driveway in good shape.Just make sure you keep a crown in the middle of the driveway or the water will settle there. 750 ft is longer than most, so it'll be chunk of $ to put 1" gravel along it. One option instead of class 5 gravel is to get crushed concrete laid down. I did this 2 yrs ago on my driveway and it's worked out nicely. It was actually cheaper than class 5(which surprised me) and once it's packed down it's hard as a rock(no pun intended), and it did away with me dragging sand/gravel into garage/house. Good Luck

[fishwidow]

Used recycled concrete as a base in our former house. It packed together nicely and was almost like driving on some type of pavement. After a year or so we covered it with red rock for appearance sake. We did this because of the soil conditions, which was black dirt over blue clay. All of our neighbors who had concrete or asphalt had cracks filled with weeds after a couple years. We sprayed roundup once a year and had the best looking driveway in the neighborhood.

[deerminator]

Our driveway is about the same length as your's. We have class 5 the whole way down and have overlaid crushed granite in a couple of 100 foot runs or so in what I call the "trouble spots." That stuff holds, or has held the past couple years. No potholes in what use to be the worst spots. The downside is that it's expensive. I think it was about $900 for two loads to fill those areas.

Our neighbor just got some crushed concrete and I'm impressed. I may go the whole length of the driveway with that now. The only concern in the past has been that they weren't always so careful in removing all the metal and then you're left with buying a lot of new tires for your vehicles. But I hear they use magnets to remove it and correct that now.

And +1 for dragging. Lucky enough to have a neighbor with a big Farmall and who drags our driveways with a massive drag each spring.

Finally, if you can, snowblow instead of plowing the driveway unless you can have someone who can plow carefully and you'll save on your gravel. During a winter like this, I was able to snowblow with a big walk behind blower no problem. Took me about 45 minutes max during each snowfall over 3-4 inches.

[lindy rig]

Good input so far, Thank You

I'm interested in the crushed concrete type option. I like the idea of using a harder material and think that would help cut down on dirt / sand in the house. Seems like even Class 5 tracks into the garage.... at least when it's wet.

Any idea if I would need some type of base under the crushed concrete to help bind it together? Or would the gravel company be able to tell me?

Also would you still need to drag a crushed concrete driveway or is it a more permanent solution?

[lindy rig]

OH.. and I do use a tractor with snowblower attachment in winter.

[delcecchi]

Back in the day, we used to put down "3/4 inch road rock" which was crushed limestone. That might be a possibility depending on where you live. Lots of limestone around Rochester, not so much in Ely or Cook.

[fishingstar]

I put on ground up asphalt 3 years ago and it was the best thing I ever did. After a good hot summer it has got hard as a rock and doesn't get soft in the spring. It cost me 720.00 to do 350 yard driveway. Class 5 would have been 100 less.

Dan

[deerminator]

I'd always thought the crushed asphalt was more than that. Did that include laying it down and packing it and everything? I should note that granite cost I mentioned included an hour and half of smoothing and packing with a skid loader but that was really only $100 of it. They just put it down on top of the class 5. We do have carpet under the class 5 the length of the 800 foot driveway. That makes a difference too in terms of not mixing with the good black soil underneath. Our neighbor just had the crushed concrete on top of his class 5 too. Much cheaper than anything I've seen unless asphalt is cheaper. My wife wants concrete the whole driveway but I explained to her how that would be more than the house!

[deerminator]

And yes, I've come to live with sweeping my garage out and hosing my cement parking pad off regularly. It also gets tracked into the house. Thankfully, the county sprays our township road with oil because we live right by a county campground. Otherwise, we'd live with a dust storm all summer.

[311Hemi]

Anybody ever try the Dr Power Grader that you see in the back of magazines?

[Bjjams]

Personally I wouldn't use class 5. Too much dust from the fines. You'll never have a clean car again. Crushed concrete and asphalt(class 6) will also be dusty. If we're my driveway I'd look at class 2. Mostly it's crushed granite in my area but it will hold up as good class 5/6 but won't be nearly as messy. It is more expensive though.

Either way you will have maintenance until you pave it. Your goal is just to limit the amount. It sucks having to clean up sand but at least it's better than a dusty garage.

[fishingstar]

When I put the asphalt down they dumped it and I spread it out with the skid loader. I have seen it get packed with a roller and it turns out flat. Mine is not like that mine looks like gravel but black and hard.

[Jigging Joe]

I used to use class 5 which I would have 2 loads brought out every 2 or 3 years. Last year I had 2 loads of mixed crushed concrete / crushed blacktop, best thing I ever did. This stuff packed tight. Class 5 just doesn't seem to pack tight and gets washed away or pushed to the sides.

[Cheers]

I have a long drive and a hill and found the best thing was ground up asphalt .

It has been 15 plus years since I put it down and still in good shape . The down side is you need a bobcat or loader to spread it when you first put it down

[kerryd15]

Not sure what you have? small tractor, ATV? Look into a grader? I think DR makes one for an ATV. I have a 1/4 mile gravel drive and have lived on gravel roads almost my whole life. Keep a crown on the road. either in the middle or slope the whole lane one direction slightly. Any standing water on the lane is your enemy, it must drain off. do you live in a township with gravel roads? county gravel? For a small fee you may have them grade your driveway a couple time a year. For a do it yourself a pull type scraper or box scraper would be the answer. I bought a 5 footer a couple years ago. Now the neighbors ask me to do their driveway after they saw what I was able to do with mine. Fill the potholes first. get them packed in. Dragging after a rain to keep the larger rock loose on top lets the fines and dirt off the tires settle in. hope this helps.