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Gravel Driveway


Nova Scotia Mike

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Fresh virgin ground? Never driven on with anything?  

 

Would start with some #3 size crushed  stone which is roughly mostly 1.5 to 2.5 inch stone. Similar to what is used by loggers or contractors when placing a new driveway. 

 

Would recommend getting the chosen path you want done graded and crowned and look for proper ways to flow and control water away from the driveway and also not create large washouts or erode anything. 

 

Can use stone and corrugated pipe for drainage. 

 

After all that fun and the base size materials are placed and established into the ground.. you can go back over them later with a 57 size stone.. mostly a 1/2" to a 3/4" size stone.. but make sure the other stone is well packed and established... wont happen over night and take time for the stone to lock itself together.  

 

 

You got acess to equipment? 

 

Give me the diminsions of the drive you intend to put in and I can easily tell you how much stone you will need. 

 

 

 

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21 hours ago, The Krypt Keeper said:

Fresh virgin ground? Never driven on with anything?  

 

Would start with some #3 size crushed  stone which is roughly mostly 1.5 to 2.5 inch stone. Similar to what is used by loggers or contractors when placing a new driveway. 

 

Would recommend getting the chosen path you want done graded and crowned and look for proper ways to flow and control water away from the driveway and also not create large washouts or erode anything. 

 

Can use stone and corrugated pipe for drainage. 

 

After all that fun and the base size materials are placed and established into the ground.. you can go back over them later with a 57 size stone.. mostly a 1/2" to a 3/4" size stone.. but make sure the other stone is well packed and established... wont happen over night and take time for the stone to lock itself together.  

 

 

You got acess to equipment? 

 

Give me the diminsions of the drive you intend to put in and I can easily tell you how much stone you will need. 

 

 

 

 

Well I have two places that I'd like to work on.

 

Location A) our existing gravel driveway.

The city came and did some work on the road in front of our place a few years ago. This involved them ripping up the curb and asphalt in front then replacing it. When they were replacing the curb I asked them to make the curb defining my existing driveway wider making it easier for us to park side by side. They did so gladly. Since the outer side of the existing gravel driveway has deteriorated as expected to a muddy mess in spring & fall. In this situation I'd like to widen the length of our driveway properly by about 4 extra feet, maybe more.

 

Location B top of yard.

The curb to street is cut for a driveway here but it's been grass/lawn since we've been in the house (~15 years). According to neighbors, the POs parked a motorhome up there seasonally. You'd never be able to tell though, no gravel, no tire ruts, nada. This top part of the yard can me mushy/wet in spring & fall. There is tree cover from neighbors trees which keeps it shaded from sun most of the time.

 

When you say "getting the chosen path graded and crowned,' what sort of company should I be looking for to do such type of work? Excavation company? Landscaping company?

 

I have no equipment, but can/will explore rental options. Not afraid of elbow grease. A friend of my bro's owns a dump truck so I figure he has some connections I can leverage but have not hit him up yet and I don't really know what he does with his dump truck business-wise.

 

When is the best time of year to aim to do such work?

 

Thanks for info, I'll get some measurements for the areas I'm considering soon.

 

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Talk to a few people who do lot clearing and preparation for home building. The will know what you need to take care of driveway installation and how to grade it to allow proper water drainage/flow

 

Your friend with dumptruck should know where to get the stone at contractor prices and save you some $$$ on getting stones from the quarries and not at the upcharged happy harry home owner prices they will sell to the average person. 

 

Be sure to check with any lines underground and permits that might be needed. 

 

A good equipment operator and truck driver are worth their weight in gold in doing a quality job. Talk to your buddy about anyone he recommends doing it. 

 

 

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Best thing I ever paid someone else to do. I'll try to remember to post pics tomorrow. Right now I'm trying to get a server back up so I can go back to bed.

 

Edit: Pics added.

I wanted to do this for years. Wasn't quite sure how I wanted to do it. Finally just paid someone to do it and he did a great job. I think he used 2.5" but not sure. He used a skid steer for the whole thing. The attachment he used to to prepare the area for the gravel he called a soil conditioner. It basically just shaved a few inches of grass and topsoil off and then put the gravel down. He used the material he removed to create a slight berm to help direct runoff in the back. That made a huge difference with a swampy area on the other side of the yard.

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  • 2 months later...

Not exactly a gravel drive, but a gravel landing pad for our new Toy Hauler.  Approx. 14' wide and 40' long.  The carport was obviously added after the gravel bed was put down and is the new home for the T.H......

DSC00488_zpshudeojsk.jpg

 

DSC00485_zpsefno1qcm.jpg

 

DSC00489_zpsuxtvpts2.jpg

 

DSC00490_zpsvrzcnlsx.jpg

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Total enclosure would turn it into an oven.  It also might invite critters to take up residence and could cause humidity problems.  I'd definitely cover the long side since it gets direct sun, and maybe some coverage on the ends if they face the sun.  The clear coat started peeling on my friend's MH at about 12 years, it went from really nice to ugly as hell.  Now that it's pretty much done peeling, which took several years, it just looks old & dull.  It took a while to figure out why there were always bits of clear plastic laying around the MH.

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20 hours ago, DBLXX said:

Nice !

 

Might be a stupid question - why wouldn't you want to totally enclose it?  Seems as if it would get just at weathered completely open as it would just having the top covered. 

 

ASFIKBZITE, and I am no mechanical engineer either, but the high-wind target a fully enclosed side would present requires a substantial increase in the size and number of struts required to adequately anchor it.

I had to deal with an issue like that during my barn construction.

 

edited to add...... I bet you go out and check on it during high wind periods, don't you Vern?

Edited by RXX
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Nice, Vern. We have been thinking about doing pretty much the exact same thing now that we have  a camper. I wanted to extend the shop roof but its not going to be tall enough so it will be a separate carport either beside or in front of the shop.

 

How did they anchor that thing down. Looks like it would have to be something substantial to keep it from going into parachute mode in high wind.

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9 hours ago, RichardCranium said:

 

How did they anchor that thing down. Looks like it would have to be something substantial to keep it from going into parachute mode in high wind.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. The anchors must be very well hidden...... I didn't see any.

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On 5/20/2017 at 11:52 AM, xrated said:

Not exactly a gravel drive, but a gravel landing pad for our new Toy Hauler.  Approx. 14' wide and 40' long.  The carport was obviously added after the gravel bed was put down and is the new home for the T.H......

DSC00488_zpshudeojsk.jpg

 

DSC00485_zpsefno1qcm.jpg

 

DSC00489_zpsuxtvpts2.jpg

 

DSC00490_zpsvrzcnlsx.jpg

 

How did it hold up last night?

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As far as I know, it held up just fine.  We just got home Sunday night about 9:30 after spending the weekend in Bowling Green for a track day event.  So far so good.

 

Update.....I just heard about the storms that passed through the area on Saturday night.  I guess they went North of our house.  Lenoir City is probably 20 miles from me as the crow flies.  

 

We were in Bowling Green and Saturday night they were predicting high wind, damaging hail, lots of lightning, and heavy rain.  Well, the system kind of split and one section went North of us and the other part went South of us.  We got enough wind though that the Toy Hauler was definitely moving around a bit, even with the stabilizers down and planted.  No hail either....I guess we got lucky up there and at home.....no damage in either place.

Edited by xrated
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  • 1 year later...

Geotextile fabric

Large stone and sand (3-6"diameter"

1 gravel...something with filings and 1/2-1"

 

If you don't put geotextitle down first..the mud comes through and absorbs the gravel.  

 

Old thread..I know...

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