Driveway Options.

[TexLaw]

I just purchased a new place with about a 600ft driveway. The home is new and the driveway looks to have been neglected in favor of expenditures on the house. It currently has more mud than gravel. I need to get something done ASAP. My initial thought is to get a load or two of gravel dumped on it, with the idea that in the next year of so I will have it paved with asphalt or concrete. Assuming the funds were available, would it be better to go ahead with the paving project now? I assume I can just use the gravel as a base for the paving whenever it takes place. True?
Anyone have any idea how many loads I'd need to adequately cover my footage and how much a load might cost in North Texas (DFW Metroplex)? Any ideas on how much it would cost to concrete or asphalt this amount of footage? Any help appreciated.

[beenthere]

I have 600+ feet of driveway, and have kept it graveled for the last 35 years (expecting to asphalt next year). You can figure out the cubic yards of gravel you will need by distance by width by thickness.

If you have mud, then I would first address why you do? You need the base of the drive well drained, and until that happens, (at least in the north) you will just have problems forever. Ditching, slope, crown, drainage, and covering all have to do with keeping the moisture out from under your drive surface.

The thickness of the gravel 'base' will be determined by the material under that base. I have glacial till (looks a lot like washed gravel and sand) under mine which is an excellent base. I keep a 3-5" layer of limestone gravel with lots of fines on top for a driving surface.

The only time I have 'mud' is when the frost comes out in the spring, and then only a bit on top, and it lasts for 2-4 days.

[egon]

Beenthere has it well covered. Drainage, base and then surfacing.

Not knowing anything of the location, driveway construction and surrounding land contours it is almost impossible to give a proper answer. If one area is really bad an interm load of gravel may temorarily fix that stretch. If you do so make sure it is crushed gravel and not pitrun. Usually a tandem truck will hold about 10/12cubic yards of gravel. For purchasing you will have a materials cost and then a trucking cost. Yellow pages for your area should give you this.

How would you spread the gravel?

If major work is required on road a contractor's estimate may be in order.

Just remember to do it properly may cost.

Egon

[chrisjbell]

I've got a bunch of gravel drives and someday hope to pave them, but gravel works just fine and is a lot less expensive than asphalting.

Good advice from the others. Drainage is one of your key things to pay attention to. But to address a couple of issues...I don't know what the material costs in your area are compared to mine, but I pay something like $250 for a dual dump truck full of road base (crushed stone) and another $100 or so for delivery. The company I use will reduce the delivery costs if I buy a certain amount (I think once I get six full loads).

When they come out, the drivers are pretty good at spreading the gravel for you. They dump it slowly while they drive along the road and it comes out reasonably even (they can't do it if there are overhead obstructions - when the dump is raised it gets pretty tall). I then use my tractor to smooth it out, and as it sits and gets driven on / rained on it settles out pretty well.

And if you have mud / poor drainage, it is probably a good idea to put down plenty of gravel and then wait until you're pretty sure that it drains well. You need a good, thick gravel base before you put down paving, and you definately don't want to pave if there is a chance that you have poor drainage. Putting down more gravel is relatively cheap and easy, but if the road doesn't drain well and you put asphalt on top it will just fall apart and then you have to remove it, get the drainage right, and re-do it.

If your drainage is really bad, you might have to raise the roadbed with crushed concrete or something like that. The stretch of road right in front of the house has a spring next to it and that section is asphalted. It was just falling apart from all the water underneath so we had to bring in a 'dozer, rip the road up, and raise it about two feet with crushed rock. Packed that down, put down some gravel and then asphalted. It has lasted a few years now.

[TexLaw]

Thanks for the advice from everyone. I decided to have a road contractor take a look at it. His advice: Used crushed concrete to raise it up and operate as base. His estimate: $3,800.

He says this will last a good 5+ years without additional surfacing.

Sound about right?

[chrisjbell]

Yeah, that sounds like it is a pretty fair bid, actually. For 600' of drive and enough material to raise you up and get you draining that isn't bad at all. A few hours with some trucks and a 'dozer and you should be all set. If you want to make it purty later, have some gravel (roadbase, probably) delivered and rent a roller to pack it down. It'll last you for quite a while, and is what you need before paving anyway.

Let us know how it turns out - post a pic if you can...

[egon]

Crushed concrete sounds fine. Probably last forever.

Can't comment on price.

Egon

[JazzDad]

Our 521 feet of driveway was mostly labor, the materials came from the pond tailings. The price sounds about right for our part of the country. (I guess it hurts when, if you are like me, you remember the minimum wage at $1.60 an hour.)

[Handyman]

Here is the question...

How much do you want to spend to fix your driveway and are you capible of operating any equipment yourself ?
Keep in mind that I drive tractor/trailer =33,000 lbs.

My driveway is about 150' long. The first time I graveled it, I used 3 truck loads = 65 tons of 1 1/2" rock. I have $800 invested [img]/forums/images/icons/ooo.gif[/img]

It has lasted for over 5 yrs. I did add a truck load (22.5 ton) of crush and run in front of the garage after building my house.

I would get a skid loader and scrape down the high spots of the driveway, fill in the potholes and begin laying out a base about 2" thick then after a while of driving on it to pack it down...I would go back over it with crush and run to finish locking the gravel in place. This will cost you probably half of the contractors estamate (I suspect aprox $2,000) where you can put the rest of the money aside for when you decide to pave it.

[Pat]

If shale is available it is a good alternative to gravel, at least as a top coat. I did part of my new drive in very course shale on a slightly raised road bed of clay. With traffic the shale breaks up and gets finer and finer on the surface and packs in till it is virtually impervious to rain and delivery trucks coming to the house site. Cement trucks didn't hurt it. It packs smoother than gravel (I have gravel roads as well), looks better, and only cost a little more. I like it a lot and am glag my GC made a pitch for it.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]