Driveway woes...

[oz in SC V2.0]

After having our driveway done 'almost' to the barn a few years back,neglect and the weather have taken their toll...

So as it is springtime in WNC and it rains every week or so it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the problem.
Had a couple of people come up and give estimates,depending upon how we do it and how much we do the price has ranged from $4350 to $1200.

Now the driveway is about 1/4 mile long or so and the high price reflects both redoing the entire length and putting in a circular drive and parking pad at the end.

Needless to say,our grandiose plans have been shelved and we are looking at simply having the very worst spots fixed,running the drive where it is currently even though it is quite steep and calling it a day.

From talking to several people,the price of gravel is basically $250 a load,and that is about 12 or 13 tons I do believe.

The high quote of $4350 is almost all the cost of the gravel,I think the actual labor/spreading and shaping is $600.

Does this sound fair enough,are we just going to have to bite the bullet?

[agmantoo]

oz in SC V2.0

Quarry stone has become very expensive as you know. I have been using recycled crushed concrete and visually it appears as the quarry stone and IMO does work better. Over time the fines in the crushed concrete seems to reset and lock the stone in place. The oldtimers that live in the mountains swear that initially you need to use creek stones if there is any chance of the driveway washing. The idea is that the natural stone will stay put better than the quarry stone.

[nobrabbit]

We just bought 9 tons of gravel today for our driveway and hauled it ourselves. Cost=$74.00. It's the haul bill that gets you. We used a tractor with a front end loader to unload it.

[Beeman]

I had a long driveway with a couple of steep spots and a few curves when I lived in WNC. I came to the realization I couldn't afford a driveway like that. Between time grading on a tractor and money spent on gravel it was too much. Still had to walk in quite a few times in bad weather. I fixed it by selling the place.

[fordy]

Originally Posted by oz in SC V2.0

After having our driveway done 'almost' to the barn a few years back,neglect and the weather have taken their toll...

So as it is springtime in WNC and it rains every week or so it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the problem.
Had a couple of people come up and give estimates,depending upon how we do it and how much we do the price has ranged from $4350 to $1200.

Now the driveway is about 1/4 mile long or so and the high price reflects both redoing the entire length and putting in a circular drive and parking pad at the end.

Needless to say,our grandiose plans have been shelved and we are looking at simply having the very worst spots fixed,running the drive where it is currently even though it is quite steep and calling it a day.

From talking to several people,the price of gravel is basically $250 a load,and that is about 12 or 13 tons I do believe.

The high quote of $4350 is almost all the cost of the gravel,I think the actual labor/spreading and shaping is $600.

Does this sound fair enough,are we just going to have to bite the bullet?

.................My previous road was 450 feet off the pavement , downhill slope from northwest too southeast. My road was north south and drainage was at a diagional , across the road . So , I took my tractor with a 6 foot box blade and simply built a clay berm on the west side by pushing soil up too the edge of the road . Then , when I got almost too the entry gate I dug a small ditch and installed a 20 foot piece of very heavy PVC pipe , at the point where the water would enter the pipe I built a small , rectangular catch basin out of brick so the flowing water would drain into the catch basin and thence into the pipe . Worked , extremely well except for those events when the rain was so overwhelming nothing could have been built by an ordinary man with simple ideas and tools . , fordy

[maverickxxx]

600$ seems awful cheap for that much work. almost half that price is trucking how far are you from the quarry? quarry always have their own trucks or have indepents they use. those trucks haul 22-24yds in one load almost twice what they can haul average rate here is around 80 n hr quarries pay their own trucking its the best deal you can get you dont get charged for coffee breaks lunch etc. everything is broke in two zones a flat rate.unless you are half hr the job wont get it done in one day or a couple trucks running. 600 for two days with a dozer is peanuts. also if they are doing all this i hope its being compacted. so now you have two peices of equipment regrading a quater mile of rd compacting that spreading new stone compacting that adding a circle and parking pad which needs to be stripped graded compacted stone put down graded compacted for 600 noway there is zero money in that. you are going to not get stone quanites or terrible job thats not going to last to end of the summer. it washboard sinkholes from uncompacted material. also material should be spread evenly not 1" here and 6" there to make it flat. if you got any ? let me know this is what i do everyday

[Energy Rebel]

Sounds about right,
We spent about $1500 I think to gravel ours and it's maybe 100 ft.
Got tired of the clay washing down the hillside.

[Lazy J]

OUr driveway is 1/2 mile long and the original owner failed to do any dirtwork to build up the base or install proper culverst to get the water away from the driveway. As a result we have 7 "pothole paradises" along it. We will be adding stone to get us by until this summer when we will have more time a better conditions to add culverts and get the water to move away from the drive.

Jim

[Txrider]

A guy I used to work for had to rebuild his drive, but it had to hold up to loaded 18 wheelers..

He went out and bought an old POS dump truck, had me drive it to and fro getting crushed limestone, and sold the truck for what he bought it for when we were done..

We used a 6' tiller on a tractor to work up the clay road base, tilled in a few pallets of 50lb bags of hydrated lime into the clay real good, and then spread 6" of crushed limestone with a box blade and packed it in with a roller behind the tractor that was made of a short section of 5' concrete culvert filled in with concrete with a pipe in the middle for an axle..

Made a very nice hard driveway that lasted a very long time.

[Darren]

I would do it over time by starting with the worse places first. Get yourself a 20' wide or smaller roll of geotextile if that will work. Roll out the geotextile and place crush and run stone over that. You should need less stone with the use of the geotextile. That will work for rutted and wet places. You might want to knock off any high spots first before laying the geotextile out. Don't worry about the stome being deeper in some areas than others.

Just remember to order only crush and run stone. That will compact and lock togther over time. If grass and weeds grow up through the stone, it won't make a difference.

[maverickxxx]

if you use geo textile there is two types woven and composite woven dosnt let water through very well the other lets it through much easyier also if you use fabrics then you need a minimum of 8-10" of stone for it to wrk properly. less than that it dosnt have the amount of material to lock the material properly on top of it and is easly pushed of the top.

[oz in SC V2.0]

Well the latest plan is to do nothing right now...LOL

We are going to wait and get everything done as much as possible everywhere else.

The Driveway was done most of the way about five years ago,it was just the final part TO the barn that was left clay so I guess there isn't that much prep work to do.

I find it odd no-one here puts anything UNDER the gravel to keep it from sinking,seems to me some sort of permeable barrier would help.

[Beeman]

I used the cloth under my road, go price it and you'll see why they don't use it.
If you want a good road you have to dig it out and start with big rock and work your way up to gravel. No one wants to do that either, they just want to spread a layer of gravel which disappears into the dirt.

[oz in SC V2.0]

Originally Posted by Beeman

I used the cloth under my road, go price it and you'll see why they don't use it.
If you want a good road you have to dig it out and start with big rock and work your way up to gravel. No one wants to do that either, they just want to spread a layer of gravel which disappears into the dirt.

That does seem to be the way they do things...of course it provides job security...LOL

Okay....how about this, why couldn't you put old carpet under the gravel?
It is permeable,it is pretty much all man made material nowadays and best of all,it would be free.

[Wolf mom]

Originally Posted by Beeman

I used the cloth under my road, go price it and you'll see why they don't use it.
If you want a good road you have to dig it out and start with big rock and work your way up to gravel. No one wants to do that either, they just want to spread a layer of gravel which disappears into the dirt.

Yup - Beeman's right. On my 1/2 mile drive, I hired a guy with a motor grader - He graded the roadway with channels on both sides. Put in 3 culverts. Then I had large 2" cinders laid. They worked their way into the earth, then had another load laid. After a couple years, I had a solid base with no pot holes. Last summer I laid smaller gravel on top. It's really solid with no holes or ruts - snow, rain or shine.

Ya just gotta look at the way roads are built up, then do the same.

[grandmajo]

Originally Posted by Beeman

I used the cloth under my road, go price it and you'll see why they don't use it.
If you want a good road you have to dig it out and start with big rock and work your way up to gravel. No one wants to do that either, they just want to spread a layer of gravel which disappears into the dirt.

We just did this to the driveway at our new house. There's a hill to go up right before you get to the house and it was rutted bad.

[ronbre]

maybe you can invest in a small tractor, or borrow one, and do the work yourself...

[davel745]

Start with 4 inch stone and then 1 ½ “then crusher run. The road bed should be at least 6” - 8”. (8 inches is better.) of 4 inch and just cover with 1 ½ “ stone and then put crusher run down about 1 to 2 inches thick. Note Typar won’t work on slopes as it slides out. This will support a pickup truck and a car for about 5 years or so then you will need to dress it with crusher run again.

Dave

[artificer]

Originally Posted by davel745

Start with 4 inch stone and then 1 ½ “then crusher run. The road bed should be at least 6” - 8”. (8 inches is better.) of 4 inch and just cover with 1 ½ “ stone and then put crusher run down about 1 to 2 inches thick. Note Typar won’t work on slopes as it slides out. This will support a pickup truck and a car for about 5 years or so then you will need to dress it with crusher run again.

Dave

Using your numbers, and my local costs of $235/22ton truck load (17yrds), and 9' width, I get:
37yrds/ inch of thickness, or $511/in

4" of 4", 2" of 1 1/2", and 6" of crusher run gravel = 12" of material = $6100. Add $600 to spread, and you're almost to $7k. It will be a really nice road, however.

This is a case of "you get what you pay for." I'd love to be able to afford even 6" of gravel for out tractor road. For the OP, I'd suggest getting what you can afford, and fix the worst spots correctly as a first step.

Michael

[Tarheel]

Originally Posted by agmantoo

oz in SC V2.0

Quarry stone has become very expensive as you know. I have been using recycled crushed concrete and visually it appears as the quarry stone and IMO does work better. Over time the fines in the crushed concrete seems to reset and lock the stone in place. The oldtimers that live in the mountains swear that initially you need to use creek stones if there is any chance of the driveway washing. The idea is that the natural stone will stay put better than the quarry stone.

Agree agmantoo, When I built my road in to the farm (3/10 of a mile) I used the crushed concrete in the larger size for the base. This is all I put down until all work was finished. This allowed all trucks to pack it in. The cost of crushed concrete is much cheaper than quarry stone and is all you need for a good base. When we completed the house I topped the road off with washed quarry stone for a nice smooth road. Granted none of this is cheap (I probably have $7500 in mine and I did all the work) but you do get what you pay for. Good luck on your project, it's only just begun. :happy0035: