Driveway repair question

[CountryWannabe]

The driveway to our new house, while certainly drivable, does have a couple or three pretty large and rugged potholes and is rather uneven. It is about 520 feet long and done in gravel. There is rock fairly near the surface in some areas, and right at the surface nearest the worst holes. It follows an incline from the road to the house. The worst damage is at the lower end and seems to be (perhaps) caused - or at least exacerbated by - rain runoff. I will need to repair it soon, as I am doubtful I could get the stock trailer safely over or past the damage when I move my criters up there.

My question is: what would you do to repair it? I thought of simply having someone come and grade it then spread new gravel over the entire drive so it would look nice and be uniform. Is this even possible given the rock near the surface? I did worry that as soon as the first good storm the new surface would be back to what it is now. I don't mind regular maintenance, but don't want to spend close to 3K every year to regrade/gravel.

Any and all comments and suggestions are very welcome

Mary

[meanwhile]

Figure out what would be the best drainage pattern. Learn about water run-off and drainage ditches. We have a long gravel shared road into our place and gravel driveways to all Cabins. We spent a fortune - literally thousands on gravel and grading - before we finally learned that we had to know what to ask a tractor man to do. Also, we just had to make the decisions about the main road in too.

I would suggest asking several road men over to see what they say. Do not tell them that you are asking others. Just see what each of them says to do and what their price will be. Then, look around and see if anyone near you has a good driveway and ask them who takes care of their road.

Drainage is the key - very important - to have the right drainage ditches and water flow. There might be a need to have culverts under the road in places to move larger amounts of water. Those culverts are expensive.

Good luck - ask lots of questions and know what needs to be done yourself so that you can be sure whoever does the work is doing it right.

[Ozarks Tom]

Meanwhile is right about water runoff, and drainage. Once you have the drainage resolved, maintaining it from year to year is a snap. Establishing a slight crown to the drive, and allowing the water to run off before it becomes a torrent at the bottom would be my suggestion. Gravel in our area isn't that expensive. 1" base (includes grit) costs about $11 per ton delivered & spread (drop spead). A drive your size shouldn't take more than 2 loads (it doesn't have to be deep), or around $400. Get the prep work done first, including a culvert if necessary, and you should be good to go for years to come.

I maintain 1 1/2 mile of road with an old 8n, a grading blade, and a box blade. Takes about 4 hours per month on average to keep it looking good.

[Darren]

A lot depends on the slope of the road and how water flows during aheavy rain. You are correct in that you can get into a situation where you're constantly spending money. I have a road I refuse to put more stone on simply because heavy rains constantly wash it away. Until cross drainage in put in, stone is a waste of money.

One of the best things to do is simply look at the road during a very heavy rain to see how heavy the flow is if any. Beyond that geotextile can save you a fortune in stone over the years for areas that rut due to a tendency to stay wet. Geotextile also eliminates the need for a large stone base. When you buy stone always, always buy crush and run. Stone with the fines will lock together as it compacts and resist washout.

[mekasmom]

Originally Posted by CountryWannabe

My question is: what would you do to repair it?

Mary

You just have it graded or pull a bedframe or some such thing behind your own tractor a few times to grade it up or use your own bobcat. Then spread a new layer of gravel.
I can't imagine it costing three thousand dollars though. What part of the country are you in? I guess since it is long that would cost more, but our drive is over 100ft, and it would cost less than 500 to have it covered with gravel again. We just added another 250ft of gravel two years ago, and it cost about 250 with grading of the land.

[davel745]

Do you have a tractor? If so get gravel put down and you can maintain it using the tractor. If not you may need to have it done (graded and stone every other year). The water is a problem and unless you get a very good operator he won’t have a clue or he will charge you a lot and you will still have water. Roads/driveways are best kept up by you. A small tractor maybe around $15,000 too $20,000 will soon pay for itself. Now this is just my .02 and others will have better stuff. But this is what I would do.

[blufford]

I'd fix it just well enough to get my stock trailer in and out. A rutted driveway would serve as a deterrent to unwanted visitors. That along with dogs that jump on top of visitor's car hoods as they are driving up your drive will discourage the uninvited.

[English Oliver]

Originally Posted by mekasmom

I can't imagine it costing three thousand dollars though. What part of the country are you in? I guess since it is long that would cost more, but our drive is over 100ft, and it would cost less than 500 to have it covered with gravel again. We just added another 250ft of gravel two years ago, and it cost about 250 with grading of the land.

Where you are and what the ground is like are two factors that will determine the cost. We were paying $9.00 a ton for rock delivered to the farm we sold last December and the 300 ft lane was solid underneath so it only took about 20 ton every three years to maintain. The place we just built has a 200 ft lane and we put down 226 ton of rock at $19.00 a ton delivered plus 130 ton for foundation fill in the building.

"O"

[motdaugrnds]

Wannabe, the fact you have pot holes tells me several of the spots on your drive are not as solid as they need to be and, each time it rains heavily, those pot holes show up more. Thus, I would concentrate on those holes FIRST.

If I were in your shoes, I would simply take a piece of weed barrier cloth, place it in each pot hole, letting it come up the sides. Then I would fill those pot holes with large rock that will bring the surface up to the top of your drive. The next thing I would do is order some "crushed run" and have it spread about 3" thick all down that drive. In time that crushed run will harden. (Knowing me I would also add about 2" of agricultural lime to the entire road as I know, in time, that will harden nicely. I put this ag lime mixed with sawdust on a very muddy area in my goat pen and now that area is nice and hard.)

[NorthCountryWd]

Tractor with box blade.

If you've got a gravel drive, it's going to need maintenance....period. Depending on the weather, I can get by with 3 gradings per season. I usually do one after the snow melts to fix any plow damage, one after spring rains and one in fall. Drive is almost a mile with some steep parts. Honestly, could probably get by with just fixing the plow damage and runoff in the steep sections.

Even the town grades our dirt roads once a month.