Need ideas for cutting in a drive cheaply
 

Hello,
We are considering the purchase of a 25 acre flag lot parcel. Property is beautiful and we would really like to purchase it, BUT we had the driveway priced and nearly fell over from sticker shock - 15-17 thousand to cut the drive into the property - which would be about 1300 ft back off the road. We were just planning on putting in a stone drive, nothing fancy. Any ideas for cutting in a drive for less?

Thanks!

hhhmmm, we gave 10,000 for our tractor.... It'd easy cut a driveway.

I've seen some people be able to buy asphalt millings, to my understanding, is asphalt that has been pulled up by road crews, and broken down into sizes about as big as a quarter.

I've heard that these can be had for free, or maybe just the haul bill, and make a nice drive after it gets packed down.

Have you considered hiring an independent dump truck driver to haul your stone by the load? Seems like it would be far cheaper than hiring a contractor to do the whole job.

Go to the implement dealer and rent a skid loader to do your land leveling and moving. You can move alot of stuff in a small time with one, then call someone to haul rock. That will cost you around two to three hundred a load for the rock. Hauling is what costs the money not the rock, rock is cheap. Then level off with your rented skid loader, and your good to go. >Thanks Marc

What Marc said. Renting a skid loader is only a couple of hundred bucks per day around here. If you call different vendors sometimes you can even get sundays for free if the shop is not open to bring it back. Then have the rock hauled in and dig, drop and level the rock as you can.
Definitely much cheaper than the amount they contractor wants. If you have a need for a tractor in the future, heck buy one and you will have the cost of that taken off for your future needs too.

You might be able to buy a quality used tractor, do what you need to do then sell it for what you paid for it if you do right on the front end. You would probably come out better than renting for any number of days, and not be under any time pressure, which can make an otherwise pleasureable job stressfull and prone to mistakes. Just don't break anything or become addicted!

How many trees have to be cut to put your drive in? What kind of soil are you going over? Does the drive need built up for wet problems? This is just a few questions that will effect the cost even if you do it. It doesn't say where you are located so that also could effect the cost. If you are going in over an old hay field the ground is most likely packed and just need rock or gravel to build it up a little. If going over a swampy area you might always have a small problem with gravel sinking in. Keep us posted and good luck. Sam

driveway
 

The majority of the driveway would be going over old farmland, which is currently being cut for hay. There is only a small line of trees that would need cleared and we are still being quoted at $17,000.

The ideas here are great. My husband is really thinking about purchasing a machine to do it himself, but around here it is the stone that cost a lot. He is thinking about cutting it in a bit at a time and locating asphalt shavings.

Hard to know what to do. Likely we cannot afford to build on this property for another 3-5 years (bummer!), so we are not in any rush. It is such a lovely piece of property; we hate to spend that much on a drive, but we are enamored with the beauty and seclusion of the site.

The driveway is easy, but you had better check on the cost of getting power back there before spending any money on the project.

Here is how we did our drive:

Hired a fellow with a bulldozer to scrape the topsoil off the drive area and level it.

Had the local quarry deliver "crusher run" for about $250/load. Crusher run is simply everything that comes out of the crusher including the fines right up to some 2" rocks.

Asked the driver of the dump truck to spread the load along the course of the drive. They are real good at this if you let them have their head and do it the way they want.

Went over the drive with a big backhoe to compact it and smooth it.

In the area where we park I had graded stone delivered for a 6' base.

Over time, you may want to add more crusher run, but it develops a nice hard, almost concretelike surface. It will develop weeds, so you'll use a weedkiller on the center of the drive.

The nice think about working this way is that if you eventually want to surface the drive you already have done the subgrade.

Power for that distance though? OUCH!

Look into renting a backhoe or dozer for a week.

Well, a person can go with a dirt trail that doesn't hold up to a light rain, or you can co cemented drive the whole way that handles interstate traffic. :)

Depends a lot on where you are, do you need to deal with snow, mud, are there drainage issues, hills, low spots, etc.

A good road needs the topsoil pushed back, good base material piled up higher than the surrpounding ground, crushed rock on top for stablitiy, and gravel on top of that. Then spread the topsoil back over the road ditches you created. And deal with any low spots or hills so they drain properly or you will have frost boils or washouts.

That costs money, if you hire it or if you do it yourself.

You can build your own a lot cheaper, but you will end up mounding up the exsisting dirt & topsoil, you'll cover it with 2 -3 inches of gravel, you won't get the low spots drained right. So it will be an ok road, and service yyou fine for a few years.

But then when you are living there, you'll want better; and then what? Dig out what you have and start over; or just keep dumping patch-work loads of gravel on top of the poor roadbed & hope it gets through another few years.

Now, there is nothing wrong with building your own, and doing not so good a job. And adding loads of gravel from time to time. It will be a lot cheaper that way.

Just understand you will get out of it what you put into it. And once you start with a chep base, you will either need to spend much more to correct it later, or you are stuck with a poor road that doesn't do well in wet conditions.

I suspect most driveways end up being put in the cheap way. Not against it, just want you to think about where you want to be in 10 years....

Your location also determines what materials are available. In sandy dry locations gravel will be about free. Here where I am, tar is always remelted into the new road surface when they grind off the old, so there is no way to even get the stuff, if you'd be willing to write a big enough check! :)

Anyhow, good luck with the property & road.

--->Paul

mow
 

Mow a nice path in around the trees first, then work on the trees. If you're not moving there quickly, this will give you time to meet neighbors who might just help for little money.

That does sound terribly high for clearing a small area of trees and grading 1300 ft.

The suggestion of getting an individual (not a contractor) to bulldoze the trees and push the top soil off the drive is a good one and should be much less expensive. (You might even be able to sell the trees for either lumber, pulp wood or fire wood.)

Placing the larger sized rock down first might be best; then covering it with crushed run a few times. (All this can be done in gradual segments over the 3-5 years before you settle on it.)

One thing you might want to consider (if you haven't already) is to make sure your drive will be on high ground and not subject to runoff water or sink holes.

Put your home at the closest point on the 'flag pole', and when you get extra money, put it into a road... and if you want, you can eventually move your home to the back.

I'd worry more about the neighbors on both sides, if the tract is long and narrow (flag poled).

You can build a road for nothing, if you have plenty of time, a strong back, a shovel, and a source of rock (outcroppings, river/stream cuts, road cuts, etc.) Not a Better Homes and Gardens road, but a road nonetheless.

doing the math:

$11.00 - $13.00/foot for a 1300'+ run

do these include ALL labor and materials, culverts, ENGINEERING, etc ... ?

Most all power companies will go one pole into your property and then you can put another pole that you will have to install with a meter on that for free or the cost is minimum for that. Each pole after that will cost about $100. That is why most structures are close to the road.

our electric company goes 2 spans..about 400 ft each for free. Our electric would be over 2,000-3000 to run to our homesite. But we were able to tap into an existing pole from our closest neighbor ..and will be able to run into our place for free. we have 32 acres..with sorta a flagpole set up. We could have saved a bunch by building up closer to the road and neighbors. But even if it takes longer to finish it I am thankful everyday we built on the middle of the flag:>) Privacy is everything to me and I would not have gotten that by building up closer and cheaper.

I'd look around for used equipment and do it myself. We had about 1000 feet to do. I bought an old CAT 112 road grader for $2000 and worked on the drive when I had time. After I got the drive shaped up, I ordered the crushed rock and graded it out to suit myself. The grader was handy to have around for other jobs too. I had it about a year when a guy building a subdivision stopped and offered me $4000 for it and I sold it. Wish I had kept it.

I had to put in a drive on my former property -- about 1/4 mile. It was a dirt track, very rutted. The dozer cost $80.00 an hour at that point (now I believe it is $120.00). But it took him less than a day to grade the road and ditch down the sides for drainage. The crushed rock was expensive -- 7 loads at $165.00 a load -- and I should have used a couple more, but couldn't afford it. The dump truck operator spread it along the drive in small piles and the dozer guy came back with a backhoe (didn't have a grader) and spread it. The entire drive cost less than $2000.00 -- it would probably cost $3000.00 now. It held up fine for the 6 years I lived there -- had it regraded twice, pulling rock from the sides, and one more load of rock spread in a low spot. I figure the entire cost including maintenaince was $2500.00. Granted, this was a fairly flat area over pasture and no trees had to be removed. But dozing down a few trees is easy and cheap.

Here you can put down three inches of red gravel a culvert or two if needed and not much worry . No need to remove the top soil as it will pack really well anyway .

What is a "flag pole lot?". Is this some kind of flat land area?

Topography, soil, rain fall, and available materials make a huge difference in constructing a driveway. In my area the soil is sand and clay. It packs like adobe in summer but turns into quagmire in wet weather. The drives are SUPPOSED to be scraped down to bed rock which in practice is difficult since the soil is layered at different levels. Because of the composition of my soils, I was advised to bring in large stone as a base and drive on it for a year or so. This makes a good base but is very rough and tears up your tires. I had a lot of flats!

Once you have your base, then you bring in smaller stones to settle between the larger ones. Eventually you bring in the crusher run. This packs down nicely over a base but simply disappears if laid directly on my kind of soil.

On another roadbuilding thread there was specific mention of a textile underlayment. This is very good but expensive. I tried a poor substitute and put down all the discarded carpet I could find in the swales and on some slopes before I had the rock brought in. I also got bags of cement and put cement on the carpet to stabilize and harden it which didn't work very well since I wasn't able to mix the cement or add proper proportions of water.

On my kind of roller coaster terrain there are many things that should be done such as water bars (humps across the road to slow down torrential rainwater and divert it off the road to prevent erosion and ruts), ditching, culverts.

Another consideration is prices going up! The last stone I had brought in was about $333 a load, much higher than 18 years ago for my original stone.

Another thing to consider is, who will be using the driveway? You and yours only? Or might it be an easement for others with attendant pros and cons?

i agree buy a used or rent equipment..sometimes if you rent on a friday you can get the rest of the weekend free, and if it is a holiday weekend you get an extra day free quite often..like labor day weekend..we plan to rent a backhoe over labor day weekend

I just took my little 2 plow tractor, mowed it as close as I could, then plowed up the dirt for the road. The road is a foot higher now than the field. Plowing onto the road made the ditches along the sides. Needed culverts at the low spots. Drug it down with a blade and a log with a piece of chain link fence. Drove over it for a while, then added clinkers from the sawmill. I have a good base now and add a load of rock spread from the dump truck each year where I need it. Driver puts a 2' 6"x6" behind the tailgate of the dump truck before he loads so it only spreads rock in the wheel tracks. 1200 ft has 4 loads total. I want to keep it more natural than a highway. I mow it and dress it up with a 3 board drag on the 3 pt. I drive over it twice a day, even in the Oregon rain....James

An experienced dozer operator should be able to lay out the road and do the grading by the hour. He will know where to place the culverts if they are required. Around here if you will stay off the road when it is wet and let some time pass the soil will settle and require less stone. Instead of using virgin stone I used concrete that was being recycled and had been through a rock crusher. The crushed concrete was cheap and I bought 500 ton from a ready mix business. I hired a trucking contractor to haul the crushed concrete. The road is ~2500 ft long and is on two steep hills. It cost me a tad over $5000 for the crushed stone and delivery. The grading for the road was $3800. The road is used each day by large trucks and has held up admirably. Repeating, do the road in steps and with yourself as the contractor. Get a dozer by the hour and an estimate of the number of hours not to be exceeded. Locate a source of the surface material and search out the pricing for the entire amount upfront, bargain with the seller. Hire a truck owner operator for the delivery of the total stone needed. He will work cheaper if he has a delivery to the same location and for a period of time. Have arrangements for someone to come in for a fixed price and fine grade the road once the material is hauled. Have the delivery truck(s) to run over the material they delivery. It will give a dual function, they will be more conscientious of the dumping and the trucks will pack the material as they travel over the surface. Good luck.

electricity
 

Yes, the electricity is pricey too probably about 5-8 thousand. We are willing to pay for the privacy of living far off the road. Actually their is a lot of land in my area that is way off the road. Most lots with frontage are not affordable. The flag lots sell for less than half of what a lot with frontage sells for. But we are hoping to cut costs in every way possible, without cutting back on quality of course.

It takes a Civil Engineer to put in a gravel road?