Driveway rock

7831 Views 29 Replies 10 Participants Last post by forkz, Feb 19, 2012

joshc

Discussion Starter · Jan 20, 2012

So we have some new property as of 3 today! We have a 500' right of way. It has some stone as a base. It's the large fist size. But now I need to put some base down. Late this summer/fall I'll end up black topping it. So, my question is: what do I put down now that will act as a good drive way while I work out there, begin to build two houses in the spring and will serve as a base for black top?

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[email protected]

· #2 · Jan 20, 2012

T-base which has many different trade names, but all it is is recycled asphalt from road repaving projects.
It's cheap ,packs well and is a good base.
I have just over 500' of road and around here (MA) it costs about 350 bucks a tractor trailer load (25+ tons), you will need two to three loads if not more :Stop: it adds up quick :fing32:

Cat385B

· #3 · Jan 20, 2012 (Edited)

Is it a solid base of large rock? If so, some smaller rock (with fines) may work well to smooth off the drive. Usually 1" minus with fines will blend in, fill the voids, and set up well.

About the best drive base material (in my opinion) is crushed concrete, or crushed concrete mixed with crushed asphalt. (con-bit) Straight crushed asphalt also works, but if you're planning on paving when the heavy truck traffic is done, I don't recommend paving over it. It bonds funny, and you could end up with an uneven surface in a few years.

To do a 500' drive, 12' wide, 4" thick; you need 75 cubic yards. That comes out to 105 ton.

3/4 minus with fines

Gravel Rock Granite Asphalt Pebble

Con-bit

Transport Vehicle Mode of transport Trailer Truck

Crushed concrete

Asphalt Road surface Road Grass Tar

What the guy hauling your rock does on the weekends:

Drum Musical instrument Membranophone Musician Folk instrument

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[email protected]

· #4 · Jan 20, 2012

Cat385B said:
Is it a solid base of large rock? If so, some smaller rock (with fines) may work well to smooth off the drive. Usually 1" minus with fines will blend in, fill the voids, and set up well.

About the best drive base material (in my opinion) is crushed concrete, or crushed concrete mixed with crushed asphalt. (con-bit) Straight crushed asphalt also works, but if you're planning on paving when the heavy truck traffic is done, I don't recommend paving over it. It bonds funny, and you could end up with an uneven surface in a few years.

To do a 500' drive, 12' wide, 4" thick; you need 75 cubic yards.

Cat,
I did the crushed concrete things years ago and found that it got real mushy in the spring season for some reason. After a few years I did blue stone w/fines over it and you are right it worked, but the cost!
Last year I did the t-base which I also packed, so far holding up well. In fact going to get some more loads for another area I want for parking.

P.S. After winning mega-bucks and if we don't move I will pave it :thThumbsU

Cat385B

· #5 · Jan 20, 2012

A pic or three of straight crushed asphalt:

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joshc

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 20, 2012

LMBO. Thats funny!

I don't believe the whole driveway is lined. There is one part that is starting to get a bit sloppy. I think that probably 3/4 of the driveway has some stone that has some been grown over with grass. Those bare spots, what should I use? The other areas that have a base, I can barely see a rock through some dirt and grass. To drive on its nothing. Truck doesn't sink or spin.

Cat385B

· #7 · Jan 20, 2012

In the bare spots, use a base 2"-4" rock, or just scrape out more dirt to get the thickness of the gravel you bring in up to an 8"-10" thickness.

More importantly, make sure to keep the drive graded. If it sheds water and leaves no puddles, it will hold up with some maintenance. Get washboards and potholes, and every tire that goes across it will make it worse.

Adding a 60" back blade to your 790 would be just the ticket for driveway maintenance. :fing32:

joshc

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jan 20, 2012

Awesome. You guys rock.

Hard to say no to new attachments

Butterbean

· #9 · Jan 20, 2012

dg(decomposed granite) works good thats what i used and most of my buddies too its fairley cheap at least here in cali

Obscured_by_Clouds

· #10 · Jan 20, 2012

Crushed rock called Dense Grade. The sharper edges lock together. It's what they use around here for gravel roads and driveways. Quarries sell it for a couple bucks per ton.

Curly69

· #11 · Jan 20, 2012

We hear use what is called crush and run, 3/4" blue stone with some kind of filler and it works very well. We have lots of hills so about every 4-6 months it has to be scraped back up. My driveway is 200' and after 7 years I just had to lay down another 6 tons and could use some more. Some nut:howdy: planted trees so the big 25 ton truck can no longer make it to the driveway so I have to buy it in smaller loads. Price was $18.50 per ton.

joshc

Discussion Starter · #12 · Jan 22, 2012

Here are a couple of pictures of what I have. You can see the stone in the ground and where it is visible, it is really a good base. In the one pic, you can see the muddy spot up by my truck and trailer. It is bad there, but there appears to be stone all the way up. So, I'm thinking that I need to scrap the mud off and then put my next layer????

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Obscured_by_Clouds

· #13 · Jan 22, 2012

Probably wouldn't hurt.

Is that area lower than the rest of the drive? If so, you may have to build it up more.

joshc

Discussion Starter · #14 · Jan 22, 2012

Yes it is. The grade is actually quite nice, but i do see what you are saying. The one spot does appear to be low.

Cat385B

· #15 · Jan 22, 2012

Obscured nailed it there, the only reason you have a soft spot there is drainage.

Looking at the pics, your going to have water in that area, period. Scrape it out with the loader, and use some biger rock to build it up even with, or above the grade next to it. Then add your gravel of choice on top.

A little grading work on the left side of the drive would be a good idea. I say left side because it seems the right side, by the trees, is another foot or so higher than the left side.

If you could, scrape that area between the trees and the drive down to form a 'v' ditch, it would help the driveway out. Depending on what you mow with, of course. I would make sure to leave enough room to get a mower width on each side of the ditch.

Soil Plant Grass Tree Land lot

BTW, that's going to really look nice, with a tree-lined driveway. In the pic, is that the roadway we're looking at, and does that roadway have a ditch?

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joshc

Discussion Starter · #16 · Jan 22, 2012

Thank you gentlemen.

The road way does have a ditch. My truck is parked on the culvert. The right side of that picture does have a small V shaped ditch, just can't see it for the tall grass. I will start to work on removing the mud today and will plan to have me a truck load of stone brought in :thanku:

joshc

Discussion Starter · #17 · Jan 23, 2012

Previous owner came out yesterday. He said if he remembered correctly that he put 200 ton of that large stone the length of the driveway. The total length is about 700 feet!

jbrumberg

· #18 · Jan 23, 2012

After years of dreading each "Mud Season" we finally bit the bullet and had a contractor remove ~175 yards of "driveway" and replace it with 180 yards of ballast rock, rock, and finisheded/topped with crusher run. We also had it lined with geotextile material. We have not had a problem with rutting, pooling, hydrostatic pumping since

. The driveway itself is ~150'. And I have been able to keep it maintained since

joshc

Discussion Starter · #19 · Jan 29, 2012

I have also been dealing with the mud, which you'll see below.

I spent the day yesterday trying to scrap the mud of the actually stone and then got into cutting some ditches along each side. I'm nearly finished with that, and I think I'm ready to have some stone hauled in.

I do have a question....wondering if I should put any groud fabric down or just put the stone down since we are paving it later this year (hopefully)??? I'm also thinking about having one truck load of the large stone brought in first to put in the shaded areas on the third pics. Thoughts???

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jbrumberg

· #20 · Jan 29, 2012

We had a serious problem with run off, pooling, rutting, hydrostatic pumping- the mud would suck down everything I would dump on it and periodically it would eject select fill with each frost upheaval. We have not had any problems since we put down geotextile material under the fill. It is pretty expensive. I believe that this kind of material would help if frost heaving is a problem with paving in your area.

Nice job with the ditchwork :thThumbsU :trink39:

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