Covid = Gravel Driveway

[benjy]

Covid hasn't been nice to me financially, so my plans for a concrete slab and concrete driveway / parking area outside has changed to concrete inside only.

Wanted to set some seasoned eyes on my plans. So the site was compacted over the winter - fairly well I think, rented a smooth drum myself so when the dirtwork guy left for the day, I kept packing until dark each night. 30x50 building erected on 18 piers which finished up in April and I've been insulating, wiring and organizing since.

So I'm tired of parking on dirt around the workshop, so I've figured 15-20 tn of crushed limestone delivered will run me around $1k, some mirafi 500x equivalent will be under $300 and hopefully my neighbor will push spread it around a bit for a few hundred bucks. Anyone in the Houston area needing some fabric, I should have a few thousand SF leftover.

So, since the site when compacted was setup to drain down one side of the building, can I lay the fabric and fill in with stone or should the stone follow the contours of the earthwork? The reason I ask is that one side of the building will be used for parking a couple trailers and I'd like to make it a bit more level or carve a good ditch down the middle and fill in with rock, but not limit the water flow through the rock and onto the back of my property - as it has always drained.

Also toyed around with the idea of adding in a wide trench drain and piping water to the back of the property via 4-6" piping (requring a trencher).

Appreciate any thoughts - attached are a sketch of the existing contours, section of the parking area with the dip for drainage filled in with rock and a couple pictures of the workshop and area to be covered with fabric / gravel.

 

[kaymccampbell]

You need more posts before you can attach anything.
I'm amazed you can get anywhere with one truck load of crusher run. I put 8 or 10 into doing the new parking area at the rental.

 

[benjy]

You need more posts before you can attach anything.
I'm amazed you can get anywhere with one truck load of crusher run. I put 8 or 10 into doing the new parking area at the rental.

Thanks for the reply - my pictures didn't come through? I can see them in my post.

If I'm guessing (may be off a bit) but 1 TN should be about 1 CY, with the fabric, I hope to be able to survive with a 3" layer of rock. Trailer parking area would end up being 12' wide and I'd need to do some mowing on that side.

Any thoughts on water flowing through the rock or should I install drains?

 

[kaymccampbell]

My minimum over geotextile is 12". But, to each their own.
If the stone is a mix of #2, down to dust, then it's semipermeable, but should be graded for runoff. If it's just like pea gravel or straight #2, then water will flow with the sub grade. Does that help?

 

[benjy]

Thanks, that makes sense, I'll check with the quarry and maybe look into the trench drain system as an alternative. Not a fan of the pea gravel, wanting something that doesn't move much when you walk or drive across it.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Then you want the crusher run/item 4/crushed gravel/gawd-knows-what-else. It compacts nicely, gives a reasonable finish, isn't concrete, but sure makes a nice driveway. I've got a few hundred tons of it as my drive.

All you really need to do is give the surface a slight grade away to where you want the water to go. It doesn't have to be like a roof.

 

[Notgrownup]

Do it once right, drainage will be a great addition.

 

[mike93lx]

Why the fabric? My experience is that it just causes stuff to grow on top instead of below.

 

[mike93lx]

.

You have to remove the S after http

 

[Bretny]

20tons on the area will give you just enough to lightly cover the area for about 1 year. Next year you will get another load and start all over. 20tons just isn't enough to do much over fresh ground like you have and road fabric is a must.

I recently build a camp road through a swampy area. This section is 12'x150'ish. I actually had to build a corduroy road to be able to dig the ditches to let it dry enough. Fabric with 2in crushed then fines on top. It took about 96tons.

 

[Bent Handle]

Here’s what I did on my parking lot that was an old horse turnout. Scraped off all the soft organically on top of the lot area until I hit packed undisturbed soil. Geotextiled, followed by 4-6 inches of 1” down dot approved road base. I used the non dot previously and it was too varied, some of it almost had no larger gravel in it. Then I plate compacted it, but the first rain really solidified it. Going into it I didn’t know if it was going to be enough gravel. But I’ve parked 1 ton trucks and heavy trailers on it with very little issue over the last few years. There were a couple soft spots but it turned out the rock was really thin there. Just dumped some more and fixed the problem.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Why the fabric? My experience is that it just causes stuff to grow on top instead of below.

Geotextile forces a separation of the layers. It prevents the under layers of earth from swallowing the crusher run, thus preserving the integrity of his driveway. Frost heave and/or excessive moisture, combined with vehicular traffic, in clay, and partial clay soils, can really accelerate this swallowing effect. I watched clay engulf a 4 foot deep layer of gravel over about 5 years. I've had geotextile under crusher run for 25 years in that same area, and the crusher run is perfectly intact. The stuff works.

 

[mike93lx]

Geotextile forces a separation of the layers. It prevents the under layers of earth from swallowing the crusher run, thus preserving the integrity of his driveway. Frost heave and/or excessive moisture, combined with vehicular traffic, in clay, and partial clay soils, can really accelerate this swallowing effect. I watched clay engulf a 4 foot deep layer of gravel over about 5 years. I've had geotextile under crusher run for 25 years in that same area, and the crusher run is perfectly intact. The stuff works.

Thanks

 

[Bretny]

Just for refrence I bought a 10'x360' roll of road fabric locally for $360. $1 a linear foot isnt bad when your paying $1k per 20t load. I'm paying $400 for 20t and would definitely use the fabric.

 

[nadogail]

Geotextile forces a separation of the layers. It prevents the under layers of earth from swallowing the crusher run, thus preserving the integrity of his driveway. Frost heave and/or excessive moisture, combined with vehicular traffic, in clay, and partial clay soils, can really accelerate this swallowing effect. I watched clay engulf a 4 foot deep layer of gravel over about 5 years. I've had geotextile under crusher run for 25 years in that same area, and the crusher run is perfectly intact. The stuff works.

Thanks for adding to my education.

 

[tonyciambrone]

I get it, but I think you aught to just wait it out until the concrete comes back into budget.

 

[benjy]

Appreciate all the advice, gives me more to consider. I reached out to a few more folks and found I can get it delivered for $60/CY and spread for $200 from the same guy. Thinking I'll hammer in some grade stakes this weekend and ask the guy to help level out a few spots before I lay out the fabric - make sure everything slopes like I want.

If I have any drainage issues, I'll have plenty of leftover fabric to pull the gravel back, trench in some drainage pipe and lay in new fabric. Plus since it's a bit cheaper, I can put down another inch or so.

Contractor is coming back out to work on the gutters next week, if I can score some PVC off him (if he needs to installed extra gutters) then maybe I'll go ahead & trench in some drainage piping.

 

[Bigblockyeti]

Is your price of $400 for 20T delivered? That seems cheap for crusher run, $60/cy delivered sounds more realistic but still darn expensive. It's $22/cy for me at the quarry not too far away and most guys add delivery for 20T around $300. Long story short, I moved over 40T with my utility trailer because I'm cheap but hand placement made it look perfect.

 

[kaymccampbell]

My price is $20 a ton, delivered. Sand is about $7.

 

[benjy]

Lowest quote for 1.5" crushed limestone is 11 TN for $550 (or $50/TN) delivered. I do have an 18' car hauler and a 3.5L Ecoboost, but wow that'd be a lot of work. May be able to rent a end dump trailer, I'll look into that but not sure I'd want to haul more than 3-4 TN at a time with my F150.

 

[Bent Handle]

Dang, I can get 15 ton dot grade delivered for $275. And I still used geotextile!

 

[Bretny]

Those dump trailers can be a blessing a curse. They are very heavy empty and with a f150 you wouldnt have much weight for stone.

My $400 for 20t is delivered. Yes I know it's very cheap, this is at a piece of property I own 3hrs away. I own a Mason dump and it's not even worth me getting my own stone at that price.

I pay about $22 per ton at the local Stone quarry 5mi away. Then it's worth me getting my own stone.

 

[mcbane]

Shop around to be sure you got the best price on your gravel and hauling. In spite of CA regulations and taxes, and hauling rock from 40 miles away and over 4000 vertical ft, I can buy gravel or AB at $36/ton delivered.

 

[benjy]

Shop around to be sure you got the best price on your gravel and hauling. In spite of CA regulations and taxes, and hauling rock from 40 miles away and over 4000 vertical ft, I can buy gravel or AB at $36/ton delivered.

Finally got time to make some more calls, when they didn't have what I was looking for, I asked who they'd recommend and finally got a company near the Houston ship channel that has it for $40/tn and he's to get back to me on delivery(17tn min).
Said he has trucks always delivering up my way. Also found some closer for $70/cy ~$47/tn + delivery.

Getting some options at least. Mentioned this to my dad back on the farm in the midwest who said it must be gold since he pays $25/tn delivered to the middle of nowhere.

Thank y'all for the info

 

[Jason280]

Interesting, I've never heard about the geotextile fabric.

My entire driveway (over 800' total) is a mix of crusher run and #57 stone. I've probably hauled in 200+ tons over the last 10+ years, and the biggest issue I've had is with grass growing in the stone. I don't know if its the minerals, or holds water, but grass flat out grows in it like crazy. I poured probably 25+ tons around my two shops, and should have been more diligent about spraying the grass, but its almost all completely covered.

Our price has gone up from $275/18t delivered, to now closer to $400/18t. We bought a medium duty GMC dump a few years back, which will haul 7-8t, and I can get #57 stone for $20/t or $22/t for crusher run. Great thing is, the #57 stone is only 6-7 miles away, and the crusher run about 9-10miles. Only problem is, I can't really spread it with my dump like a full size dump can, as I don't have a swinging gate. Doesn't rally matter, though, as I can spread it with the tractor.