Driveway Materials

[BoydS]

Looking for less expensive options on material for a driveway other than concrete and asphalt. I'm considering several options, but wanted to see what others experiences are with them. Materials I am considering are crushed concrete, gravel, limestone or decomposed granite. Any other ideas..? Are you pleased with your driveway and what did you use and how was it installed...?

Thanks for replies....

 

[fatboy99]

I have a lime stone gravel drive to my shop was cheap and easy to put in. but a pain to keep the weed's down and a big issue you wont have in Texas is my snow thrower scatters gravel every where when i clean the drive after a snow storm .it need's another layer as it's settling into the ground it has a 12" base of#2 gravel (fairly large). if your drive is going to be long dust during the dry season will be an issue. a dealer i worked at had ground asphalt from a highway resurfacing spread out in one of the bull pen's it packed back togather and had no dust issue's may be an option was fairly expensive when i did the gravel
Brad

 

[caper150]

I just put in 12 yrds of 3/4" crushed rock, cost me $150 and change delivered here.

I'm sure this will just be this first of many for the years to come till it all settles.

 

[Palmetto]

My driveway is 600' long. I used dirt as a bed, and built it up close 12" thick. Since time was on my side, I let it sit for over 6 months. When I got the money, I ordered 12 loads of crushed concrete on a Friday. The drivers tailboarded each load for me, and I spread it with my tractor & boxblade. After each load was spread the way I wanted it, I rolled it with a large grass roller that I have. By the time the next truck came to dump, the stuff was so tight that the loaded dump truck didnt compact it at all! My driveway is 2 years old, and it is holding up nicely. Up by my house, I made a circle drive out of crushed concrete, and finished it with some milled asphalt. It is very nice!

I live south of houston too, and these are the prices I you can get for a 16yd truck:

crushed concrete: $325 to $375 depending on where you get it.
milled ashpalt: $375

A cheaper alternative is what they call "Pit Run". It comes from the Eagle Lake gravel pits. Last I heard you could get an 18 wheeler dump trailer for three something. Not sure where you are, but that might be an option. Check the yellow pages for those gravel pit companies.

Later...


Edit....
Wow..I need some new pics. It looks soooo much better out there than it does in these old pics!

 

[Buckled]

When I built my house we used millings from local roads that were getting resurfaced. The state had so much of it that they were more than happy to deliver it and get rid of it. Their drivers weren't the best so tailgating was not much of an option. They dumped it and I spread it using the builders skid loader. It packed very tight right away and once it got really hot it really stuck together again. My driveway's 240' long so we've just left it that way instead of spending the money on paving it. We'll pave it eventually but for now we have recycled material that was free and a great base for the eventual pavement.

 

[dmw56]

I haven't used it but have heard of recycled asphalt. Supposed to hold up pretty good and as mention above will stick together after some good heat, and not to expensive.

 

[Palmetto]

They call it "milled asphalt" around here, and it's hard to get, and usually you will pay for it.

 

[bgott]

Washout, if you have a way to work it before it cures. Washout is concrete that is washed out of the plant when they clean it out. The last time I used it was 5 or so years ago, it was $150 a 12 yard load,IIRC.

 

[Buckled]

I have a buddy who works for the state and got it for me for free. He just had another tri axel load dumped in my driveway today. Look for roads being resurfaced in your area. With every company and state organization pinching pennies they may be happy to dump the millings locally rather than transport it.

 

[Doug B]

When I built my house we used millings from local roads that were getting resurfaced. The state had so much of it that they were more than happy to deliver it and get rid of it...

Wow,thats a great deal. I used millings also,but I had to pay $200 per tandem load. It was just a little cheaper than the same volume of gravel.

 

[BoydS]

Some great ideas here and I'll have to be making a few phone calls to check for pricing. I really want a material that will drain ... one reason for not using concrete or asphalt. The shop I just built has 4 OH doors and a concrete apron that extends out 24 feet from the doors. I just need something to prevent the water from washing out the dirt at the end of these aprons and a good base for the drive up to them. Also considering putting in gravel along the side of the shop that has no OH doors. This area would extend out 30 feet from the shop. Just don't want to park the trailer in the dirt.

One thing that always worries me is the truck load weight. You see the only way into my property is over a wooden bridge (and all bridges have a weight limit). This weight limit will need to be conveyed to the supplier. And with the weight limitations it could cost me a bit more, as they may need to make delivery in a smaller truck several times.

 

[Kevin54]

They call it "milled asphalt" around here, and it's hard to get, and usually you will pay for it.

Our area calls it asphalt "grindings". It will pack down pretty tight. You can also look into "tar and chip" which is what you see on a lot of country roads. Liquid tar put down with gravel over the top of that. Cheaper than asphalt but packs like asphalt and will not come up on your tires.

 

[krooser]

"Rotten granite" as we call it here is a great driveway surface. Compacts nicely and has very little dust. My buddy paves with recycled asphalt but he hasn't mastered the method so I think I will dump a couple load of granite on my second driveway this summer.

 

[Tman]

Fine Homebuilding had a sidebar about this a while back. I always thought recycled asphault was the **** but its lifespan was listed at 14 years. Plain gravel was 90 years. I drag mine about 3 times a year and it stays fine. I will stick with gravel.