Gravel Drive Way

[ace23]

I stopped by the local landscaping place today and picked up 20 yards of mulch for $360.00 delivered to my home....which I thought was pretty fair price. Looking over at the other items they had I found this grey rock....it's a heavy duty rock that doesn't have round edges so it looks like it would be a great driveway rock.....looked exactly like what you see in a commercial parking lot or well built private drive. The rock itself had no sand, dust or anything else mixed in with it. I forgot exactly what they called it but I was priced at $38.00 a ton which they informed me was about 3/4 of a yard. I'm assuming this is a reasonbable price? Do any of you guys have expierence laying gravel drives? Mine will be in my exising back yard were it is very flat and has thick existing burmuda grass....I was thinking I would have the contractor who lays my slab remove the grass while he has the equipment at my property. I've been trying to read up on the proper way to build a gravel drive but there seems to be no one direction that everyone follows. Just from the internet I've gathered the facts of making sure you a have a level surface, laying a base layer of sand and then adding gravel on top. Any ideas guys?
Thanks,
Ace

 

[Jeff Ivers]

I can tell you what I did in 1990 that has held up quite well. I live in Oklahoma and had determined I had about 20" of top soil before I would hit clay. I hired a dozer to remove about 6" of top soil. Then I had loads (driveway is over 300 ft long) of crushed 3" limestone screenings spread. This means the load had everything up to 3" size pieces. I let the construction traffic drive on this while building my shop and house. By that time the gravel was compacted and starting to rut where the wheels tracked. I then had loads of 3/4" clean brought in and spread this to fill the ruts. Since then I have had an occasional load of either 3/8" screenings or 3/8" clean dropped, depending on price and how the drive looked. I would not spread a sand base.

 

[cj7jeep81]

for ours, he scraped the top layer off, then put down a few inchs of large stone (2 or 3"), then 3/4" or so on top of that and compacted it. $38 a ton is way high for normal driveways. Ours is roughly $10 a ton (price varies a bit based on size), with a $4 a ton delivery charge.

 

[Neuswede]

Ace: I will be doing a red gravel stone drive to my new garage. Using 6 inches of 2a modified, then Geofabric covered with 4 inches of the red gravel, compacted. My soil is mostly clay base with good compaction. Consider some slope moving heavy rains away from house and garage. Are you located anywhere that requires water run-off studies or strict permeable surface requirements? Some places do consider stone as impermeable (hard to believe) and then you are limited to a certain maximum percentage of coverage.

Sand? that's fine for brick pavers and such, but not for stone. Level? to a point. Your drive should have some crown to minimize ponding on the surface and to control runoff. Check local code for recommended minimal slope if they have it...mine is 3 degrees here.

 

[ace23]

for ours, he scraped the top layer off, then put down a few inchs of large stone (2 or 3"), then 3/4" or so on top of that and compacted it. $38 a ton is way high for normal driveways. Ours is roughly $10 a ton (price varies a bit based on size), with a $4 a ton delivery charge.

I will look at other yards to compare pricing...I'm thinking this was 3/4" as well because it was pretty heavy duty

Ace: I will be doing a red gravel stone drive to my new garage. Using 6 inches of 2a modified, then Geofabric covered with 4 inches of the red gravel, compacted. My soil is mostly clay base with good compaction. Consider some slope moving heavy rains away from house and garage. Are you located anywhere that requires water run-off studies or strict permeable surface requirements? Some places do consider stone as impermeable (hard to believe) and then you are limited to a certain maximum percentage of coverage.

Sand? that's fine for brick pavers and such, but not for stone. Level? to a point. Your drive should have some crown to minimize ponding on the surface and to control runoff. Check local code for recommended minimal slope if they have it...mine is 3 degrees here.

Thanks for the info and they did not give technical name for the gravel. I am located in memphis, TN and my neighboorhood was built in the 1950's so codes are really non existent when it comes to a driveway. My yard is virtually level from point to point and even with the heaviest of rain in the past 2 years has not produced any puddles.

I can tell you what I did in 1990 that has held up quite well. I live in Oklahoma and had determined I had about 20" of top soil before I would hit clay. I hired a dozer to remove about 6" of top soil. Then I had loads (driveway is over 300 ft long) of crushed 3" limestone screenings spread. This means the load had everything up to 3" size pieces. I let the construction traffic drive on this while building my shop and house. By that time the gravel was compacted and starting to rut where the wheels tracked. I then had loads of 3/4" clean brought in and spread this to fill the ruts. Since then I have had an occasional load of either 3/8" screenings or 3/8" clean dropped, depending on price and how the drive looked. I would not spread a sand base.

sounds like a good permanent solution. I was planning on having the concrete contractor grade my top soil as well while he was laying the garage slab. Might even be worth to see what he would charge to drop the gravel and compact it himself.....might be worth it considering it's got to be some heavy stuff to be tossing around. I'm looking at needing an estimated 16 yards which would be around 17 tons if they people were correct stating that a ton is equal to about 3/4 of a yard. That sounds like it would be worth seeing what the concrete contractor would charge to dump and compact the gravel as well

 

[ishiboo]

I pay $11/ton delivered for 3/4 clear, 3/4 with screenings, etc. $38 sounds VERY high. It's in the $8___ range if I pick it up from the quarry myself, but my trailer only holds 3-4 tons and it's not worth dicking around with.

 

[BillK]

Ace,
I did the drive back to my detached garage back in 1986 and it still looks pretty much the same. I used what is called CR6 around here. It is the same stuff they use for the shoulders on roads. It was a mix of grey sharp edge rock like you said. All I did was scrape off the top 6 inches or so of soil. I ran a line of railroad ties down each side as a border. Our soil is pretty hard clay right below the surface so that probably helps. I put the CR6 right on the soil, about 5 inches deep. I didnt roll it or anything, just raked it pretty level and it has been that way for 27 years It does not get a bunch of use but I do park my S-10 shop truck on it every night. The only thing I have had to do is spray it with Triox weed killer about every 2 years.

Hope this helps,

 

[wolflrv]

You might also want to consider some sort of edging border, since you say you have thick bermuda grass. Bermuda will overrun the driveway...been there..done that. I ended up edging driveway with cap block, because it was wide enough to keep the grass at bay and easy to drive over.

 

[ace23]

I pay $11/ton delivered for 3/4 clear, 3/4 with screenings, etc. $38 sounds VERY high. It's in the $8___ range if I pick it up from the quarry myself, but my trailer only holds 3-4 tons and it's not worth dicking around with.

I'm going to go to a few more areas and price check. I looked at the note and it's labeled as a limestone rock

Ace,
I did the drive back to my detached garage back in 1986 and it still looks pretty much the same. I used what is called CR6 around here. It is the same stuff they use for the shoulders on roads. It was a mix of grey sharp edge rock like you said. All I did was scrape off the top 6 inches or so of soil. I ran a line of railroad ties down each side as a border. Our soil is pretty hard clay right below the surface so that probably helps. I put the CR6 right on the soil, about 5 inches deep. I didnt roll it or anything, just raked it pretty level and it has been that way for 27 years It does not get a bunch of use but I do park my S-10 shop truck on it every night. The only thing I have had to do is spray it with Triox weed killer about every 2 years.

Hope this helps,

This sounds like a path I would be taking but with possibly a different border than railroad ties. Like I just mentioned above the gravel I was looking it was rather large I should go take a picture and post so you guys can see it. It is labeled as a limestone. In Memphis I'm not to sure of the soil quality but I believe it has alot of clay as well. What did you use to remove 6" of soil? Sounds like a DIY job if I'm thinking correctly. I measured it out and if I build a 20x20 garage then I would need 20wx30L area and then about a leading up. If I did my math correctly then for a 6" depth would need around 26 yards.

 

[dtt454]

if you get your rock direct from a quarry rather than from a landscaper you can save alot, i suppose price can vary by location but 10-15 a ton is typical quarry price at least where i live. but youll have to pay delivery too which can depend on how far you need it hauled.

 

[Deltarat]

I paid $800 for 22 yards, but it had to come from the port that was about 50-60 miles away. The trucking was more than the rock.

 

[paullie]

if you get your rock direct from a quarry rather than from a landscaper you can save alot, i suppose price can vary by location but 10-15 a ton is typical quarry price at least where i live. but youll have to pay delivery too which can depend on how far you need it hauled.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
what he said, look in your newspaper/yellowpages and call a few dump truckers or call the quarry, i just got a load of "road rock" which is is what the country roads have on them, for $14/ton and $5/ton to haul

 

[ace23]

if you get your rock direct from a quarry rather than from a landscaper you can save alot, i suppose price can vary by location but 10-15 a ton is typical quarry price at least where i live. but youll have to pay delivery too which can depend on how far you need it hauled.

Sounds like a good idea, not sure if we have a local quarry

I paid $800 for 22 yards, but it had to come from the port that was about 50-60 miles away. The trucking was more than the rock.

Maybe pricing is fixed at this place due to it's in the city and about 4 miles from my home....I just need to go see if I can match up the same rock and price check it

 

[ace23]

You might also want to consider some sort of edging border, since you say you have thick bermuda grass. Bermuda will overrun the driveway...been there..done that. I ended up edging driveway with cap block, because it was wide enough to keep the grass at bay and easy to drive over.

Figured I would install that black plastic edging border that you plant in the ground as it works well on my beds. Saw some rock they called roller tumbling river rock that looked nice to use as a border. Either use rock or cedar rail ties just have to wait and see how it goes. Interested to see what the concrete contractor would charge to remove the 6" of topsoil and grass versus me renting a small bobcat and doing it myself

 

[mustangmccance]

my driveway is about 100 yards long. all I did was put road base down on the path the construction crew made driving to the build site. by the time I put the rock down it was very compacted. every year I put another truck load down and keep spreading it out a bit to cover more of my "parking area" in front of my garage. every so often I start to see some weeds growing in the drive so I scrape it with my skid loader. it is a very solid road and I can plow the snow off it in the winter without digging in at all. overall I suppose I could have put a lot more effort into it but it has worked fine so far.

 

[justanengineer]

The prices on here seem rather strange to me as Ive only ever seen landscapers charging by the ton. Every quarry Ive ever known charges by the yard. In the case of my brother's driveway in Northern NY, $8/yard for medium blue driveway stone picked up at the quarry.

 

[ace23]

I just did some digging around it and looks like the medium limestone I picked out was what they call #57 and its about 3/4+ of an inch in size and its washed rock. I called around to three different places and a full truck load which was 23-25 tons they said was enough to do 1400 sqft about 3" in depth would be $620 delivered. Thats directly from they company that gets it off the Mississippi river docks. I still will have to hire out or rent a small bobcat to grade the soil back so many inches and then spread the rock. He acted like #67 was a tad large for a drive and I might be happier with a smaller stone that had some dust/dirt in it....he said it will setup better. I'm sure he knows alot more than I but I had that dirty dusty gravel road type. If mine is strictly for residential use and only about 100Ft in total length I would rather have the clean washed rock look. Any thoughts on this? Price still seems high compared to what others are saying but thats the lowest so far.

 

[back2class]

Gravel like that is $15 a ton here in GA right now. Truck is about $70 to deliver be it 1 ton or 18. If I pick up at they yard on my trailer my cost is $22 a ton. I guess the trucking companies get a different price? Cheaper to have it delivered iff you need more than a few tons.

 

[mustangmccance]

I just did some digging around it and looks like the medium limestone I picked out was what they call #57 and its about 3/4+ of an inch in size and its washed rock. I called around to three different places and a full truck load which was 23-25 tons they said was enough to do 1400 sqft about 3" in depth would be $620 delivered. Thats directly from they company that gets it off the Mississippi river docks. I still will have to hire out or rent a small bobcat to grade the soil back so many inches and then spread the rock. He acted like #67 was a tad large for a drive and I might be happier with a smaller stone that had some dust/dirt in it....he said it will setup better. I'm sure he knows alot more than I but I had that dirty dusty gravel road type. If mine is strictly for residential use and only about 100Ft in total length I would rather have the clean washed rock look. Any thoughts on this? Price still seems high compared to what others are saying but thats the lowest so far.

I am no expert on the subject but what I was told by a guy in the business is that the mixed size rock etc that you get in the roadbase "locks" together better than the larger stones. all I know is that my drive is almost like rough concrete. it is hard and does not slide around much when you walk on it or drive on it and my f250 does not make any ruts in it when it rains so for whatever reason it works. and what they use around here is a white rock base so it looks nice and it is 12 dollars a ton delivered.

 

[ace23]

I am no expert on the subject but what I was told by a guy in the business is that the mixed size rock etc that you get in the roadbase "locks" together better than the larger stones. all I know is that my drive is almost like rough concrete. it is hard and does not slide around much when you walk on it or drive on it and my f250 does not make any ruts in it when it rains so for whatever reason it works. and what they use around here is a white rock base so it looks nice and it is 12 dollars a ton delivered.

Yeah i know the exact rock your talking about.....it does feel like your on concrete almost. Doesn't it put off dust though? I don't think the larger stone will settle as well either and I think not having the dirt in it makes it that way. For a small residential drive I'm not to worried about it. All that will be run down it is a car, maybe a truck every now and again and then my streetbike. As for a settling I would think it would be desent....not like the pea gravel or round rock that feels like your walking on marbles

 

[banzaitoyota]

We get recycled concrete

 

[LennyTheLizard]

Maybe this is just basically repeating everything everyone else said, but just one more opinion.

I just recently built a new driveway from my house down to the basement level shop. We stripped off the SOD Layer (Heavy Clay soil here). 1st we put down about a 3-4 inch layer of 2" Clean Limestone. Then we put about 2 inches of 1" minus (everything that passes through a 1" screen). The 2" keeps everything from pushing into the Clay "too much" and then the 1" minus really packs into the 2" base layer. And like someone mentioned above, it is a good hard surface almost like concrete. The only worry is for about 2 months, it's pretty dusty. You have to be a little careful about walking into the house with shoes on.

I had all mine Delivered for $11 / ton. The truck drive spread it even enough to drive over with a truck. It took very little work to smooth and pack it down with a bobcat.

 

[ace23]

Maybe this is just basically repeating everything everyone else said, but just one more opinion.

I just recently built a new driveway from my house down to the basement level shop. We stripped off the SOD Layer (Heavy Clay soil here). 1st we put down about a 3-4 inch layer of 2" Clean Limestone. Then we put about 2 inches of 1" minus (everything that passes through a 1" screen). The 2" keeps everything from pushing into the Clay "too much" and then the 1" minus really packs into the 2" base layer. And like someone mentioned above, it is a good hard surface almost like concrete. The only worry is for about 2 months, it's pretty dusty. You have to be a little careful about walking into the house with shoes on.

I had all mine Delivered for $11 / ton. The truck drive spread it even enough to drive over with a truck. It took very little work to smooth and pack it down with a bobcat.

Sounds like you put a larger limestone down then a smaller style layer on that? If so I can see how that would work well. Note to self I had 20 yards of mulch delivered today and I got about 5 yards of it done in about 3 hours. Where my drive will enter is single car and not large enough for a truck to access so a bobcat is a must got me. Wonder why the rock prices here are so much higher....the #57 limestone which is .75-1" was $23+ tax per ton delivered and that was the lowest price I could find. Post some pictures of your if you get a chance

 

[BillK]

What did you use to remove 6" of soil? Sounds like a DIY job if I'm thinking correctly. .

Ace,
I had borrowed a small Ford tractor with a bucket on it. I really did not do a fantastic job of scraping, just sort of leveled it out.

Like Mustang mentioned, the stuff ends up compacted down almost like concrete. I can drag the floor jack over it and it hardly digs in. I might try to take a quick picture on Saturday so you can see the consistancy of the stone.

Actually I just did a google search on "cr6 stone" and it shows exactly what I have.

It compacts down real good after a while. I think the stuff I got had some smaller stone mixed in too.

Here is a link to one of the pictures, if you do the search you will find many more.


http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...1&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&biw=1024&bih=576

 

[carhunter]

We tried a number of types of gravel depending on price and availability on our 500' driveway---Its clay under the sod. Whatever you do I'd advise compacting the dirt as much as possible before gravel. Road fabric is expensive at $300/roll, but it really does save on gravel, as it prevents uneven sinking of the rock over time.

Recycled concrete - big chunks - 3-4" or even larger, topped with bank run gravel (sandy consistency with 1/2 or smaller stone). Takes a lot of bank run to fill in the voids, but with proper drainage it will never move on you. Eventually the sandy stuff washes off the top, leaving a nice packed layer of fine stone.

RC #2 (2-3" stone) topped with RC304 (3/4 and fines) - also works excellent, but will settle a little more than the big chunks. Recycled Concrete has a tan-brown coloring that looks warmer than limestone, which has a hard grey color.

#2 limestone, topped with #304 or 411 limestone (411 is a has more fines I think). We did this over top of fabric, and had little issues with settling, but it took a long time to pack. Not sure why, possibly moisture content of the soil in that area, but the RC packed much more quickly. Maybe its a more angular shape that locks better?

#2 limestone by itself, or #2 RC by itself (we did a parking area with both types over fabric) - packs under load but breaks loose easily. I can't wait to get some smaller stone to top it. Easy to trip on when walking, and always feels loose underfoot no matter how much traffic goes over it. It you lay it several inches deep as recommended, vehicles sink into it easily or chuck it around when getting traction.

Hope that helps...

 

[ket-tek]

I've got 300+ft of driveway all 57 rock. It's been great, doesn't wash or rut and doesn't track grit into the house when it's raining.

 

[ace23]

I've got 300+ft of driveway all 57 rock. It's been great, doesn't wash or rut and doesn't track grit into the house when it's raining.

#57 limestone is what you have? If so that's the rock i have been looking at about 3/4" in size. I like the dust free large rock look....just very natural looking like what you find in a spring. Do you remember what you paid per ton?

 

[03silvergt]

#57 limestone is what you have? If so that's the rock i have been looking at about 3/4" in size. I like the dust free large rock look....just very natural looking like what you find in a spring. Do you remember what you paid per ton?

I did my driveway with 57 stone it was $32 a ton. It looks great. Ive seen all this $8 to $10 a ton stuff and it really doesn't look good. Maybe if you had a really long driveway it would be suffice. If you want something that's visually appealing I would do the 57.

 

[ket-tek]

#57 limestone is what you have? If so that's the rock i have been looking at about 3/4" in size. I like the dust free large rock look....just very natural looking like what you find in a spring. Do you remember what you paid per ton?

Yeah virtually no dust it's real clean, from a distance it has a slight bluish hue to it. I've added about 200 tons over the course of a couple years since I built the house, I use the same guy every time, but the price fluctuates due to gas prices and maybe the quarry price changes some too. But it's usually been in the high $20's a ton I think like $27-28 or so I think. I haven't gotten any in about a year.

A buddy re-topped his drive, used the same guy but he got what the guy called 'washed 5' and damn his drive looked awesome, it was a very nice rock. It has a dark gray color.

 

[ace23]

I did my driveway with 57 stone it was $32 a ton. It looks great. Ive seen all this $8 to $10 a ton stuff and it really doesn't look good. Maybe if you had a really long driveway it would be suffice. If you want something that's visually appealing I would do the 57.

That makes a lot of sense, The lowest price I've gotten is $23, I prefer the washed look and don't want the dusty stuff that tracks in

Yeah virtually no dust it's real clean, from a distance it has a slight bluish hue to it. I've added about 200 tons over the course of a couple years since I built the house, I use the same guy every time, but the price fluctuates due to gas prices and maybe the quarry price changes some too. But it's usually been in the high $20's a ton I think like $27-28 or so I think. I haven't gotten any in about a year.

A buddy re-topped his drive, used the same guy but he got what the guy called 'washed 5' and damn his drive looked awesome, it was a very nice rock. It has a dark gray color.

As I said above those prices seem legitimate. 200 tons is a load!

 

[Kevin54]

Price will vary depending on where you live and how far the stone has to be trucked. Around here we have round stone and a little further north by 10 miles the quarries have crushed limestone. Crushed limestone is about $11.00 ton u-haul and around $15 delivered. Normally from the quarries, 57's will have stone dust in it to help compaction