Removing gravel/tar driveway....

[Eggman]

Come springtime, or at least after the snow melts, it'll be time to remove the crappy driveway and replace it with a concrete one. It is mostly gravel underneath it but has a thin layer of some kind of tar based **** on it. The previous owners would use asphalt tape to seal up any of the cracks that appeared over the years. I don't think that the layer of asphalt is very thick.

Question is, what size of a skid steer should I get to dig it out?

Thanks, for the help.

 

[JimNC]

How big is the drive and how much experience do you have?

 

[Eggman]

Driveway is about 80 feet long by 10 feet wide. Fair amount of drive time. Put in several above ground pools and some landscaping for a contractor when I was laid off of my normal job.

 

[Bondo]

Question is, what size of a skid steer should I get to dig it out?

Ayuh,..... One big enough to load out the waste into the dump truck yer usin',......

 

[Eggman]

Planning right now is to use a heavy duty dump trailer to haul the remains out to a friend's farm for use out there. Its about 6 miles one way. So it doesn't have to lift real high, I just don't want to be digging the driveway out all week.

 

[GMCGarage]

Planning right now is to use a heavy duty dump trailer to haul the remains out to a friend's farm for use out there. Its about 6 miles one way. So it doesn't have to lift real high, I just don't want to be digging the driveway out all week.

Bobcat 630 or bigger.

 

[Eggman]

Ok, thanks.

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

I'll let you in on a secret from my days as a paving operator.
A concrete drive typically has a gravel underlayment.
Asphalt is gravel.

 

[Eggman]

Thanks Ole Slewfoot, my house and my neighbor's house were built by two brothers at the same time. His is still gravel, mine has what is possibly a thin layer of asphalt over the top of the gravel. The asphalt is what I want to remove and leave the layer of rock for the concrete to go over.

 

[mcj115]

Are you sure that your drive isn't just asphalt millings or tar and chip?

To me it would seem like more work to remove than just leave it there. Why f put down road fabric, a thing layer of 2B, compact, then lay the concrete on top.

 

[Bretny]

Your going to bet your new concrete driveway on the fact that they put a proper base under a alreaty crappy driveway?

 

[mike93lx]

Are you sure that your drive isn't just asphalt millings or tar and chip?

To me it would seem like more work to remove than just leave it there. Why f put down road fabric, a thing layer of 2B, compact, then lay the concrete on top.

If the current drive is at grade, why stack another 6 inches on top of it?

Do you see a lot of driveways that would be fine to have that much material added?

 

[Radix2]

If the current drive is at grade, why stack another 6 inches on top of it?

Do you see a lot of driveways that would be fine to have that much material added?

It's at least worth considering what the grade situation actually is before digging out what by now has to be pretty well compacted material.

Often times gravel drives are too low with poor drainage - sure, it may be too high, but then again it may be best to just take a thin skim off the top avoiding disturbing the compaction and laying the concrete over that.
Bring in some top soil to feather the edges and end up with a nice well draining concrete surface.

Digging and disturbing the base should be done with some deliberation.


Around here, it is not too often that driveways get a real base at all - scrape some topsoil maybe but that is about it. In the olden days you put down gravel and drove on that for a year before paving just to get some good compaction.

 

[Eggman]

There are several unknowns at play here.
1. What kind of base is really there?
2. How thick is it?
3. How thick is the tar/blacktop/asphalt **** that is on top of everything?

Now for the why's. Since putting in the new garage behind the old one, and raising the roof on it to match the new one, I have determined that the driveway is next. Its not wide enough, barely wide enough for one car, it was put in in 1942. I'm not sure when the black **** was laid on it, but i'm tired of tracking it in the house. The edge of it closest to the house porch has sunk in the ground leaving a puddle every time it rains or the snow melts in front of the door.

Mcj115.....the driveway has close to the proper drainage required. It is even with the garage floor and even with the street. It wouldn't be very smart to just lay 6" of concrete on top of the ****** black tar/asphalt **** that is already there. Not to mention the difficulty in getting back out of the garage with a motorcycle over a 6" curb.

Bretny....no way would I bet the solidity of a driveway without checking things out first.

Have to remove the top layer of tar/asphalt ****, and I'm sure with some of the gravel, before I can really know what I'm working with. The driveway will be about 8 feet wider. So at least one load, maybe 2, of gravel will have to be brought in and spread and compacted before the concrete is poured. I don't plan on digging all the way to the dirt, but I will have all of the tar/asphalt removed first. I will also be adding a drain pipe in front of the door to the house and to the garage as well as a drain line from the gutters from the front of the house.

 

[Kevin54]

Your standard 653 / 753 Bobcat will tear it out with no problems. It will take a couple of hours to rip it up and pile it up.

 

[rsanter]

The bigger issue is what is the compaction of the base and then you will be disturbing the top of it.
After removal be sure you inspect and compact that base very well before putting concrete over it

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

25 years ago I had a gravel drive that was used for many years. To widen it I dug along the sides. Then scraped an inch or so from the top to the sides. I compacted it all down to the right level. Just drove past the other day, looks like it did the day I poured it.
The drive at my current house had asphalt that was in bad shape including holes from the tires where vehicles parked. I busted it up and compacted. 10 years so far.