There's rock on my driveway!

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Well, for a little way anyway.

Thing is its real loose. It's 2" clean limestone, which is what somebody told me to use as a base (then put 5/8 with fines about 2" thick on top of this after a year or so, except you can't hardly get 5/8" here and I may have to put 1" with fines for the top layer).

In the meantime, driving in it is almost as bad as driving in mud.

Is there something I'm supposed to do to make it pack, or did I pick the wrong size to use for road base? It's supposed to be 6" thick but it looks more like 4".

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), October 26, 2001

Answers

from my years building roads, I can say , limestone WILL pack as hard if not harder than concrete. If alll your doing to pack it is drive/park on it,, itll take awhile. YOu shouldnt need to add finer material on top of it. Everytime you pull in,, run across it a few time, keep moving over a tire width,, shouldnt take too long, something heavy would be better. Not sure about your snowfall, but plowing loose stone will only require you to replace it come spring unless you pack it first

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), October 27, 2001.

We have rock brought in periodically on parts of our 0.7-mile lane. The last time they brought a bigger size than usual, and it was hard to drive through, but it's now packed down pretty well. The quickest way to pack it is to have some heavy trucks drive over it (the propane truck is a good one). I think you're better off bringing the rock in in stages, letting it pack down, and then adding more on top than putting a really thick base unless you have some professional road-building equipement to tamp it in. Part of our lane has had rock put down for years, and even though it's rutted, you'll never sink into mud.

-- Katherine in KY (KyKatherine@Yahoo.com), October 27, 2001.

Yep, it takes time for it to pack down well. I've used 2 inch and 3 inch. I prefer the latter because, once it is packed, the heavy machinery won't squash throught to the soil when everything is wet. I too had small gravel with fines (more like 6 inches thick though) added on top of some of my three inch. Makes driving a lot smoother BUT water can flow across a 3 inch road. The rushing water just washes the fines away. Of course, if the road had been designed and built with a culvert or at least a water turnout the fines would have probably stayed. Today's digging project which I am avoiding by reading the forums. I'll know more either way after this soppy winter.

-- charles (clb@dixienet.com), October 27, 2001.

OK, I guess it WOULD have been smarter to spread several thinner layers! I'm going to take a cement rake and spread the gravel that's down already, and from now on I'll have them dump a thinner layer, one truckload at a time.

So is 3" better than the 2" then? If its thick enough will it make a difference? Since I already put down 2" can I put 3" on top of it?

A never ending barrage of questions ... LOL!

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), October 29, 2001.


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