Low foot traffic gravel path

I have a concrete drive on the front of my house which currently has on each side grass and plant borders. When getting in and out of the car when it's raining the grass has been getting waterlogged and the mud then walks into the house.

I was intending on bordering the plant beds with log roll edging and then filling the areas next to the concrete drive with 30-40mm deep of

6-10mm gravel laid on a plastic membrane. I have read that gravel paths used for foot traffic should have a sub layer of a 75-100mm layer of crushed stone, hardcore or DTp1 in addition to the plastic membrane under the gravel. Is this sub base necessary for this area considering it will receive very little foot traffic (getting in and out of car basically) or would just the plastic membrane be sufficent?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Reply to
uk_techie_2005
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If you have soil under the gravel - think what effects a wandering mole could produce, passing under the membrane.

Of course, if you have shallow topsoil with firm subsoil and there is no possibility of moles, then a base for the gravel isn't necessary.

IME, with relatively shallow gravel, a membrane will last longer with an inch or so of sand over it, rolled/treaded down, before putting the gravel over the top.

Reply to
Palindr☻me

My first thoughts are that the plastic will hold water and you'll be walking through a pond with gravel in it. I think I would not put the plastic in (what's it for, anyway?) but ensure that there was a good substructure to avoid mud punching through. There is actually proper stuff for this called Terram. You put this down first, but it's not cheap, although you probably won't need much.

Rob Graham

Reply to
Rob graham

I assumed that it was permeable plastic membrane to stop stuff growing up through the gravel. As you say, an impermeable plastic sheet would give you a long, narrow, goldfish pond..

Reply to
Palindr☻me

All,

Thanks for the replies. Apologies, I didn't make it clear, I was thinking of using a semi-permeable membrane between the gravel and the earth to keep the gravel separate from the earth and possibly prevent some weeds, although I realise this will not be 100%. I bought some material similar to the Terram from B&Qs recently as it was on sale and very cheap. I'll check to see if this is the same spec as the Terram material mentioned here.

and how solid the subsoil is. If it the topsoil is thin and the subsoil firm then I should be able to use a material like Terram under the gravel. If this isn't the case then I'll need to use some sort of larger aggregate underneath the top level of gravel.

This does raise a couple more questions:

1=2E If I need to use a larger aggregate under the gravel would this be something like the DTp1 (as suggested by
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website)? 2=2E Would I need something like Terram between the two layers to stop them mixing? Or is this the reason the under layer needs compacting?

Thanks again for advice.

Martin

Pal> >

Reply to
uk_techie_2005

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