What's in a driveway?

[G Henslee]

Around here many folks use road base. Ask your material supplier about it.

[AlanBown]

Came home with Grandmother in Wisconsin once and we had a 8 foot diameter and 5 foot deep hole in the driveway. She just parked the car in front of the hole and we went inside. Turns out my grandfather had dug a well there when the house was built in the 1880's. Grandma ordered 10 tons of road metal, and had it dumped in the hole I got to spread it out some.

Might be good to find out why there is a hole. Wells are dangerous. Our farm in Iowa had 5 old wells which my father paid to put concrete into. None were very large in diameter, just big enough that a child could get into. Dad said there was no amount of money that could be saved for doing it half assed. Besides his father had put rock down them some 30 years before. Dad was into spending money once.

[DanG]

As a general statement, a pot hole type failure in any finish surface indicates that moisture has increased the plastic index of the subsoil beyond its acceptable limits, and/or the loads imposed on the surface are too large. In other words, the garbage truck is too heavy or driving through the wet pot hole has driven the moisture too deep into the soil.

You can try adding a fresh layer of crusher run or chat over the damaged area. If this is a pot hole that keeps coming back in the same place year after year you will do better to dig up the bad spot to remove the saturated subsoil and refill with geotextile and course stone and then top off with finer material. You will need to do something to eliminate the moisture such as crowning the drive, increasing the "barrow ditches" on the sides, or creating subsurface drainage.

Each area has different terms for local stone and granular fill. I do not recognize "driveway mix". You may not recognize my "crusher run" or "screenings". Work with your local supplier and explain your problem, they will fix you up with the local equivalent.

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[Tim and Steph]

I've got a giant pothole in my crushed stone driveway. It's about 3 feet wide by 10 feet long by about 8" deep. I've heard of stuff called "driveway mix", but I haven't a clue what's in it.

So, do I just get a yard of crushed stone and dump it in there? Or do I need to get some of this "driveway mix" and use that? Or do I need to excavate and install perf pipe or what?

[adam]

"AlanBown" wrote

The best advice so far. To think people would fill in a hole without finding out what's causing it, is beyond my comprehension. Besides the well you mentioned, broken water main, sewer line, & discharge for downspouts come to mind.

[MUADIB®]

besides the answers given, and after you find out why you have a hole in the first place,...........I have heard that crushed concrete makes a dandy driveway surface after you put it down and drive over it a little bit. I've heard some say it was next best thing to concrete poured in. Just another option.

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