Driveway Made Of Wood?

[Jack]

Has anyone ever heard of anyone creating a driveway made of wood?

For arguments sake, let's say we want try this as an experiment and we'll be using oak from trees we'll be cutting ourselves. As an experiment we want to see how long the wood lasts without treating, so we'll cut the wood and let it dry to what moisture content? What "ideal" type of wood would you use?

Would (pun inteneded) it be wise to have large planks or small pieces, such as pavers? There will be expansion/contraction. Can this be calculated before the wood would be laid?

I know there is going to be at least one person on the planet who will want to post something negative about this, so, for that person: please post your reply straight to yourself and not here. Thanks.

Jack

[Lew Hodgett]

Jack wrote: > Has anyone ever heard of anyone creating a driveway made of wood?

Remember your history classes where they discussed corduroy road construction using wooden logs?

Lew

[lwasserm]

Believe it or not in the arly 20th century there were ROADS made of wood. However they used treated timbers like railroad ties, probably creosote.

[else24]

[David]

I lived on a street called Hessler Court in Cleveland. Oak timbers, end grain up, each about the size of a brick. I don't know the depth of the "bricks". The street is about 150 years old (IIRC). A call to Cleveland's "Western Reserve Historical Society"

could probably get you construction details or directions to someone who knows.

It does have some dips due to settling. It is the last remaining wood street in the city, and repairs have sadly been done with brick or asphalt. Charming to look at and live on. When covered with snow, it has traction characteristics similar to a hockey rink.

David S.

[e-mail] wrote:

[Lew Hodgett]

What part of Cleveland?

What you are describing has often been used as a machine shop floor.

Horseburg & Scott, a gear box manufacturer on Hamilton Av in Cleveland used it for their shops.

Lew

[Robatoy]

Within 20 miles from my house, a road was built between Petrolia and Sarnia, Ontario. Entirely made from white oak soaked in creosote, it lasted a long time. On it, carts with barrels of oil were transported from (what they claim) the first strike in North America to (one of) the first refineries owned by Standard Oil aka SO (phoenetically ESSO) That road, today called (wait for it.........).....Plank road. Sometimes, when a repair is done, or a sewer is laid, they will often find remnants of the planks.

When a summer breeze rolls in from SSE, the scent of crude faintly fills the air. That only happens a couple of times per year.

When the wind comes from SW, one can clearly make out the scent of sheep, led to the slaughter by their dictator.

October 5 is going to be a big day. God bless all my American friends!

NO.. I am not some kinda 'lefty', in fact the opposite is true...but enough is enough.

r

(I seldom voice my political views, here, or anywhere else...but for f*ck sakes WAKE UP!!!)

[J T]

Sun, Oct 1, 2006, 8:01pm (EDT-3) one_eyed [e-mail] (Jack) doth burbleth: Has anyone ever heard of anyone creating a driveway made of wood?

Roads, yes. Driveway, no.

JOAT It's not hard, if you get your mind right.

- Granny Weatherwax

[todd]

I love the loaded words. Your use of the word "dictator" to describe the situation in the US should be pretty offensive to people who actually live in dictatorships across the world.

Hmmm..let's look at some of the other supporters of this cause: Ed Asner, Harry Belafonte, Ward Churchill, John Conyers, Jane Fonda, Cynthia McKinney (!), Susan Sarandon, The Rev. Al Sharpton, Cindy Sheehan, Martin Sheen, Gloria Steinem, Maxine Waters, etc. My apologies to the rest of the lefties I haven't ever heard of that are also included in the list. Be careful hanging around this group. You might get catch a bad case of liberalism just from proximity. You are, of course, free to spend you time as you see fit. My suggestion, however, would be to do something that might actually produce a result. Let me say this plainly...George Bush is not going to be driven out of office either by impeachment or resignation. I'm not arguing the merits of whether he should or not...it just isn't going to happen. Face it...this is a kook left fringe topic. It's the same people who believe that 9/11 was a Bush administration conspiracy. I mean, have you actually read the claims on this web site? "Your Government is moving each day closer to a theocracy"? Laughable. Can you say "hyperbole", boys and girls? Sure. I knew you could.

Oh, and watch the references to God. We're moving toward a theocracy, you know.

todd

[John B]

G'day Jack, I believe that there are roads (streets) paved with Western Australian Jarrah in England. I can't testify to this having never been there, but in the dim dark recesses of my mind I recall being told this while doing my apprenticeship. I think the blocks were planted on end.

regards John

[Morris Dovey]

| When the wind comes from SW, one can clearly make out the scent of | sheep, led to the slaughter by their dictator. | | October 5 is going to be a big day. God bless all my American | friends! | |

|| ...and NO.. I am not some kinda 'lefty', in fact the opposite is | true...but enough is enough. | | (I seldom voice my political views, here, or anywhere else...

Hmm. I assume that you (and the worldcantwait folks) have thought this through carefully and considered the consequences of success - and have somehow reached the conclusion that Cheney would be a significant improvement...

Please be very careful what you wish/advocate for.

-- Morris Dovey who hasn't forgotten:

[Doug Miller]

Funny thing... here, when the wind blows from the north, it smells like an asshole.

[John]

In New York State there were numerous "plank roads" in the 1800's. They acquired a reputation for uncommon slipperiness, and thus danger to horses and cargo. The wood used was whatever was at hand and in abundant supply. Frequently, as in the Catskills, this would have been Canadian Hemlock. To this day, hiking trails there and elsewhere occasionally have small wooden bridges (just big enough for a person) thrown across small streams and with a light coat of green algae/slime/whatever are indeed slippery as all heck. After they were torn up, remnants of said "plank roads" are said to have survived well into the 20th century in piles that moldered in obscure nooks of the countryside. I do not recall having heard whether the planks were treated in any way.

If your goal is just to see how long untreated wood will last before rotting, build yourself a back porch! :-) If made from untreated wood you will go through several during your lifetime.

J.

Jack wrote:

[Don Sforza]

Growing up in CT, we lived in a house that my Grandfather had bought for his family in the early 20's. Although he never drove, and my father didn't own a car until 1953, we had a wide driveway/pathway... about 12 feet wide and

50-60 feet long... leading to the caning shed. It was made of endgrain treated timbers about 4" thick and about the size of a standard brick. Considering my Grandfather's immigrant roots, I'm sure they were "free", and probably throwaways from the machine foundry where he worked. When we left the house in 1959 they were still there... in fact, they were still there in

[Leon]

There are still wooden bridges that are over 100 years old however they often are not exposed to the ground. Either way wood is used for drive ways that lead up to oil rigs.

[Robatoy]

You are right! I am doing all I can to make sure Steven Harper won't be prime minister for much longer. He's just another Bush lapdog.

r

[dingbat]

Used to be common in UK railway stations about 100 years ago. Milk was delivered by rail (first train of the morning was always known as the "milk train") and in metal churns. To keep noise down when unloading these, the light freight platform and driveway at urban passenger stations would be payed with end-grain wooden blocks to reduce the noise. These were commonly made from recycled end-grain blocks, the wedge-shaped blocks used to fill Maunsell-pattern railway carriage wheels (these wheels had an iron core, a steel tyre and a wood block filler between, supposedly to quieten noise).

I've also worked in heavy machine shops (car body panel press shops) where the whole floor (several acres) was end-grain maple blocks. They were an inch thick in grease (sheet lubricant from the presses) too, which made even standing up difficult. I used to wear a suit, tie, rubber gloves and hobnail boots!

[Dave Hall]

When I was growing up my family had a piece of land along the Little Kanawa River (West Virginia). It had a couple of creek beds that my dad built bridges over by setting 4 telephone poles across the creek (creek was about 4 to 6 feet below the bridge deck) and then planking them with rough cut oak planks (about 2" thick x 10" wide). Somewhere along the road he coated them with used motor oil, but when installed they were fairly green and untreated. I know that they were used for about 10 years. How long they lasted after that I don't know (this was almost 40 years ago). A thought would be to excavate the drive deep enough to lay telephone poles or railroad ties as sleepers and plank on top so that the "roadway" is not in direct contact with the ground.

Dave Hall

[bob.kirkpatrick]

Interestingly enough, in addition to the corduroy and plank roads of the 18th and 19th century, early 20th century automobile racetracks were sometimes made of wood because ordinary road surfaces weren't smooth enough to race on. With time these plain wood tracks decayed, loosing planks which were set on edge as I recall. I once read an account by an early driver about driving around holes and also heads appearing in front of him as kids under the track would stick their heads through the holes to see the race up close.

Sounds like the best choice would be IPE,

it is impervious to insects, rot and fungus and about is three times harder than teak, cedar, PT-SYP or other weather resistant woods.

[Larry Blanchard]

Dammit, Morris, just the thought ruined my breakfast :-).

'Bout like the newspaper headline yesterday that called a US population of

300,000,000 a "milestone". I consider it a millstone :-).