Need advice about gravel driveway

[Bob]

I built a garage/workshop toward the back of my lot, about 150 feet from the house. It is 28' X 24', and I keep my pickup in there as well as it being a shop.

I had a gravel driveway put in from the concrete house drive to the garage (concrete was too expensive). This was maybe about seven years ago. They dug down about four inches and used base fill, on top of that they spread a nice looking sandy colored material then sprayed it with a tar like substance, followed with small rock. The driveway works fine except I have to spray weeds in about twice a year.

Now, the rocks have worn off, pushed down, or something and there is quite a bit of the tar like stuff showing.

I would like to add more rocks, but need something to hold them in place rather than just have loose rocks on the drive.

Is this something I can do myself - if so how?

What do I need to do to fix it and control expenses to a minimum?

Thanks for any advice.

Bob

[Lawrence]

You can get on the phone with your credit card and have have as many dump truck loads delivered as you like. In order to hold the finer rock in place you may have to firstly put down some of the coarser material you are seeing underneath. So just order some very coarse rock to start probably one load. Then after yu have it where you like it you can order the finer material which makes up the surface of your drive.

To save money you can use a shovel and wheelbarrow. It will work but it would be less work to rent a skidsteer or tractor to push material around with. Also if you order just one load at a time you wil be sure to spend as little as possible on material.

[Richard J Kinch]

It is called "paving". Takes massive amounts of material. Call somebody equipped for it.

If you could do it yourself, why did our ancestors have dirt roads?

[Nate Nagel]

Just put some pea gravel (small stones) down on top. As for it being loose and weeds coming through, that's just the nature of the beast. IF you actually need to reshape the drive, put some coarser gravel down first and then put the pea gravel on top to finish.

good luck,

nate

[kellyj00]

You just get weeds in rock driveways.... plain and simple. There's really no way to completely avoid them.

You could drop a bunch more rock on top....the finer it is, the better it looks and better it'll keep the weeds down.

Or you could just salt it heavily. Don't know how much solar salt is, but that'll make sure nothing ever grows there. If they did it in the bible, I'd imagine it'll work now.

[Lawrence]

While there may be no way to "completely" avoid them, road building fabric can be used when building a new drive and it actually does eliminate weeds for many years. I have looked at a number of drives in my area that have been built with the fabric and they do not have weeds. They also say that less aggregate can be used and that it will stay in place better where fabric is used. My place doesn't have a driveway just a rutted place where i drive. I have been thinking alot about my drive though and want to use the fabric when I get around to it.

[hallerb]

A neighbor INSISTED on a gravel drive to save on property taxes.

so he dug down a couple feet, installed a thin asphal;t drive then covered it with a foot of gravel.

only driveway with zero mud or weeds.......

I think the OP should get the original contractor or similiar to return add more tar and a new layer of stone to freshen it up.

gravel driveways arent maintence free.

[Goedjn]

Trouble with that is, all the gravel will trap dirt, and weeds will grow in the dirt, on TOP of whatever you put in for a substrate.

So that isn't going to work for very long.

[John]

This is a DIY site. What are you doing here?

Richard J K>

[Richard J Kinch]

This is a Usenet newsgroup. It is not a "site" of anything.

A key DIY skill is knowing what is beyond DIY. Like paving, for example.