driveway repair

oj

Member
The gravel driveway to the farm house is getting pretty rough, pot holes and the like, it needs some new gravel and fixing. Question is, should i use a pad foot roller or a regular vibrating roller to pack the new gravel down...

I've used my loader to back blade the driveway a few times, but now it needs some new gravel. Last year when i put down some new gravel and back bladed, the vehicles seemed to pound the new gravel out of the potholes, hence my thought to use a vibrating roller. I can rent either from my local rental shop...
 
3/4" crusher run has all the material including fine particles. (also called ABC road base) The fine material packs the spaces between the larger stones and keeps the displacement to a minimum. A smooth roller is best. The sheep's foot is for compacting soil that has been used as fill, it will not (often) compact the top 3 inches very well. Do not disturb the material in the base of the drive if it has been established for two years or more.
Flatten what you have and put the crusher run on top. Crown the new material at 3 inches in 20 feet so that water runs off the drive instead of staying in puddles that splash the stone into the ditch. Jim
 
Get some 3 in minus dig down about a ft. Into each pot hole and fill with this. Then add your 3/4 minus to the top. The pot holes won't come back.
Walt
 
Gravel can never be compacted. It settles in place when rolled or viberated. Example, if you were to apply 3 inches of gravel on your driveway roll it viberate or what ever and when you were done you could give the gravel a kick with your foot and it would be loose.

When I was sent out to grade a dirt road full of pot holes, I would always cut the road down to the bottom of the potholes, providing there was decent material to do so and regrade the entire road.

The material you want to use is called 2A
 
Give some thought to using crushed asphalt, also called roto-mill.
It's the old blacktop they grind up off the roads.
The sun heats it, it packs in when softened and gets quite hard.
I put it in my driveway about 8 years ago. Works great.
 

Like Rollie says you have to cut, or in other words grade to the bottom of the potholes, using some sort of blade like a fairly heavy three point blade. Otherwise the pot holes will just come right back. Then like Janicholson says add 3/4 crusher run and crown it up good. Gravel will ALWAYS compact and needs to be compacted, but unless I needed to drive 25 MPH or so I would just compact it with regular traffic. I have hauled from a lot of different places but I have never heard of 2A, it must be a regional thing.
 
Pot holes are caused by water collecting in the road instead of running off the road.

Get the dirt away from road so water can run off. I use a combination of dirt, rock or gravel to fill holes. Let it get rained on. Pack in by driving on it. Get the holes fixed before you top coat it with an inch or so with rock or gravel. Where I come rock is white rock. Gravel is cheaper, more rounded. Make the water run off the road, not down the middle. Crown the road. Keep top coating until you get a good road base. I like to use #2 for the base and top with #8. It may take years to work the #2 in, depending on how heavy the traffic is. I have one drive for the trash man. He has a very heavy truck.

You want dirt, I like to use clay, around the rock to displace the water and hold the gravel in place.
George
 
Like everyone says, get it moving. Turn you blade on a sharp angle and lower the leading edge. Dig down the edges about 6 inches and use that to crown the drive. You will be shocked at how much rock there is under there. Once you have it crowned really good you won't get potholes. I've had buses, tractors, cars, and ATV's on this drive regularly for ages - no more pot holes.
 
the first thing is gravel will not stay long in a existing pothole, you need to rip all the potholes, and eliminate them, during this process you may be suprised at how much gravel you still have, after you get the driveway loose, [i use a box blade with rippers on it and weight it down as much as your tractor will handel,] then if you need more gravel or basecourse instead add it then, then pack it down, either rent a smoothdrum roller or even a large truck as long as what you use to roll with weighs more than the vehicles that would normally use the driveway
 
Showcrop, 2A used to be referred to as modified.
2A is a Penndot standard and is federal highway approved as far as I know.
I have to disagree with you on compaction of gravel, aggregate.

Gravel>
AASHTO #57
2B
• This material has a 1-1/2 inch topsize and is a clean material.
AASHTO #57 washed
• Used in ready-mixed concrete and hot mix asphalt
• Also used for driveways, walkways, and drainage
• Clean material that does not compact well.

Here is the Redneck test results. Place gravel of any size on a driveway, roll it well. Then take your pickup truck to the gravel driveway and mash the throttle. Gravel will fly everywhere and you will have a hole or a rut.

Now take 2A Modified and roll it and repeat the spin test. The result will be that the tires just spin on the surface and do not displace the material.
 
(quoted from post at 16:15:55 04/22/14) Showcrop, 2A used to be referred to as modified.
2A is a Penndot standard and is federal highway approved as far as I know.
I have to disagree with you on compaction of gravel, aggregate.

Gravel>
AASHTO #57
2B
• This material has a 1-1/2 inch topsize and is a clean material.
AASHTO #57 washed
• Used in ready-mixed concrete and hot mix asphalt
• Also used for driveways, walkways, and drainage
• Clean material that does not compact well.

Here is the Redneck test results. Place gravel of any size on a driveway, roll it well. Then take your pickup truck to the gravel driveway and mash the throttle. Gravel will fly everywhere and you will have a hole or a rut.

Now take 2A Modified and roll it and repeat the spin test. The result will be that the tires just spin on the surface and do not displace the material.

Here in NH State spec road base gravel and crusher run are nearly the same thing and the terms are used interchangeably. However not all crusher run passes state spec because it will have too much of one sieve size aggregate and too much of another. So regular crusher run may need to be "doctored" a little to bring it to spec. I hauled many loads of state spec road base from a quarry whose invoice states at the bottom that the crusher run does not meet state spec. They just added back in some material of the right size to make it meet state spec. Now what you are calling gravel may be what we call washed stone here. Washed stone will not compact in years, whereas the road base crusher run gravel used on roads here will within a month of just regular car traffic compact to the hardness of concrete.
 
Showcrop, We are on the same page, just different terminalogy for the different classes of products.

PennDot 2A has some of the overburden mixed with the rock as it goes thru the crusher. It makes a very good road base material. Compaction is tested with a Nuclear Densometer.

Does your state use Superpave asphalt mix? I have mixed feelings about it.
 
(quoted from post at 16:24:19 04/23/14) Showcrop, We are on the same page, just different terminalogy for the different classes of products.

PennDot 2A has some of the overburden mixed with the rock as it goes thru the crusher. It makes a very good road base material. Compaction is tested with a Nuclear Densometer.

Does your state use Superpave asphalt mix? I have mixed feelings about it.

I am not familiar with that. I hauled about twelve loads of 3/4 base on Monday and it looked the same as it ever has. What is different about it?
 

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