Driveway Gravel Recommendation

Looking to resurface driveway, planning on getting 3/4" crushed gravel. Anyone recommend anything different and why? Live in WI so get rain/snow/frost, etc.
Thanks for the opinons.

We have both crushed shale and crushed river rock the shale
is light and will never pack down if on a hill it will wash away.
The river rock is much heavier and will pack in solid won't
wash away. Makes a real solid road, I like it much better. Just
don't use pea gravel like my uncle Frank did. BUMMER.
Walt

It is the wrong time of the year to put gravel on a driveway unless you have a auful lot of heavy traffic to pack it in. If it is not packed down good when you plow snow in the winter it will be in the road ditch or your lawn. Best time to gravel is in the late spring and early summer,and if you have a good base the 3/4 stuff will be alright.

Bob

I use 3/4 crushed, clean, without dust. I don"t like what they call 3/4 road gravel as it contains dust.

I have a little experience using crushed gravel with the dust . I found that with the crusher dust the gravel will stay where it is put, doesn't walk away when driving over it.

I thought everybody in Wi used rotten granite. Works good and packs down well.

If you get the crushed white rock with dust,the dust sets up like
concrete after it gets rained on. In my opinion it packs better.

I would disagree on the time of year, if you have solid existing subsoils or subbase, it should be graded to accept the new material, so that you can place a uniform thickness of new material.

If you are talking 3/4 crushed stone, clean, thats a mistake, but you said gravel, so I would assume the material you want to use is a crusher run with multiple sieve size aggregate, right down to dust, with optimum moisture, not too much, not too little.

If the existing road base is well drained, stable and so on, then regrade, vibratory roll that layer, then start placing the crusher run,(we call it Item #4 here per what NYS DOT specifies for subbase) grade with a crown or camber, if you look at the road in section, it has a rise in the middle for drainage. Then the most important piece of equipment you'll need to have is a vibratory roller, to compact the material, again, moisture level can play a role in achieving desired compaction, 95% or better is nice. Gravel driveways, roads, all need maintenance, and aside from going a step further and say mixing portland in with the crusher run, to help bind it further, in my opinion, the above is about as good as it gets, uniform thickness, well compacted layers, correct material, graded correctly, that vibratory roller will set the material nicely, you have to be cognizant of things that erode it, water, snowplow, what have you.

I re-did mine in '04 and aside from some water erosion that I need to redirect from the paved lane, one side of a portion of it eroded from that water coming off the half a cul-de-sac (sp?)

I'm fortunate to have photos, I lost a folder or 2 from then when my PC failed, had everything backed up and have the old drives, not sure what happened.

New D4G at the time, almost zero on the meter and paint still on the tracks. Awesome dozer from a rental outfit I used to do a lot of business with, he had not even taken delivery of it, came straight from CAT, I greased 'er up and did 2 jobs with it, just incredible compared to what I ran in the past.



My 850 Ford and the D4G, I had stockpiled useable crusher run that was existing, stockpiled and pushed off the spoil from excavating the driveway down for run of bank and screened gravel, then placed the crusher run on top, all was compacted with a small but adequate vibratory roller, I'll be darned if I can't find the finished photos, I can still see the crown I placed in one area to divert water after 8 years. Nice shot of that gravel going in, so easy to grade this loose material, made a nice shot too, I'm on a gravel/clay shale hill, so its solid, well drained, we do have some springs too, so it can get saturated on occasion.




Showing off, had to climb up on the pile and take a shot, my old D7 caterpillar's are in the background grumbling about that late model D4 LOL!

Let me clarify, 95% is compaction, not moisture!

Wait till spring if you can.

In sw OK, I have a source for crushed old concrete ( unsure
about size, but looks small as gravel) much closer than the
rock and gravel pits, 21 vs. 68 miles OW. Will buy some as
soon as grading blade is welded. But I never need to plow
snow either....
Ralph in OK.

I missed one thing road gravel is called 3/4 minus. That means
its largest stones are 3/4 and go down in size from there
making it a real gravel to compress into a road bed. If you
order just 3/4 it's going to be all the same size and will not
compact.
One thing about our river rock out here is its loaded with lots of
small agates for the kids to find. Once I was putting in some 2
in. for a drain system and found a real nice big piece of Amber,
sorry no bugs in it. I put it aside to take to the house and it
disappeared. BUMMER

my dad just did his 750ft drive last sept first they regraded then added a nice layer of process graded that and used a vibratory roller on it. then they added a layer of asphalt millings graded and again used the vibratory roller on it. it came out great it was able to be plowed and held up ok but we had a very mild winter. this yr it seems to have gotten even better since the heat of the summer seems to have "cured" and packed the millings tighter.

I like the crushed gray rock with the fines left in.

Did a lot of work building roads in this area when I drove dump truck. If it where me and you have it in your area a load of dirty base then the 1/2-3/4 crushed stuff. The dirty base is very small fine stuff that once it has gotten wet will almost cement the larger stuff in place. Note I say almost not will

Gotta have fines in it or it won't pack. And a little moisture will make it pack even better. Clean gravel (no fines) will roll around nearly as bad as a bunch of marbles. Your local quarry will tell you exactly what you need.

i got two loads of recycled concrete with fines. biggest pieces were 3/4", it has worked better than expected. it is as hard as concrete.
*** dont listen to any bs about glass and metal in it. i didnt have any.

I wanted to do it this spring but it's a shared driveway and was having issues getting money from another party....I figure if I get it done this week or next it will give it a good month to two months to pack before the snow flys, plus the fall rain should help it pack and let me notice any low spots that might need a touch up. In winter I try to pack down the first couple of snow falls before plowing (unless we get a big one first) to protect the gravel. Looks like the price I'm getting is about $230 for 22 ton load, sound about right?

The price will be affected by the length of haul. $10.45/ton delivered/spread would sound fair in my neighborhood.

Get crushed limestone.
It packs down hard like concrete. Costs more though.

Our driveway and large parking area has 3/4" crushed limestone WITH the finer screenings in it. It really packs down nicely. Photo shows driveway packed from usage. Husband blades drive way and gravel parking area once or twice a year to keep it nice. We add a little gravel every few years.

EDIT: Forgot to add that we only put in on in spring or early summer so it has time to get packed down before the snow flies!

Inside our shed...no fine stuff and the rocks get shuffled around everytime you walk or drive in there. Pain in the neck. You can rake it all level - walk acrossed it, and it is messed up with depressions from every footstep.

The price was with delivery ($10/ton + $10 fuel surcharge=$230 for 22 ton truck). I asked for "crushed" gravel, might have to make a call before I go ahead and see what crushed limestone will be, if any difference? Don't have access to any large rollers, was just going to have them tailgate spread it and then level it with my box blade and drive up and down it a bunch. The other thing I have to figure out is how to get my neighbor to slow down going up and down the driveway, I've made comments but they seem to go right over their head that if they slow down you don't get the "ripples" in the driveway.

One other thing that you can do to firm it up is to buy bags of concrete and rake it into the gravel. This really stiffens it up. (kinda like Viagra for gravel driveways)

One other thing that you can do to firm it up is to buy bags of concrete and rake it into the gravel. This really stiffens it up. (kinda like Viagra for gravel driveways)

If you can get asphalt grindings, they are great and when the sun heats them up they will set up hard. Get them graded level because you don't get a second chance.

yak651,
In my opinion, the bigger the rock the less likely it will stuck to tires and get carried out or splashed out if water stands on the road. The most important thing is to prevent water from getting on the road. Crown the road and knock the edges down. If you don't knock the edges down, it will trap water and you are no better off, don't care how many loads of gravel you put down.

My friend has a gravel road and a steep incline. I had to angle the road to keep the water from going down the center.

I've found that if you have a pot hole that comes back after you fill it with rock, it's because water stands there. Put a little rock in pot hole, add clay soil, then more rock. Keep repeating the process. Clay is cheaper than cement and it will keep the water from getting between the rocks. After it gets rained on and driven on, it will harden like concrete.

If you have a long gravel drive, you need a tractor with a grader or box blade. Or know someone who has one.

George

I put gravel in mine. Several times. Every spring it would sink into the mud and be gone.
I put ground asphalt or roto-mill in it 4 years ago and its still holding up great.
The heat from the sun and driving on it packs it down pretty hard although I
do get a few pieces in the yard from the snow plow.
It was a bit pricey, $22/yard IIRC.

Roger on the 3/4 limestone with fines. with a little moisture it gets hard as concrete. (My old yellow Lab "Abby" can still dig a hole to bury some special goody though.)

My experience in my area of northeast Missouri is totally different than many have had on here. Around here you want a good sized, clean rock for a base that can get packed in good then lay smaller rock on top for a smooth surface. You do NOT want fines in the mix at all in this area. All fines will do is keep the rock "fluid" and not let the rock pack in (and cost you more as well). A new driveway around here on clay or black dirt would require some 1 1/2" clean rock with possibly some 3/4" clean on top. Or if it were a softer spot some 3" clean rock with 1 1/2 on top. Anything smaller than that for a base will go to China in short order. Mike

3/4" minus it what I would use assuming you have a good base. Scarify the base to get all the holes out and grade it out and then add the 3/4" minus and grade that. You need the fines in the misu to get it to lock in.

Gravel roads are like water lines. Everyone that has ever drank water is a water line expert, and everyone who has ever driven down a gravel road is an expert.

This is what I learned building roads on my farm, over the last 12 years.

Hire a good excavator that knows how to shoot a grade and get the water off the sides. Long straight down hill runs are going to washout, no matter what rock you use.

Invest in Geo cloth, Best money you will ever spend on a road.

Use a mix of stone sizes, odd shapes so it can pack together and lock in place.

We use crushed stone base, with dense grade on top. NO...#2's they are just too rough for my tastes, never smooth out. 57's are like marbles and just keep rolling around until the roll away.

Put the stone down wet, smooth it careful and rent a vibrating roller.

My roads are all pretty good after 10 years except a few low spots and one downhill ski slope.

3/4 down to fine works great. The main thing is to get a good base under it. My drive way been in 32 years and just now getting ready for chipping.We took all the top soil and sub soil out taking it down 4 foot. I then took 2 - 3 foot x 60 foot slabs that my mobil home set on and all the field rocks we could find along with the concrete from a silo we took down. We then put 3 inch limestone on top of that and used 1 inch down to fine on the top 6 inchs of drive way and have only graded it several times in the 32 years its been in.

Some of us only have limestone.

Im from north of Oshkosh and around here if you are not building a new drive the best I have found is screenings. The biggest stone in it is 3/8in you can spread it thin where you need to and it is easy on the lawn mower. And if you put it down now be carefull plowing snow. Jim

(quoted from post at 21:12:29 10/08/12) The price was with delivery ($10/ton + $10 fuel surcharge=$230 for 22 ton truck). I asked for "crushed" gravel, might have to make a call before I go ahead and see what crushed limestone will be, if any difference? Don't have access to any large rollers, was just going to have them tailgate spread it and then level it with my box blade and drive up and down it a bunch. The other thing I have to figure out is how to get my neighbor to slow down going up and down the driveway, I've made comments but they seem to go right over their head that if they slow down you don't get the "ripples" in the driveway.

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yak, I have the same problem you do with folks driving too fast on my driveway. I have a couple of 'blind' curves where it's impossible to see another driver coming from the other direction. I've put up "SLOW" signs on several trees along side the drive. That didn't help much. I had to add another drainpipe under the driveway last year, after doing so I had a dip in the drive where the soil settled over the pipe. The dummies that come in too fast hit the dip and usually slow down after dragging their under carraige. Bottom line is, leave a few 'ripples' for speed bumps. It's working for me.

In a word; RAP! (reclaimed asphalt paving)
JMHO, Dave