So this week we had yet another first; we had a bunch of crushed rock delivered to our home for our driveway. Prior to living here our longest driveway was about 30 feet and all concrete. Our driveway is now about 800 feet long and is not paved.
When purchasing the home we knew there would be unexpected maintenance costs with the property, but I didn’t think about needing new rock every year for our driveway. Between the rain and snow the old crushed rock has almost completely been pushed down leaving a very muddy mess in spots. Before the Spring/Summer rains come, we decided to “bite the bullet” and have more rock dumped on the driveway. After several different quotes, I opted to just have one truck-load delivered and see how well it covered… To my dismay, I learned how relatively small 20 tons can be. Next month we’ll get another load or two. :-)
When purchasing the home we knew there would be unexpected maintenance costs with the property, but I didn’t think about needing new rock every year for our driveway. Between the rain and snow the old crushed rock has almost completely been pushed down leaving a very muddy mess in spots. Before the Spring/Summer rains come, we decided to “bite the bullet” and have more rock dumped on the driveway. After several different quotes, I opted to just have one truck-load delivered and see how well it covered… To my dismay, I learned how relatively small 20 tons can be. Next month we’ll get another load or two. :-)
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You might want to consider road mix. It's popular here because of the snow. If you have it delivered, spread it, and then rent one of those machines that packs it down like you would before pouring cement, it will get really hard over time. It won't wash away. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteI googled Road Mix and cannot find much other music from One Tree Hill. Is roadmix the brand or is that a generic term?
ReplyDeleteGeneric term. Road-mix is what they lay before pouring concrete. It's like a dirt mixed with some sand and gravel and the stuff compacts super hard. Ask a cement guy in your area....he should be able to tell you where to get it or more about it. I would guess that the make up of it is different from different place to place (everyone has their own "recipe" so to speak) so you may want to ask first about using it as a driveway.
ReplyDeleteWe get it from this place locally which I'm sure you could call them and ask about it. They don't have a website that I can find. They are just up the road from us. Our cement guy told us about them and every time we have poured cement we've ordered it to give us a nice smooth and hard base to pour cement. But we've also seen people compact it down to use as a drive way or extended parking, etc.
Busy Bee Sand & Gravel Inc
(208) 888-1011
Address: 1320 S Black Cat Rd, Meridian, ID 83642
They even have "road mix" in their yellow pages description. "Busy Bee Sand & Gravel has Masonry Sand, Cobblestone, Road Mix, Concrete Mix, Reject Sand, Fill Dirt, Top Soil, Drain Field Rock, Pea Gravel, Arena Sand. Two pits available for pick-up or delivery. Call today!"
Another option you might be interested in is having your already dirt driveway "oiled". Up at my parent's cabin they hire a company to pour oil all over the roads. Over time (pouring over several years) it compacts in the dirt and creates what looks like asphalt. It hardens in the sun and heat of summer I'm guessing. It keeps the dust down and the rain water runs off of it instead of the rain making large run-off grooves in your road. Again, it looks like asphalt and while not as hard as asphalt it hardens pretty well.
There is nothing like putting down something you end up hating. My parents put down slate-rock gravel in their RV parking area thinking it would compact and it didn't. It was a mess. They ended up paying to have it removed. Gravel can be a mess as well and difficult to walk on. It's worth taking the time to see what others have used in your area that compacts really well.
Hope this was helpful.
Jen