Gravel Driveways - DIY?

[danza]

Hi all,

I spent 7 hours yesterday removing 10+ years worth of overgrown grass, weeds, shrubs and various other plants/trees along with a patio that had seen better days, and an 18" thick stone wall from my front garden (It's only a small plot though).

This was all with a view to turn it into a car parking spot. The quickest fix, at least at the mo appears to be to make a gravel drive. The only problem is I don't know exactly what this entails. The base of the patio still remains (sparse patches of degraded cement), and as such, the ground is very hard in places, and also a bit higher than the pavement level. There isn't really room for a small digger, plus if there was, I'd probably demolish my sitting room , so (more) hard graft may be the answer there.

So, does anyone have experience with DIY gravel drives? Did you wake up one morning to find your car had sunk a few feet into the ground? I want to know!

 

[Zip]

Go hire a dingo(Im not sure if you have them there, Could call them Kangaroos or something) Great fun to be had with those

 

[ste_bla]

Go hire a dingo(Im not sure if you have them there, Could call them Kangaroos or something) Great fun to be had with those

One of these?

http://www.hss.com/g/47428/Hauc_Light_Vibrating_Plate.html

 

[Zip]

One of these?

http://www.hss.com/g/47428/Hauc_Light_Vibrating_Plate.html

Nope, one of these

(note: it has lots of different bits you can put on it)

 

[chrislusty]

Would a hard surface be better to park a car on rather than gravel?

I have no idea where you start though!.

 

[Visage]

Hi all,

I spent 7 hours yesterday removing 10+ years worth of overgrown grass, weeds, shrubs and various other plants/trees along with a patio that had seen better days, and an 18" thick stone wall from my front garden (It's only a small plot though).

This was all with a view to turn it into a car parking spot. The quickest fix, at least at the mo appears to be to make a gravel drive. The only problem is I don't know exactly what this entails. The base of the patio still remains (sparse patches of degraded cement), and as such, the ground is very hard in places, and also a bit higher than the pavement level. There isn't really room for a small digger, plus if there was, I'd probably demolish my sitting room , so (more) hard graft may be the answer there.

So, does anyone have experience with DIY gravel drives? Did you wake up one morning to find your car had sunk a few feet into the ground? I want to know!

Dig down about 3 inches, spray copiously with strong weedkiller. Repeat at weekly intervals for a month. Lay down some weed proof membrane, apply gravel. Done.

 

[danza]

Dig down about 3 inches, spray copiously with strong weedkiller. Repeat at weekly intervals for a month. Lay down some weed proof membrane, apply gravel. Done.

Cheers. I've managed to find a few bits about using scalpings (larger stones) then compacting them, then laying gravel on top. You need to dig ~ 8" down for that! Sounds like too much hard work to me. Your idea sounds better

 

[Angel]

Those little digger things are called Kangas. They're cool but not really suited to this job. If you do want one Buxtons hire them out. Diggers are now really small they can now fit through a garden gate weigh in at .8 tonnes and run on rubber tracks not to rip up your garden to much.

Anyway most of that was irrlevent. You need to get a good levelish surface take out some of the patio foundation a cango (jackhammer) will do that quite easily. I've used this stuff called ground guard on a few projects at work that is fantastic. Its quite expensive but it will take 250 tonnes a square metere and gravel sits ontop of it. It stops the cars sinking in the gravel and provides a hard wearing surface. You lay the stuff on builders sand and i've put mypex under that to stop weeds. You can also grow grass through it.

 

[Visage]

Cheers. I've managed to find a few bits about using scalpings (larger stones) then compacting them, then laying gravel on top. You need to dig ~ 8" down for that! Sounds like too much hard work to me. Your idea sounds better

Yup. The 3 inches is a guideline though - the further down you go the better, though obviously deepr = more work + more gravel needed, so greater £££....

 

[SiD the Turtle]

We had gravel for about a decade until we replaced it with brick.

I'd advise against gravel. It'll look nice for a day until you start driving out, and half of it will end up in the road. Or stuck in the tread. And you'll eventually start carving out tracks in it where you normally pull out, so its never quite even.

 

["andy"]

cement or tarmac it ?

gravel just ends up a mess after a while and every local cat will use it as a toilet

 

[Chong Warrior]

Dig down about 3 inches, spray copiously with strong weedkiller. Repeat at weekly intervals for a month. Lay down some weed proof membrane, apply gravel. Done.

Anti-freeze will do the job in one go, kills absolutely everything that stuff