Sub base - how much to compact at a time - Advice please on laying a sub base

[poppak]

A friend has asked me to help get a drive way installed. The house is on a hill and is lower than the road - there is a 300 - 400mm drop from the pavement to the existing lawn, and we would expect a 600mm retaining wall at the front of the house with steps.The area is approx 24 Sq metres. The plan is to get the area ready for a later application for a dropped kerb

We are struggling to get local tradesmen to even come out to quote (Chesterfield) , so I may do it myself over the summer - thats a lot of scalpings to drop and compact, so how much could I spread and compact in one go ? My thinking is to drop say 6 maxi bags around the area, split and spread it, and then compact it.

Any advice much appreciated

[mistajay]

no more than 150mm in depth at a time

[Tony McC]

Mistajay is right in saying that you can't (and shouldn't!) attempt to compact more than 150mm depth of sub-base aggregate at a time, but I wonder whether your question is about what tonnage of aggregate you could reasonably be expected to spread, level and compact in a single day, relying solely on hand tools (so, no digger or dumper).

In my prime, we would be expected to manhandle 20 tonnes of DTp1 or similar per man per day. That's around 240 barrows, fully loaded, carted to position, dumped, spread, levelled and compacted. It could be hard graft on a wet day, admittedly, or on an awkward site, but if we got three good lads on a 20T drop, we would have it shifted in under 3 hrs.

For a DIYer, I would suggest not to expect much more than a quarter of that sort of productivity....so, maybe 5T per day, which is around 6 of those bulk bags (because, no matter what they say, there is NEVER a tonne in there! 850kg at best!) and you WILL ache the next day.

[mistajay]

In my prime, we would be expected to manhandle 20 tonnes of DTp1 or similar per man per day. That's around 240 barrows, fully loaded, carted to position, dumped, spread, levelled and compacted.

That’s a tough day 😂