I have been preparing my (sloping) drive for a lovely new self-binding gravel finish. But I think I've made a major mistake with my choice of hardcore for underneath. I've gone for crusher - gravel and fines which I've whacked down (4 inches of it). It was looking great until we had several heavy, stormy showers. Now I have areas that have turned to porridge and a huge pond at the foot of my drive.
My soil is v v heavy clay and the drive has been scaped to subsoil level.
Can I rescue the situation or do I really have to dig up all that crusher (10 bulk bags worth) and start again? I'm wondering if adding a couple of land drains and a chanel at the bottom will sort it out? (I was thinking of a soakaway until I came acorss this excellent, helpful forum)
And is self-binding gravel considered permable re the new res for driveways anyway?
read the main site, hoggin is crap, i'm from op north and we don't have it up here thank god
and on a slope any gravel even self binding(my ar*e) unless resin bound/bonded is going to mitigate with gravity and traffic to the bottom of the slope.
you'll need a threshold to stop it traveling onto the highway.
yo need to dig out the spongy bits and get rid of them, thats the problem with crusher run its all brick and crap, false economy in my eyes always use virgin aggregate or there are some supliers supplying decent crusher run with only clean concrete no clay brick on soil in it.
Giles
Groundworks and Equestrian specialists, prestige new builds and sports pitches. High Peak, Cheshire, South Yorkshire area.
As with other gravels, self-binding products are not suitable for use on any gradient greater than around 1:12, although the extent of migration experienced with self-binding gravels is considerably less than that found with loose gravels.
Thanks for your comments - sorry I've not been back before.
Anyway, here's an up-date.
Yes we're still planning to go for self-binding gravel (which I understand is quite like hoggin)
Why is hoggin crap? Does it just not bind?
Our slope is 1:13 so just about OK for this I think.
The main problem is the clay subsoil.
I've installed a land drain half way down the drive (feeding into a drain) and dug a big pit at the bottom which I've filled with '20mm clean'. I've also installed a garage drainage pack at the bottom and there is a threshold.
Now I just need it to really waz-it-down to see if I've done enough.
The crusher has been down a few weeks now and is rock hard, so I can't imagine it will allow much to soak through.
I can supply pics if anyone wants to see how not to do a driveway? :p
