The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:51 am**

Hello just joined this forum and am looking for a little help if possable.

I moved into a house that has a gravel driveway made from pea shingle and it was looking rather sorry for its self I do not know what base is under the gravel but I am guessing that it is not very deep

I want to lay new gravel and so I have removed a lot of the old grave.l The gravel that is left I have hired a wacker plate and have started to wack it down but when I do this the gravel sinks partly into the ground and muddy water is rising to the top if this makes sence.

Where I have added more gravel it then sits on top of this ground and no longer sinks.

I have ordered new gravel (20mm stafford gravel) I was told that this is better than the 10 mm as it is less likly to get stuck in the tyre tread but on reading again this may be to big but then I am hoping that the local cats will stop using it as a toilet !

I was thinking on putting down a membrane but on reading this and other sites I now see that they are not recomended.

If as I suspect I do not have a good base would it be sufficent when the new gravel arrives to lay a layer of this and wack this down and then top with more of the same gavel ?

I have been living at this house with the old drive for 5 years and the cars have not been sinking into the ground and right now I do not wish to spend a fortune

Is there a cheep ? Low cost way to make the best of this situation ?

Many Thanks in advance

Gary

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:04 pm**

hi , when you scrape the gravel away off the drive ,what is underneath?

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:14 pm**

Mud .....I do not see hardcore:( but the ground is hard I would not be able to dig it easily it is not like digging my garden if that makes sence

Do I go out there and try to dig up a section ? The thin layer of gravel that I still have on the surface when I wack it down in areas it is sinking into the ground but in other areas it does not sink in so much ....You can clearly see that I am an expert !!!!!

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:25 pm**

really you need to dig out the lot and put type 1 down and then whack that with plate and then put gravel down . the dearest bit is getting rid of spoil (grab or skip ). how big is the drive roughly.

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:30 pm**

Ok from my above post it is not really on Mud as such

When I digg a small hole under the gravel there is a mix of More gravel and mud and under this there is like hard core large stones and sand almost like builders rubble material I will try to add some pics to this or my next post

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:33 pm**

pics would be great.

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:53 pm**

sorry pictures would be nice but right now my blimmin phone is playing up so I cannot get them onto here

Assume that I must have some hard core down probably not type 1 if when my new gravel arrives and I was to lay dowm 10 or 20 cms and then wack that down untill it does not sink then put the gravel on top is this might this work ?

Sorry I cannot get the pics to load phone is taking flying lessons !!!!!

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:02 pm**

in the long run no ,i wouldnt lay any of the gravel until you have sorted the base out first .it will only come back to haunt you.

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:53 pm**

Ok This is what is under my gravel currently

Another picture

This is what the driveway currently looks like

Where it looks like mud is where the wacker has flattend it and the muddy surface is comming to the top

The under serface of the drive looks like a mix of largish stones and sharp sand and smaller stones but have no idea how deep this goes

Hope this helps

Thanks
Gary

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:01 pm**

A few more images before I removed the old gravel

not sure if these give any help

Thanks

Gary

Posted: **Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:12 pm**

To much organic content for me as a sub-base i would excavate down and make a good base with clean type 1 scalpings 40mm to dust compacted to at least 100mm thickness and top up with your chosen gravel.

Posted: **Wed Jan 12, 2011 9:53 am**

^ ^ ^ is correct

Posted: **Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:23 pm**

Ideally, the exoisting would be stripped back to 100-150mm, and a new sub-base of Type 1 granular sub-base laid, topped with 25-40mm of 10mm gravel (20mm will be like walking on ball bearings and will scatter every-bloody-where when the car passes over it).

The existing sub-layer is a poor attempt at a capping or improvement layer. It's better than just having the sub-grade, but it's the root cause (literally) of all the problems you're now experiencing.

There's no over-riding need, as far as I can see, to rip out all of the existing sub-layer, as it can continue to function as an improvement layer, as long as you get at least 100mm (prefer 150mm) of good, clean granular sub-base down on top of it.

And forget the membrane/geo-textile idea completely. No need for it on that stuff!

The Brew Cabin

Trying to lay a gravel driveway