Driveway on budget

Shefwedfan

Ok, so house is nearly finished. Only issue is after all the diggers/trucks etc going in and out driveway it is a mess. Was never great in first place.

At the moment it is small stones. But it looks like previous owner just put some sand and plastic on top of old tarmac and then loaded on the stones. So it is a mess.

The driveway is circa 300m2 so I am looking what is the cost effective solution.

My brother say tarmac but I have young kids an hate seeing peoples knee in bits after falling on it.
Other relative said to concrete it out

What other options? I was planning on getting mini digger, pulling a lot of the crap off it and get down to the old tarmac and start from there.....

jn1993

We did a job on a house driveway before. Scraped the whole lot, spread out grit & packed it with a whacker, before covering with a generous layer of pebbles (like the ones for driveways you buy at a garden centre / roadstone).

End result was great - and still looks as good as the day it went down 9 years ago!

Shefwedfan

jn1993 wrote: »

We did a job on a house driveway before. Scraped the whole lot, spread out grit & packed it with a whacker, before covering with a generous layer of pebbles (like the ones for driveways you buy at a garden centre / roadstone).

End result was great - and still looks as good as the day it went down 9 years ago!

I guess that is what the previous owner of house was trying to achieve. He done a couple of poor jobs.

The stone you refer to is on there now but there is huge patch's with no stones, doesn't look to be enough on it. It is constantly growing weeds, even after a couple of heavy hits of roundup.

MysticMonk

Concrete the lot

Addle

Is Tarmac not a better service to have a fall on than concrete?

Shefwedfan

Addle wrote: »

Is Tarmac not a better service to have a fall on than concrete?

The problem with tarmac is I find the small stones cut the knees off you

Calahonda52

Do you really need 300 sqm?
Is it rural or urban setting?

Allah snackbar

jn1993 wrote: »

We did a job on a house driveway before. Scraped the whole lot, spread out grit & packed it with a whacker, before covering with a generous layer of pebbles (like the ones for driveways you buy at a garden centre / roadstone).

End result was great - and still looks as good as the day it went down 9 years ago!

+1 , just after doing it here with 16 mm limestone chip , 25 a ton delivered and 10 ton does a lot of ground

Peppa Cig

Allah snackbar wrote: »

+1 , just after doing it here with 16 mm limestone chip , 25 a ton delivered and 10 ton does a lot of ground

Looking to do same

Was it a finish to an 804 base?

Did you put grit or similar down before limestone chips?

Would love to see a photo

Allah snackbar

Yeah , I put 804 down and whacked it , build up to within 3 inches of the finished level and fill with the chip , if it's too deep it tends to spread and move too much

Peppa Cig

Allah snackbar wrote: »

Yeah , I put 804 down and whacked it , build up to within 3 inches of the finished level and fill with the chip , if it's too deep it tends to spread and move too much

So chip straight onto the whacked 804?

Is it a big area?

How's it holding up to cars. Is it rutting spreading much

You happy with size of chip now it's down?

Allah snackbar

Yeah , 16 is ideal , 10 is too small and 20 is too big , it compacts really well and doesn't move much , even to walk on it is grand , 10 ton done a driveway approx 120 square metres with some left over for filling in time

Peppa Cig

Allah snackbar wrote: »

Yeah , 16 is ideal , 10 is too small and 20 is too big , it compacts really well and doesn't move much , even to walk on it is grand , 10 ton done a driveway approx 120 square metres with some left over for filling in time

Cheers Allah, good to know
Hope to get done this summer

Shefwedfan

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Do you really need 300 sqm?
Is it rural or urban setting?

It is 300 sqm, probably a few more

It is just outside Dublin

Shefwedfan

Just thinking, the stones that are already installed are not great for the kids. They are young(3, 1, baby) and trying to cycle etc. Rest of house is all garden which again is difficult for them to start off. So really I think concrete/tarmac might be the option?

Or am I talking rubbish?

Peppa Cig

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Just thinking, the stones that are already installed are not great for the kids. They are young(3, 1, baby) and trying to cycle etc. Rest of house is all garden which again is difficult for them to start off. So really I think concrete/tarmac might be the option?

Or am I talking rubbish?

Tarmac (or concrete) is the way to go if you want kids to be able to cycle around house.

Only engage with a highly reputable verified vendor. Both jobs can be distroyed by amateur/cowboys

Tarmac would be around €17/m2 depending on prep works

Shefwedfan

Peppa Cig wrote: »

Tarmac (or concrete) is the way to go if you want kids to be able to cycle around house.

Only engage with a highly reputable verified vendor. Both jobs can be distroyed by amateur/cowboys

Tarmac would be around €17/m2 depending on prep works

I wonder if I do my own prep work would it work out cheaper? Don't mind a bit of labour.

If coloured cement much more expensive?

Peppa Cig

Shefwedfan wrote: »

I wonder if I do my own prep work would it work out cheaper? Don't mind a bit of labour.

If coloured cement much more expensive?

Not sure on concrete cost.

I'd leave all prep work to a pro. (Like yourself I don't mind hard labour) but with levels etc just get a pro.

goz83

If you can do the prep work, then do it. It's important to do what you can yourself when on a tight budget. It's your money that is being spent after all. You just need to figure out how deep to dig and how much to fill in with hardcore before getting tarmac, concrete. Concrete cost will vary depending on amount.

I got 2 cubic metres for €250 and then 1 cubic metre cost me about €200. I'll be getting 3 cubic metres next week to lay the concrete slab for the kitchen extension. Guessing about €300

Peppa Cig

goz83 wrote: »

If you can do the prep work, then do it. It's important to do what you can yourself when on a tight budget. It's your money that is being spent after all. You just need to figure out how deep to dig and how much to fill in with hardcore before getting tarmac, concrete. Concrete cost will vary depending on amount.

I got 2 cubic metres for €250 and then 1 cubic metre cost me about €200. I'll be getting 3 cubic metres next week to lay the concrete slab for the kitchen extension. Guessing about €300

Concrete e80m3 for 8m3 load

You could have paid a pro to lay it all at once at instead of paying e200 m3 here and there

goz83

Peppa Cig wrote: »

Concrete e80m3 for 8m3 load

You could have paid a pro to lay it all at once at instead of paying e200 m3 here and there

Unfortunately, we needed to split the loads.

Shefwedfan

Peppa Cig wrote: »

Not sure on concrete cost.

I'd leave all prep work to a pro. (Like yourself I don't mind hard labour) but with levels etc just get a pro.

Not talking about levels, as mentioned in post the current driveway if full of stone on top of tarmac. I wouldn't like to pour the concrete straight onto the cr*p that is there so would clear everything off myself.

Then let guy in to run levels etc and pour concrete.

_Brian

Tarmac is the answer.
Kids skin thee knees the odd time, it happens.

However if you put down pebble driveway they can't ride a bike, peddle a go cart, scooters etc.

We have loose pebble under our swing and slide and trampoline, but have flat asphalt everywhere else and the kids have a ball playing on it with their bikes, scooters and go cart.

thekooman

We have had broken stone (10mm-ish) down for 9 years (until 3 days ago). I kept it sprayed with roundup 2 to 3 times a year to keep down the weeds.

Not kid friendly as it was impossible to cycle on, etc but looked great and very cheap. got the stone in Molloys quarry Mayo.

Shefwedfan

thekooman wrote: »

We have had broken stone (10mm-ish) down for 9 years (until 3 days ago). I kept it sprayed with roundup 2 to 3 times a year to keep down the weeds.

Not kid friendly as it was impossible to cycle on, etc but looked great and very cheap. got the stone in Molloys quarry Mayo.

Looks lovely job....would need kids playing on it so not for me but great job

thekooman

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Looks lovely job....would need kids playing on it so not for me but great job

Impossible is too strong a word... it was comfortable on mountain bike tires but if it was a kids trike or such it would be hard work. Maintenance (804) would be very cheap as well and much easier to travel on with bikes/trikes if compacted down. but it gets very rutted with cars on it.

BoobeR

Just set up sections with some timber yourself and level all the boards, where you want it poured, get a load of lads and a readymix lorry. Be prepared to work fast moving and levelling it though hehe

evolving_doors

Grass paving! This type of stuff.
https://www.geo-coastal.ie/products-services/miscellaneous/reinforced-grass-paving/
There's concrete paving that allows grass to grow up between it too (in the car park at farmleigh)
You could drive on it and it'd probably be hard enough to cycle.

Shefwedfan

Gebgbegb wrote: »

Grass paving! This type of stuff.
https://www.geo-coastal.ie/products-services/miscellaneous/reinforced-grass-paving/
There's concrete paving that allows grass to grow up between it too (in the car park at farmleigh)
You could drive on it and it'd probably be hard enough to cycle.

Would have been ideal solution in last house. Very interesting option alright.

I do have 1 acre of grass. More on the driveway would drive me mad

I want concrete/tarmac as the kids are small and struggle to cycle on the grass

Thanks