Longest driveway ever...

peds

Hiya,

Can anyone give me some gravel advice?
We are looking at improving about 130m of farm track, lined with hedge and trees on the right side, then a stream followed by hedge and trees on the left side. Looking to do it as cheaply as possible obviously, but we need it to be able to take delivery vehicles for building a house.
First step is to remove the right-hand hedge, dig a new drainage and mound the earth back on the driveway side of the road, and replant. I'll be removing the trees and hedge, I've got a digger driver friend for the earthworks, and I'll be planting the hedge myself.


Second step... gravel. My initial plan is to have my father in law (licensed) reverse a dump truck up the drive tipping piles out as we rake it flat. Is 804 the best product to use for this, or is there something cheaper we can get away with? With the stream right next to the driveway would runoff from some aggregates be a concern?
I'd then be renting a whacker to hammer it flat. Can one man with no experience cover 140m in a day?

Looking at tonnage calculator sites, it seems like I'm in need of around 40 tonnes of material... does that sound right?

Is there anything glaringly obvious that I'm missing here, and is this the kind of job that can be taken on by a few enthusiastic amateurs, or am I better off just paying someone to do it?

Thanks for any advice.

Victor

peds wrote: »

Hiya,

Can anyone give me some gravel advice?
We are looking at improving about 130m of farm track, lined with hedge and trees on the right side, then a stream followed by hedge and trees on the left side. Looking to do it as cheaply as possible obviously, but we need it to be able to take delivery vehicles for building a house.
First step is to remove the right-hand hedge, dig a new drainage and mound the earth back on the driveway side of the road, and replant. I'll be removing the trees and hedge, I've got a digger driver friend for the earthworks, and I'll be planting the hedge myself.

Are any of the trees protected? Does your planning permission cover removal / moving of boundaries an interference with drainage? Note that semi-mature and mature trees make for a nicer place to live, so clearing them all may have a negative effect.

Looking at tonnage calculator sites, it seems like I'm in need of around 40 tonnes of material... does that sound right?

130 metres x 2 metres x 150mm is 39 m3.

Typical density of rock is 2.5t/m3, so you would need close to 100 tonnes. Loose aggregate isn't as dense as compacted aggregate.

Depending on the condition of the existing track, you may need to remove topsoil.

Dane29

Hi Peds,
If council are resurfacing nearby road the usually take top layer off and sell for approx500/load. Seemingly great stuff for road surface.

Regards
D

Tefral

804 is great stuff and compacts well. You could also get 2 inch down also? that compacts extremely well also.

Danes advice is also good. Ive seen this laid out and rolled after. unreal finish

BrokenArrows

You will want to remove the topsoil as others have said. If you dont do this then ultimately you're just going to compress the gravel into the soil and it will just become mucky in a short space of time.

Mooooo

If it's a farm track new rules coming in will require bunding off some form on the stream side or at the minimum have the fall going from the stream side to the other. Runoff isn't allowed to directly to a watercourse but with these changes it is likely an area to be checked should an inspection happen

Calahonda52

Tefral wrote: »

804 is great stuff and compacts well. You could also get 2 inch down also? that compacts extremely well also.

Danes advice is also good. Ive seen this laid out and rolled after. unreal finish

Its no longer 804

peds

Victor wrote: »

Are any of the trees protected? Does your planning permission cover removal / moving of boundaries an interference with drainage? Note that semi-mature and mature trees make for a nicer place to live, so clearing them all may have a negative effect.

Thanks for your reply, we were in discussion with neighbours regarding boundaries and drainage and an agreement has been reached between all parties. The planning isn't concerned with it.

With regards to your second point, you are absolutely right, and it's a beautiful hedge, so we are sad to have to see it go, but I'll be replanting it at the earliest available opportunity. I've got about 20 trees in pots at the moment getting a head start, and I'll be dropping in bare root hedge plants as soon as the work is done.

Luckily, the rest of the site is on just over an acre of decent woodland with dozens of established trees, 95% of which are staying exactly where they are. It's why we've fallen in love with the place.

Cheers!

Dane29 wrote: »

Hi Peds,
If council are resurfacing nearby road the usually take top layer off and sell for approx500/load. Seemingly great stuff for road surface.

Great information, thank you for that.

Tefral wrote: »

804 is great stuff and compacts well. You could also get 2 inch down also? that compacts extremely well also.

Groovy, thanks very much.

BrokenArrows wrote: »

You will want to remove the topsoil as others have said. If you dont do this then ultimately you're just going to compress the gravel into the soil and it will just become mucky in a short space of time.

I see, I'll look into this.
Don't think I'm being glib when I ask this, but what if we quite like the "grass in the middle of the road" look? We want to maintain as much of the current look as possible, we don't really want it to look like a wide stretch of tarmac... if we just press the 804 (or whatever) directly onto the surface, will we get a decent enough finish that will re-wild quickly enough without causing too many problems later on down the line?

Mooooo wrote: »

If it's a farm track new rules coming in will require bunding off some form on the stream side or at the minimum have the fall going from the stream side to the other. Runoff isn't allowed to directly to a watercourse but with these changes it is likely an area to be checked should an inspection happen

Thanks very much for this, I'll have to look into it. I only used the term farm track as a description, no farmwork goes on there so would it fall under the new rules? It's a track to a single derelict dwelling. If needs be we can dig the new drain without much hassle, but it'd be simpler not to.

Victor

peds wrote: »

Don't think I'm being glib when I ask this, but what if we quite like the "grass in the middle of the road" look?

All well and good until a construction vehicle / the oil truck sinks into it.

Quantum Erasure

grass will come up handy enough without topsoil, don't worry about that

Lumen

I wouldn't want to compact 300-400sqm by hand.

The vibration alone could do you an injury.

listermint

Lumen wrote: »

I wouldn't want to compact 300-400sqm by hand.

The vibration alone could do you an injury.

Vibration party ? With beer :O