Gravel driveway refreshing

[Agroshield]

You could use a riddle bucket, but you'd still end up with soil falling through.

This is the part of the proposed solutions I do not understand.

It is the fine organic matter in the gravel that gives the weeds somewhere to grow, so is it not that that needs removing? A riddle bucket will pull out the big lumps, but will just redistribute the rest of what is there rather than get rid of it.

To me, some sort of wet screening might be good, so the water washes the fines off the gravel, through the screen and away to be discarded. Clean, wet gravel does not pass the screen and is relaid.

 

[Keithmac]

Our 10/20 gravel is probably 1/2 foot deep onto weed barrier and never had any issue with weeds.

I have some gravel grid with 5mm gravel and that suffers from leaves composting on top, then weeds growing our off that.

Bought some professional grade weedkiller and that sees most things off! (Gallup XL)

 

[8ob]

Something like this would do the job, may find one in a small tool hire shop like HSS.

 

[Agrismith]

This is the part of the proposed solutions I do not understand.

It is the fine organic matter in the gravel that gives the weeds somewhere to grow, so is it not that that needs removing? A riddle bucket will pull out the big lumps, but will just redistribute the rest of what is there rather than get rid of it.

To me, some sort of wet screening might be good, so the water washes the fines off the gravel, through the screen and away to be discarded. Clean, wet gravel does not pass the screen and is relaid.

The idea would be that the soil and fines fall through as you shake the bucket and the good stone is left behind in the bucket. But riddle buckets typically are to wide for this job and you would loose all the stones. You would still have to pick the weeds out the pile afterwards but should be more manageable

 

[anto44]

I saw a diy version of what 8ob posted that was a washing machine or drier drum temporarily mounted onto an electric cement mixer

 

[sako243]

I've recently done the driveways to my place - probably about 750m² all told. We dug it all out down about 6-9" depending on what we found.

We put in crusher run (up to 4" stone) in the softer / deeper spots and compacted that in, also used it to build the necessary grades on the driveway. There was then a couple of inches of type 1 sub-base that went over the top and finished it in an inch of 20mm clean chippings.

All told it was:
- 200 tonnes of crusher-run @ £12.50 / tonne
- 200 tonnes of sub-base @ £18.50 / tonne
- 65 tonnes of 20mm clean @ £23.50 / tonne

All delivered prices in Dyfed and after the red diesel rebate was removed from the quarries.

If you lay on the clean stone too thick then it tends to rut out badly and trap more dirt. I was pleasantly surprised that when @8ob and I were dragging those massive beams out of his lorry and sliding the end (not particularly gently) onto the car-park it didn't actually break up the surface of the type 1. Just pushed all the chippings off the top. I was skeptical but mightly impressed in the end of the little Bomag vibratory roller that Ben brought up to compact things.

Why mention this - well recent real-world costs of doing a driveway. Also I suspect that if you can @Tinbasherdan rather than putting 100mm of stone down, use type 1 which is cheaper, compacts better and effectively becomes a weed suppressant - then put the chippings down over the top.

 

[James1979]

I saw a diy version of what 8ob posted that was a washing machine or drier drum temporarily mounted onto an electric cement mixer

I was about to say that. I’ve seen one on an old mixer but the drum replaced with a 45 gal drum with big slots cut in the side and mesh banded round the outside.

Bit heath robinson but it worked well from the half hour or so I saw it work.

 

[roofman]

need to be spraying the drive every 6 months with some skull and cross bones gear the councils use on pavements with them quads Dan

 

[James1979]

need to be spraying the drive every 6 months with some skull and cross bones gear the councils use on pavements with them quads Dan

Yup.

As @doubleboost’s advice - if it’s not got dead fish on the label it’s no good

 

[gaz1]

easier just to grass it and run a mower over the lot of it then who cares about the weeds growing in it

 

[brightspark]

need to be spraying the drive every 6 months with some skull and cross bones gear the councils use on pavements with them quads Dan

just do mine twice a year with roundup in a knapsack sprayer. get the odd bit now and then and just spray them off .my gravels been down 30 years. bought 2ton of gravel and spread it around a bit and compacted it

 

[addjunkie]

I've recently done the driveways to my place - probably about 750m² all told. We dug it all out down about 6-9" depending on what we found.

We put in crusher run (up to 4" stone) in the softer / deeper spots and compacted that in, also used it to build the necessary grades on the driveway. There was then a couple of inches of type 1 sub-base that went over the top and finished it in an inch of 20mm clean chippings.

All told it was:
- 200 tonnes of crusher-run @ £12.50 / tonne
- 200 tonnes of sub-base @ £18.50 / tonne
- 65 tonnes of 20mm clean @ £23.50 / tonne

All delivered prices in Dyfed and after the red diesel rebate was removed from the quarries.

If you lay on the clean stone too thick then it tends to rut out badly and trap more dirt. I was pleasantly surprised that when @8ob and I were dragging those massive beams out of his lorry and sliding the end (not particularly gently) onto the car-park it didn't actually break up the surface of the type 1. Just pushed all the chippings off the top. I was skeptical but mightly impressed in the end of the little Bomag vibratory roller that Ben brought up to compact things.

Why mention this - well recent real-world costs of doing a driveway. Also I suspect that if you can @Tinbasherdan rather than putting 100mm of stone down, use type 1 which is cheaper, compacts better and effectively becomes a weed suppressant - then put the chippings down over the top.

Those dont seem bad prices at all on the stone. Are you quite close to the quarry? I paid 18 quid a ton for 3x 20 ton loads for 40mm crusher run about 4 weeks ago. Quality wasn't important as just fixing pot holes and putting a track over a field to my shed. When I enquired about an extra load of 20mm washed it was far more than that.

 

[More Amps]

Have you considered gravel grids to stop the gravel moving?

 

[sako243]

Those dont seem bad prices at all on the stone. Are you quite close to the quarry? I paid 18 quid a ton for 3x 20 ton loads for 40mm crusher run about 4 weeks ago. Quality wasn't important as just fixing pot holes and putting a track over a field to my shed. When I enquired about an extra load of 20mm washed it was far more than that.

About an hour round trip for Huw. Bear in mind those were ex VAT prices

 

[roofman]

About an hour round trip for Huw. Bear in mind those were ex VAT prices

Bottom line my man, anything else is pointless

 

[addjunkie]

Bottom line my man, anything else is pointless

Yes except if your not vat registered and buying wood pellets……5 or 20% …..depending if its horse bedding or domestic fuel. My horse likes its pellet boiler gov!