Driveway needs doing?

Question

I have a large driveway. 50% of it is nasty old concrete the rest is rough soggy turf. The land is soft so tarmac is out of the question.
With a limited budget whats the best way of doing the whole job ?
Should I dig up the concrete or go over the top of it with hardcore etc ? I estimate I need 40mt of hardcore !

Answer 1

First assume that the Nasty 50% will never improve on its own, AND that eventually the NOT Nasty will degrade as well.

Certainly removal will be labor intensive, but a good call at the end of a day.

Without knowing your location, and your definition of "hardcore" I offer this.

I live in Florida, and the ground here is most often "Soggy"

Most contractors, commercial, private, and goverment, use packed soil, probably, largely clay based, then roll Crushed Lime Rock over that, then,,, on roads at least, pave with Blacktop.

The paving assures a more substantial, long lasting surface, obviously,,, as Lime Rock erodes in Rain.

Another solution for you might be, just crushed rock, in a framed area, or river rock 6 inches deep. You can frame the area edges with some form or border. Another might be Railroad Ties.

A limited budget is understandable, and not knowing how long you plan to live at that address, it may be at some point you will be able to resurface more appropriately, and will, if you choose to sell,,, add that value back into the house.

Rev. Steven

Answer 2

Tarmac is not out of the question. People build roads over marsh land you know !

Our drive is 600 feet long over clay marshland, its fine and takes lorries, tractors etc to our house. It depends on how well you do the substrate.

If you want it really cheap, dig up the concrete, spread it over the whole plot, tamper it down, get in a lorry load of scalpings. It'll go rock hard after walking/driving on it for a few weeks. And its easy to top up if any of it does sink

It'll be smooth and not tread into the house when its wet.

Answer 3

The cheapest way would be 20 ton of quarry waste or gravel. Firstly lay black perforated plastic sheet over the whole area, just held in place with stones, then get the tipper lorry to drop off in piles along the drive and you level out.

Answer 4

Sure its legal. Its not like its crack or anything - I mean we have craigslist and whatnot. If anyone tries to stop you, just tell them you are running a free driveway museum for all your junk, flip them the bird, as they clearly have a rod up their ***, and move on...

Answer 5

definately dig it up, you'll just cause more probs int he future if you leave the old concrete. If theres a gap under it, you'll get gaps inyour new drive as the concrete slowly subsides under the new weight

Answer 6

Sounds like you live in the Fens or other parts or the UK that I've had the pleasure to travel thru. While I did not do any earthwork in that part of the world, I've had to deal with a sponge soggy turf in Alaska called muskeg, which is anything but an ideal road base.

One of the advantages you seem to have where you live with the soils conditions you have to deal with is that while the overburden is soggy and soft, - aparrently there is some more solidified or load bearing strata - perhaps a clay layer (trapping the moisture above?), or a solid" bottom" of bedrock there somewhere not too terribly far below the surface - this is an educated guess - based only on the fact that you say you have a fair amount of "nasty old concrete" driveway left to deal with as well as the earthen portion of the drive to deal with.

Before we proceed any further I have to ask - are you sure that the "nasty old concrete" is in fact just old concrete. The reason I ask - is that if indeed you are from the UK or the European Union for that matter, people have for centuries mistakenly dugup and destryed millions of miles, (Kilometers), of old Roman roadbeds. Many Countrys still hold these artifacts to be historic Antiquities some must be left in place - undisturbed, and others simple recorded for posterity after they have been surveyed, and still others have been carefull removed in part or in whole by the "Government", and sometimes there are private collectors who will by small sections of the radbed for their collection, or by the whole of the roadbed if it is made up of cast brick , for actual full scale realistic recretions of famous roman and greek structures. So check it you - more than likely it's just "nasty old concrete", but if it's not, you have some decisions to make. That limited budget of yours could increase dramatically if you find a wealthy private collector of Antiquities that is in the market - its amazing what you can sell on E-bay these days., or you can be a philanthropist and call the Goverment, and risk having your driveway and a good portion of your land taken under "Eminate Domain". Choices, choices, choices.

So the first thingI would do is rent a proper back hoe with two buckets, a hoe- ram, and an articulated push blade on the front if available.. Rent as large a commercial hoe as you can afford. If you can not operate if - hire an operator - believe me it will be worth it - the time saved by the work accomplished will amaze you. I prefer a track hoe - like a 225 CAT and up, - (Ask your operator - tell him what you are doing, and what you need to accomplish and let him advise you - and then get another opinion).

You want a 1 yard bucket minimum, and also a ripping bucket, and a hydraulic hoe - ram.

Sequence of the work:

1. Secure your permit (if required where you live).

2. Look at the old drive way road bed. You say you have a "large" drive way; what does that mean exactly? Does it mean long? Wide" Too wide" Does it open up into a small carpark up at the House or Garage? Do you want it to? If you are in a rurl setting, and your existing driveway is fairly long drive and comes straight in from the road , and your tired of seeing headlights coming by, and people pulling in, to turn around etc, maybe you want to put a big sweeping curve in the drive and build a berm in the belly of the curve and plant some evergrens on it to screen your house from the road and the noise. Now is the time to correct what you do not like about the drive way

OK. Youve figured out whatever roadbed changes you want to make. Is the area adjacent to the new driveway landscaped? I don't know why - but I get the feeling that it is not , (maybe some yard up by the house, but the rest - no).

Here's what I suggest; First fit the hoe ram onto the back hoe, and break op the nasty old concrete. you want to break it into small chunks - about 6" x 6" & smaller. This should go quickly as I do not think the concrete will be reinforced with re-bar, however it could contain welded wire fabric, (# 10 wire mesh at 6" on center each way - if thats the case, the breaking of the old concrete will take longer, and you will have some torch ork to do.
When the operator has the opld concrte all broken up, he will start excaving the driveway down about 12". If you can salvage any of the existing crushed rock or gravel - that is clean and relatively free of fines - do so. Stockpile this reserved material off site on a hard surfaced slab.

A normal diveway is about 16'-0" in the US, I do know know how wide yours is. The next step is to evaluate the exposed soils you encouter after you've dug down a foot in a number of test pits up and down your alley way. Are you in pumpy wet muck? If so, dig a test pit down another 6" with the backhoe - exposing another swath the width of the bucket and about 6'0" long.how does that loo, - any better? If not it's not worth continuing to dig down to find more suitable load beaing soils on your budget. What now?

Thje answer is needle punched non-woven geotextile filter fabric. Road builders use this material in wet road bed, soft soil conditiions to "span" soft spots, and spread the load over a larger area, when the base and sub base soils will not meet required bearing and density requirements. You can purchase this material thorough your local Contractor's supply outlet - check with your local earthwork contractor - he probably has it on hand and will sell you some - or can advise you on where to go to purcahse it. (It comes if large wide rolls just like carpet.

Secure enough filter fabric to cover the entier area that you are going to install new driveway over, plus 2 feet on either side. If you have the chance - ask the supplier to check the manufacturers recommendatrions fo what number or classification of filter fabric is recoimmended for your particular installation. There are many products out there and many grades for different uses. Using a US Gov't spec here I would specify a # 4 filkter fabric geo textile fabric, needle punched, non voen, Federal Specification NUmber: TDD -25 - ___________.

So dig out you driveway bed - one foot larger on each side that you need drape the filter fabric over the excavation as you go - one satip of 12 - 16'-0" wide fabric going down perpendicular to the driveay at a timecut the fabric about a foot or 1 1/2 ' longer that the edge of the edge of the excavation on each side. You are done with the Back hoe & accessories, rental over - send them back - operator is off the clock.

Hire a local small blacktop, (Tarmac) contracto to do some trucking, bobcat, & steram roller work for you. Have him lay in a layer of the demolished old concrete. and continue working your way to the road. When you run out of the old concrete get small rip-rap or large dresser trap rock to finish the job. You should now have a layer of 6" deep 4" - 8" stones in the bottom of your road bed.

Next fill in the :Voids" in this bottom layer with "Pea Gravel, which is just what it sounds like - clean washed pebbles about the size of a green pea.. Level the pea grave course until it completely covers the rocks below by an inch or so. Now you will have about 4 - 5" left until you meet grade. Now fold over the filter fabric, and stake it in place to the top of this layer,

I would I would top off the whole thing with recycled asphalt, (cold milled asphalt). This stuff sets up like concrete, and resists weather very well.

Have the Contractor put a 2 1/2 " - 4" crown in the center of your new driveway to shed water to the shoulders od the drive on each side. Have him clean up and hual off any remaining over burden that you do not want wasted on site, write the final checks, and enjoy your new drive way. Good luck.

I'm pulling for you.