Gravel drive too deep, cars cut waves in it.

by **Bob2009** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:37 pm

I put too much gravel on my drive. This caused cars to dig groves in it and tend to drift and to stall. The solution was to buy bags of postfix concret, the fast drying type. Lift out a bag sized width of gravel accross the drive. Put in enough bags of postfix to 3/4 fill the channel. Before wetting the concrete excavate the adjacent channel, turning the gravel onto the first channel. Now lay another line of concrete, still dry. Turn the next strip of gravel onto the previous channel. When complete rake over the drive area and water in. The gravel embeds itself into the postfix and you can leave just enough loose to give the desired effect. Its drivable on withing a couple of hours. You can do a long drive in sections, just starting from where you finished before. You can controll the depth of the base as you proceed. The final touch was to add sharp sand which fills in the some of the indentations between the gravel, ending up with a gravel drive that looks nice and yet is firm to drive and walk over. (The sharp sand will gradually merge into the drive).
Bob

by **acsimpson** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:45 am

Very helpful I'm sure, but will this stop water soaking into your drive and hence remove one of the best features of a gravel drive?

by **Bob2009** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:08 pm

Hi AC, Yes I did consider water run off and my soloution was to not lay the dry concrete edge to edge. Leaving a 1 foot or more channel down each side of the drive. In case a car drives completely to the edge I lay to the edge every second foot. Now the occasional car that is driven to the edge will cause a small grove but not enough to be a problem and the water can escape to the sides. In my case the drive uses side on railway sleepers as edging and so there is ample space for water to soak away. Also, I find the concrete that was added to the base is in strips and not a complete covering, the gravel is contained within the strips and water just vanishes. I have had no flooding or puddling since I applied my soloution.
Bob

by **chris_on_tour2002** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:42 am

won't the concrete just break up in time?

by **fencesllove** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 8:10 am

I think the concrete that was added to the base is in strips and not a complete covering.

by **fencesllove** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 8:11 am

I think the concrete that was added to the base is in strips and not a complete covering.