gravel driveway maintenance

For some this information will be useless, since some are in suburbs and have concrete or paved driveways. For others, those who have lived with gravel drives for more than a couple years, this will seem like common knowledge. However, for the few in between or those considering a move to a more rural area, this may prove to be invaluable.

http://gaverspavers.com/how-to-maintain-your-gravel-driveway.htm

LOL I WISH we had a gravel driveway. Ours is just dirt for right now. I'm hoping one day we can do pavement or gravel, but for now, it is what it is.

been there, dealing with that. ours is supposed to be gravel, but as installed was too narrow so I parked off to one side. Now we have mud with spots of gravel here and there.

Ours is gravel, and I HATE it. It's fine if you don't have snow. But, you get snow, shovel the drive and the gravel all ends up in the grass. If we weren't hoping to move in another year or two, I'd be looking into pavers.

The problem w/paved or concrete is that it doesn't allow the water to seep thru into the ground below. Instead, it just runs off, and if it's a heavy enough storm, can really contribute to flooding. However, by having either plain brick or pavers, there's still room around the edges for the water to seep into the ground below.

About a month ago we covered our gravel drive/parking lot (I live in the parsonage next to the church) with ground up blacktop. This is made form the scrapings off the road when they put new top on the blacktop road. They told us that in the summer when it gets hot out that it will harden like blacktop. For now it is sort of like gravel but does not shift as much as gravel. We have had it on at least a month now and think it is much better than gravel. It is also cheaper than gravel.

Dizzy, this is my snow shovel when the driveway needs it:

http://www.amazon.com/Propane-Turbo-Torch-Nozzles-Turbo-Blast/dp/B000TBS2RS/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1365433693&sr=8-7&keywords=flame+weeder

it does not throw gravel at all.

At times, we get quite a lot of snow at once-like 2 ft. I think it would take an awful long time, plus a lot of fuel to clear our driveway w/that!

LOL it's not as fast as a snow blower, but a lot faster than a shovel. My drive is about 300 feet long, one 20# cylinder clears it three times. We only get a few inches of snow at a time. In fact we only see three or four snow falls that can be measured every winter.

12acrehome wrote:been there, dealing with that. ours is supposed to be gravel, but as installed was too narrow so I parked off to one side. Now we have mud with spots of gravel here and there.

Yeah. I believe ours was graveled at one time. Now it's just a scattering of rocks here and there.

I am amazed how quickly gravel becomes dirt / mud when the rains come

A lot is going to depend on what you have underneath of it, and whether or not it was installed properly. Our soil is very light and has a lot of sand mixed in w/it. Plus, my husband does dirt work for a living (He's a heavy equipment operator). So when it was done, it was done properly. You get the heavy, clay soils that really hold the moisture, it may not drain as well, then you'll get the mud.

yup, that sounds about like what I'm seeing