This was another time I was remiss in getting BEFORE pictures. Our ½ mile-long gravel driveway has required several fixes over the last 14 years, but we have learned how to institute FINAL fixes. Everywhere we've applied the FINAL fix, it has worked and we have no more mud and gravel disappearing into the earth.
I swear we have put enough gravel on this driveway for it to surface as a fine roadway somewhere in China. We had a terrible situation where one side of the tread was almost 10 inches lower than the center of the driveway. My husband's low clearance VW Jetta would drag the center, so he always had to "ride one tire in the middle". This finally got too old. So I decided to do a FINAL fix. I don't have photos of the "before", nor the way I used the tractor and box scraper to loosen the middle and even out the surface in preparation.
I do have photos of the process from that point on. After the surface is leveled and sloped to drain, you cart up 40 feet oF geotextile and cut the 14 foot wide by 40 feet long piece down the middle making 2 pieces 7 foot by 40 feet. Then lay the fabric in the driveway, put some "starter stone on the entry side and call the stone guy. You have to ask for someone who knows how to back spread from the truck.
He arrives; you tell him to make it 3 to 4 inches thick over the fabric and let the rest fall thinner after the fabric until it runs out.
Now that you've paid him and exchanged small talk about family, fishing, children, late marriage babies...you are left with still more work to do. You go to your garage and get your ASV Mini-Track loader and start pulling the stone at the edge into the tread. There is a lot of stone that gets way off the tread and if you don't pull it back it is wasted. So about an hour later, after many trips across the tread doing this 4 feet (bucket width) at a time, you finally finish the 80 plus the 30 more feet of stone.
Then you back drag the bucket several times making the tread even with a cross slope so it will drain. Use the rake to dress up a few spots and you are done.
Back to the house for some ice tea. Oh, I should mention that my husband showed up on his ATV 3 or 4 times to check on me, bring me ice water, bring me more ice water and some cookies. What a nice guy. He was busy at the house preparing for tomorrow's trial...he's an Attorney.
BY-THE-WAY, besides the tractor with the box scraper - these are MY TOOLS OF CHOICE - THEY WORK GREAT!!!
YY
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