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Re: Gravel/Dirt driveways

To: Shop-Talk Talk <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: Gravel/Dirt driveways
From: Bill Rabel <brabel@dlux.net>
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 12:37:14 -0700
>> You'll want to get crushed stone (not smooth stones) that also  
>> contains the
>> stone dust & small grit. The stone dust/grit is what packs down  
>> into a firm
>> surface. A common name here is 1/2" or 3/4" Crusher Run. Smooth  
>> stones will
>> never lock together.
>>

I concur. I've had my own road to deal with, and I've overseen  
construction sites for our stores. I would add this:

If you have any muddy spots on your road, put down a layer of Mirafi  
fabric. This stuff looks like black visqueen, but it is porous. It  
will let the water through, but it will prevent the mud coming up  
through your rock layer, or (worse yet) the rock disappearing into  
the muck. Mirafi is a brand name, but it is a generic description of  
this barrier material that your building-supply store should know about.

We once put Mirafi over an entire two-acre site, because the soils  
engineer told us that the in-place cost of a layer of Mirafi would be  
about 20 percent the cost of  an additional six-inches of fill in the  
high traffic areas. Since the entire lot was exposed to heavy loads,  
we covered the entire site. We simply laid Mirafi ahead of the fill,  
starting at the street.

The bogs on the site, one of which nearly swallowed a tractor-trailer  
rig, were never a problem again. I'm sold on the stuff. I wish I had  
known about it years before, because one of our sites has asphalt  
that is about 18" deep in one spot where there was moisture.

- Bill Rabel
   Anacortes, WA






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