Driving to Perfection

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Installation Procedures

For installing a new drive on an average-draining soil, remove sod or forest loam, as well as the upper three to six inches of rich top soil (used for landscaping by commercial road-builders; you might save yours for a raised-bed garden). Grade and compact subsoil. Then lay on base material as needed: the best material being 1 to 1/2"-size rock or gravel in a layer three to 12 inches thick, as subsoil drainage requires. Estimate that a cubic yard will cover approximately 100 square feet, three inches deep. A dump truck will back in, then drive ahead, raising its bed as it goes to distribute each layer. Layers must then be spread evenly, graded level, and compacted before another layer is applied. Patience is a key ingredient at this point. You can spread and grade a short drive in sections (by eye) with a rake and a pair of lines stretched on stakes — a level line stretched across the road and a grade line stretched up and down its length. Compact with repeated passes over the entire surface, (not just over a pair of tire tracks) with a well-loaded pickup truck.

As the base is laid and compacted, it should be domed — graded at a slight angle to each side of the midline — to drain well. Then an inch or more layer of topping is laid. Small-size crushed rock is arguably the best. It will not shift or roll as will gravel, it compacts well to shed water and does not grind to dust. Small cinders, crushed coral, "coquina" limestone and sea shell drive toppings are locally available. Fine (under-one-inch) gravel is good once it is ground well into the under layer. Deposits of clayey small-gravel or weathered shale are available in some areas, known by such names as "greystone" or "redstone" Adhesive and nearly waterproof if put down in thin layers, each are compacted well, and since they are used as they come out of the pit, they are relatively cheap.

We solved our drive problem by having enough local rotten-shale "mudstone" hauled in to fill the dips, broaden the drive a foot, and widen the entry by half again. Just don't top your drive with six inches of pea gravel that I used once in my very early days as a country householder. A thin scattering looks good on a bare dirt drive, but a thick layer just rolls over itself and causes endless traction problems. After the truck swam through the stuff for a month like a lost ship on the sea, I swallowed my pride and had it scraped off and hauled away.

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