BG Home Improvement: Cheap Driveway

[Corrderio]

With spring being here and the mud finally starting to dry up around my place I wanted to start planning on a project to improve my driveway since it's in pretty bad condition. There's a shallow hole that fills up with water and whenever it rains and when we do have a decent rain it turns into a mud hole. So I'm looking for something to help fix those problems that's cheap and effective.

While I have thought about concrete, I'm also kind of against it since I'm not sure how much it would be and it's ultimately a temp solution since I'm planning on living here for about a year tops.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Pics of the driveway. Like I said, not in the best condition:

http://i60.tinypic.com/8yhnrc.jpg
http://i57.tinypic.com/2zi7p5j.jpg

And yes I plan on removing that dead tree whenever my brother-in-law can make time to come up here with his chainsaw.

[Brill Weave]

What is your driveway made of?

[Corrderio]

What is your driveway made of?

When my dad first built it, I think he used a cheap gravel, but this was around.... 15+ years ago. It's now mostly dirt/rock that is a pain in the ass to deal with when it rains/thaws. I just added pics to OP.

[Brill Weave]

I don't think concrete is going to be an option for you. Easiest, fastest thing to do is rent a tractor(or if you have a quad or access to one), a box blade, and a heavy roller. Run the box blade back and forth across the driveway. Once it's been sufficiently torn up try to remove large debris(big rocks, etc.) Once that's done attach the heavy roller and roll that shit flat again. You can usually get limestone or gravel from a landscaping place for a decent price. They'll deliver it and dump it where you want them to. Then you need to spread it out.

There isn't really a cheap route in terms of using concrete. It's going to take a lot of your time. You'd have to box and frame in the driveway. I'm eyeballing it based on pictures but I'm guessing the patch is about 16 feet in length and 10 in width? If that's the case to make a six inch deep concrete slab you're looking at probably 130+ bags of 80lb concrete. At 4 bucks a bag or so you'd end up dropping close to, or over 500 just on concrete. Not to mention man hours etc.

[Brill Weave]

I probably should have just made a second post lol.

[SephYuyX]

Fast and cheap? Get a load of oversized mixed gravel (or whatever is the cheapest) and just dump more on there.
If youre looking for a more professional look; Concrete is expensive, blacktop is cheap and will last about as long as you plan to live there (aka under the year you plan to stay).

[Brill Weave]

Never been a fan of blacktop. Just looks like shit.

[Corrderio]

Never been a fan of blacktop. Just looks like shit.

My general thoughts too, though yeah I think you both have a point of I need to tear the current driveway apart and flatten it then top it off with gravel.

Now it's just finding time if I do the tractor rental.

[Brill Weave]

If you don't have the time call a local landscaping company. Most of them will do it for pretty cheap. Especially this early in the season. They aren't swamped with work yet.

[BaneTheBrawler]

you could also do woodchips. dump a load, spread it out, good to go. if you have some wood/brush you want to dispose of you could rent a shredder and make the chips yourself.

[FNH]

Look for a local gravel company, should be in the neighborhood of $25-40/ton depending on what you get. Less if they have crushed concrete or asphalt since its a recycled waste product, probably around $15/ton for that. The reason that area gets so muddy is because it is the runoff area. The road pitches to runoff to the sides and so does your drive/lawn, but it doesn't seem to be able to flow causing your mudhole. I'd smooth out the mudhole and pour cement the width of the trough still leave the gutter don't make it level or you might transplant the issue elsewhere.

[Coren]

I second the "just dump more on top" idea.

That said, why are we complaining about what blacktop looks like ... given its current condition?

[Ghost_Wheel22]

Reclaimed asphalt might be viable for your area. With the prep work mentioned above it can be a fairly cheap option. Or just say fuck it and dig it down 6" and refill with 3/4 minus gravel. It will easily last until you move and works well with your dirt road and sells for under $45/yd.

Concrete and paved might be super nice but dirt from the road will track on constantly make it look like shit. Also if you have a friend with a decent truck you should consider just yanking out that stump and save yourself of having to dig it out.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Also if you have a friend with a decent truck you should consider just yanking out that stump and save yourself of having to dig it out.

lol. you'd need insane torque for that, and you'd end up with a large chunk of the surrounding soil, unless you get some help from your friendly neighborhood termites or some shit. you're gonna have to dig it out at least a little bit. if it weren't in the middle of a gravel driveway i'd say just take a chainsaw to the roots and give it a good yank then, but you catch a stone and suddenly you're buying replacement parts. or going to the hospital.

relatively easy way to dig out a stump: pressure washer + cleanout pump. make sure the pump is made to handle debris. you'll have a soggy hole for a while (harr) but its much less backbreaking than digging that shit out with a shovel. and with the gravel in there, a shovel would be especially frustrating.

[Corrderio]

Regarding the box blade, could a garden tiller possibly work?

[Brill Weave]

Can always try. Depending on the depth the blades dig it might be ok.

[Ghost_Wheel22]

i'd say just take a chainsaw to the roots and give it a good yank then, but you catch a stone and suddenly you're buying replacement parts. or going to the hospital.

Rocking your chain doesn't mean replacement parts or going to the hospital. It means you get to spend 20 minutes with a hand file. In fact, I rocked the piss out of my chain three times at work today and all I got out of it was getting paid to sit for 45 minutes and zen sharpen.

[SephYuyX]

Regarding the box blade, could a garden tiller possibly work?

Better be a hell of a tiller.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Rocking your chain doesn't mean replacement parts or going to the hospital. It means you get to spend 20 minutes with a hand file. In fact, I rocked the piss out of my chain three times at work today and all I got out of it was getting paid to sit for 45 minutes and zen sharpen.

no, but flinging gravel at whatever mph will do some pretty nasty shit if it hits you or your car. generally just not a good idea to put yourself in that situation.

edit: also, with a garden tiller, you run into a similar problem to plain old shoveling: it's hard to dig through gravel. tillers can handle a decent amount of small stones in a mass of dirt, but at one point this was a fully graveled driveway so it's going to be more dense than usual. it might be worth trying if it won't cost you anything, but i don't think it'll do much.

[Senji]

Get a load of crushed #2 and a rake.

Poured concrete is cheaper than getting blacktop. However you'd need to dig out the existing to create a stone base anyways.

Doing a blacktop job and expecting it to only last 1 year is pretty fail.