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Here’s a subject I approached thinking “How complicated could this be? Dump a load of gravel, rake it out and problems solved!”
If life’s obstacles were truly that fundamental…
Our lot is at the bottom of a hill. Every break-up, water flows down the hill, down the street and right through our driveway. So every morning we wade through water and mud to get into the car. Dumping a load of gravel won’t do anything more than eliminate the mud; and that is only for a few years as the gravel is going to sink into the dirt and the problem begins all over again.
To properly prepare the driveway would require the existing soil be removed and a base fill put in its place to raise the level of the driveway to slope away from the home, then the choice is gravel or blacktop. Calls to local contractors proved once again “I know nothing!” (Thank you Cornel Klink!). The cost was very consistent with most of the contractors, between $1,200 and $1,900 to complete the project with an asphalt driveway. That is about $300 more than using gravel on the same prepared surface.
OK. The wife made it clear, not spending that kind of money on a driveway! But I’m still required to fix the problem. So I figured a load of gravel and in a few years another load of gravel. Actually, for almost $2,000, we could get lots of loads of gravel for lots of years. When the driveway starts to get muddy, just dump another load of gravel and rake it out.
What to do about the water? How do I get it to drain away from the house? I dug a ditch across the driveway. The dirt from the ditch helped to fill in some other holes. Now the water can flow through the driveway instead of down the driveway and under the home.
I called a local quarry and explained what I was trying to do and they put me in touch with a local hauling company. I called the company and explained what I was trying to accomplish. This guy knew exactly what I needed and how much of it.
There is another product out there called “RAP”, recycled asphalt product. This is the stuff that comes from those machines that dig-up the street and leaves grooves in the road. The composition is from a rough sand-like to 1” rock, with everything in size in-between. Gravel and RAP are both sold by the ton. The RAP costs 50¢ per ton more than gravel, (one contractor quoted me $5 per ton more).
RAP is really neat stuff. It really packs firm and solid. Gravel doesn’t pack at all. That’s why I dug the ditch. We ordered a load.
It was delivered within the hour. He looked the area over, set the chains to the bed door and drove off leaving an obviously practiced load of RAP evenly dropped the length of the driveway, with just a little more near the home. He did that twice. The ditch was history. All that was left of the ditch was a small valley. The load was ten yards. The cost was $152. Three of us raked it out in about forty minutes and one beer; about four to five inches next to the home and about two inches by the road.
There is some tracking into the home.
After watering down the surface and driving over it a few times to pack
it, the tracking problem stopped. This
doesn’t solve the problem. The
RAP is going to do the same as the gravel.
However, the life of the RAP is three or four times that of the gravel! Not
to mention a lot less cost than $1,900!
Now here's a tip from one of our readers:
Rent a blow torch and compacter for a day. Heat the surface of the RAP and then run the compactor over it. This will produce a rough, but firmly packed surface. Then spread driveway filler/sealer over the compacted surface and you have a driveway surface just like a street! Thanks Bob! There are a number of streets in Anchorage that are built this way, including Pearl Dr.
Have a suggestion we can share with other mobile/manufactured home owners? Please call or email us postmaster@reallyneatstuffalaska.com