Driveway Cloth

Long Gravel Driveway

A gravel driveway should have at least 2 different types of gravel laid down in 3 separate layers, a base layer of geotextile and, depending on the soil, a layer of geogrid or gravel grid. To explain, the surface gravel should consist of small crushed gravel approximately 20 mm or 3/4 inches at max. You can find out if the gravel is the right size by taking a ruler and measuring the larger pieces of gravel on your driveway surface. Excluding the larger pieces of gravel, the rest of the gravel should be 20 mm to 3/4 inches all the way down to sand sizes.

Your base layers should have crushed gravel around 80 mm or 3 inches. These pieces are similar to the 20 mm or 3/4 inches. but the larger gravel should be 80 mm or 3 inches.

It's important that the gravel is crushed to create angular, not round surfaces. Use finer materials to fill the spaces between the larger gravel pieces. This will allow for the gravel to interlock with each other for a solid surface to drive over. If you have fine gravel without angular faces, you will eventually have ruts and rolls like ball bearings which will create an unsatisfactory driveway.

1- Keeping Your Gravel Where It Belongs

Once you have built your driveway with the right materials and have compacted it correctly, you should not have problems down the road. If you have problems with the gravel moving around, you might be on a hill, your gravel is rounded not crushed, or the gravel does not have sand-sized fragments to fill in empty spaces.

Keep in mind, creating a driveway on a hill can be very difficult and will cause the gravel to shift and move. In this situation, you should probably pave the driveway instead. Also, if you built the driveway with the wrong gravel, you will have to redo it but you do not have to discard the gravel you already have. That said, you will have to buy a gravel grid also known as a gravel grid also called ground grid (or geocells). You will have to remove the gravel in order to install the geocells.

The design of geocells varies from one company to another but works the same way by offering a strong, reliable structure for your gravel by using the principle of “cellular confinement”. Research into geocells has shown that a reinforced geocell offers a capacity strength equal to a thicker gravel layer that is not reinforced. Also, it provides the added benefit of not letting gravel move around easily. Please Note – Not all geocells will work well on a hill.

To install this product, you will have to remove your current gravel driveway and then install the geocells going by the manufacturer's instructions. Even though geocells differ from one product to another, it's highly recommended that the geocells are at least 4 inches thick.

Gravel Driveway in Front of House

Gravel Driveway in Front of House

2- Prevent The Ground From Swallowing Up The Gravel

This is something that many people end up dealing with. The good news, geotextile is cheaper for repairs than geocells but you still have to remove the gravel driveway and then reinstall it.

Geotextile offers a permeable barrier between the driveway and the soil below. It will keep your gravel free of contaminants and lets them drain water easily. If you don't opt for geotextile, your driveway will eventually sink into the soil and become jammed with unwanted soil.

You have to remove the driveway and lay down a layer of geotextile. To play it safe, lay down a layer of geogrid. Once the geotextile and grid are in place, it's time to rebuild your gravel driveway.

Make sure you do not use landscaping fabric or a weed barrier. Use a woven or nonwoven geotextile for construction.