Gravel drive

[Jever]

Hi all,

Not sure I'm in the right place with this question but I couldn't find a groundwork category.

Anyway, I want to lay a gravel area across the front of a house for parking, is there a widely accepted way of doing this?

I was thinking of laying 100mm of hardcore then compacting and blinding it before laying the black membrane. Then I'll have enough stone tipped to give 50mm cover everywhere.

Talking to my neighbour who already has a gravel drive I get the impression he didn't use hardcore, just laid the membrane on soil and tipped the stones.

I'm tempted to skip the hardcoring if possible (too much hard work!), any recommendations?

Jever

 

[Nige F]

Just google pavingexpert.com

 

[Jever]

Nice one, thanks.

 

[CJRatch]

I'm having my drive done next month using gravel. We're having 1m at the front paved along with the perimeter as a decorative feature. Were using gravel grids with built in membrane from Euro Gravel Grids.

In the quote builder spec,

6" hardcore
1" sharp sand
2" gravel

 

[scbk]

It will depend what's there already. You don't want to be laying gravel (that will be driven on) on top of top soil.

But if you're down to the sub soil and it's good hard stoney ground you can skip the hardcore

 

[SFK]

CJRatch
(Ignore my following comments.... I missed that membrane and grids are to be used)

1 inch of sharp sand - directly under the gravel?

That sounds wrong.
The action of driving on gravel will mix the sand and gravel and make a horrible mix.

https://www.mainlandaggregates.co.uk/gravel-driveway-construction-guide
and
http://www.pavingexpert.com/specs01.htm#specgrav
SFK

 

[CJRatch]

The grids have an attached permeable membrane underneath to stop the gravel from mixing.

 

[CJRatch]

 

[SFK]

CJRatch,
Sorry , if ignore my comment, for some reason I missed that you were using membrane and grids.
Sfk

 

[CJRatch]

CJRatch,
Sorry , if ignore my comment, for some reason I missed that you were using membrane and grids.
Sfk

No worries mate your just looking to help. Would have been valuable advice otherwise.

 

[Diver Fred]

If the area you wish gravel adjoins the 'Public' highway have a discreet word with local council to check for access to buried utilities ducts etc.
We replaced the front lawn to our property ourselves some years back, then had some ED from the council highways department telling us we had to put lawn back. After several months of argument, including discovering that different council departments had different site plans and showing them how long the gravel had been down, via 'Streetview', we were told it could remain but we couldn't park on it yet it is accessed via the drive.