heavy compacted lawn into a shingled driveway

[miets]

This weekend me and my friend are starting to dig up our front lawn area which is extremely compact soil, and turning it into a driveway with a shingled top. The skip is there and the weak hands are hard at work already, but how far must we dig the soil up. 20 cm?
Then we fill it with rubble, small stones on the top of that and soil, or sand?
Should we really hire a machine to compress it all down? Or is there a different way if this has to be the case.
Surely we can do this project without spending thousands hiring contractor help which ends up over charging us.
Anybody who did this before I would like to hear from.
Thank you in advance.

 

[Old Perennial]

I have prepared such a drive but topped with tarmac. You dont need to hire contractors etc. seeing as you are topping with gravel then I should recommend:

Remove the top soil down to good compact ground. I dont think you need to dig the whole depth out though, just sufficient to take the infill.

Consider retaining he sides with pressure treated timber boards for minimum expense.

Apply a good path clear type weedkiller over the area to be covered.

Apply "cruch and run" to a depth of six inches. Buy Crush and Run from a builders merchant. It limestone which is siized from about 40mm stones down to dust.

Spread this evenly over the drive not forgetting to make sure that rainwater can be shed off away from the house.

Hire a "Wacker plate" from the hire shop. This is a vibrating heavy plate as big as a lawn mower which stamps the subbase down to create a firm base.

Cover with 20ml gravel to a depth of 50ml.

You will need to keep raking the gravel now and then to keep it even and looking good.

Crush and run and the gravel can be bought in one tonne bags. These bags are about 750ml cube

Nice work on a hot day!!