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Restoring driveway

Joined
15 Feb 2011
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Location
Norfolk
Country
United Kingdom
Novice here. I’ve a gravel driveway which is in poor shape – weeds/grass poking through, bare patches here and there, some of the stones pressed deep into the earth as a result of cars driving over them so frequently (see pics). I’d like to have a bash at restoring it myself. A mate said I just needed to dig out the weeds/grass, then throw a load of new gravel on top of the existing gravel. But I’m sure there must be more to it than that! Would appreciate any advice. (PS. it was tipping down when I took these photos - so the stones look a lot shinier than they normally are!).
 

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You could chuck more gravel down, but if whole thing isn’t on a decent compacted sub base (suggests it’s not when you say the gravel’s being pushed down into a softer base) you’ll continue to have issues.
Proper job is to remove existing gravel, see what the base is, if it’s not solid like at least 4” of compacted hardcore, or an existing concrete/tarmac base, then dig out and do it properly. You want to end up with not much more than about 50mm of gravel (varies a bit depending on which gravel) or it’ll get too mushy.
 
Membrane under the Gravel may be an idea, would also help prevent weeds etc rooting into the soil underneath, provided the substrate is pretty smooth and wont tear anything laid over it.
 

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