Too much gravel in gravel path

[genefreak]

Hiya

I have a large garden and have just built a gravel path... I dug down about 6 inches, added about 3 inches of crushed limestone substrate and three inches of gravel... Now as you can probably tell, I've ran into a snag, the gravel is too deep and walking on it (no matter what footwear I use) is a laborious process, not to mention using a wheelbarrow. When my young son get's to the age that he'll be riding a scooter around the place, he'll be stuck in one place.

Now, in an ideal world, I'd just remove all the gravel and build up the limestone - as this was a hard durable surface, however, we are talking about a 120m path with about 10-15 tonnes of gravel

A whacker plate would not be enough to compress it as I already compressed the limestone before adding the gravel.

I did have an idea of just getting more limestone and gradually sieving it into the gravel to gradually build up the firmness... but any other ideas would be grateful.

Thanks in advance.

Steve.

 

[r896neo]

that's a tough one, i think however you already know the answer. If you want to try the sieve idea try it on a small spot and use quarry dust.

 

[imamartian]

i'm a DIYer, not a pro... but i suspect the answer to this kind of problem has to be to dig the lot up and start again. However, is it worth getting a few bags of cement, or postcrete (or the like) and pouring this over the gravel and whackering it in? with a bit of rain it might tie the whole path together? (light traffic only though !!)

 

[htgeng]

Hiya
but any other ideas would be grateful.
Steve.

Lateral thinking here, but you could buy about 5 of these and try as an experiment(toolstation 94411). Skim about 2 inches of your gravel back, lay out the trays then backfill with the gravel. It should be a lot more solid as the pressure from your feet is being distributed over a much larger area. I bought about 90sqm of a similar product to that for about £300 so you might be able to look around if it works.

 

[J_N30]

You must have a big garden for a 120m long path!! From what I've learnt in the past if a jobs worth doing it's worth doing properly. You may find all these 'add this and mix that' options will take longer.

Having said that, Have you thought about adding a layer of Cotswold chippings as these bind together very well.