Gravel your driveway

I recently embarked on the task of recovering our rather lack-lustre driveway last weekend, so i thought i would share some advice on howto go about it. If you are looking to build driveway from gravel, then be sure to follow some of the tips and advice listed here. This home DIY tips tutorial has been geared towards smaller domestic projects, but it will also work sufficiently well commercial sized projects also.

Gravel can be customised to your liking - Check your local quarry for different varieties

First thing to do is inspect the current state of the ground you wish to gravel. If the road is perfectly flat and stable, you are good to go. More often than not, you may require a small amount of patch work and fixing before you lay the stones. If you are planning to lay gravel over a soil ridden area of land, be sure to remove any excess top soil and tidy up the area before starting. This will prevent any lying water surrounding the gravel, and creating poor drainage, which may affect surrounding plant life.

Ensure that this area is well drained, and free of organic debris and first place a layer of larger stones to give the driveway some stability and foundation. Continue to layer more stones on the driveway and eventually finish up a small grade stone around ½ to ¾ inch long, which will allow for good drainage and visual look. You can compact and solidify the layers of gravel with a flattening tool, which you can usually get on hire and will distribute the gravel evenly. Be sure to pile gravel slightly higher towards the centre of the driveway just to aid with water drain-off.

If you can afford it, go with a geo textile fabric to cover the area first, which will also act as a way of keeping the gravel free from mixing with mud and looking messy. This also acts as a handy weed-barrier, stopping annoying plant life messing up your driveway! Just simply unroll the fabric on the prepared ground and hold in place with paving slabs or simply cover with gravel. Using fabric will mean you don’t need a large grade of gravel and much of the stability will come from the fabric – you just need to apply a nice thick layer of top level gravel.

In terms of maintaining the finished product, a gravel driveway will usually only need some infrequent reshuffling of the gravel. Move the stones that are pushed out to the edges, right back to centre and redistribute. This will prevent any ‘bald patches’ forming and also prevent any puddles or water build up. To calculate a rough amount of gravel needed, try the wiltshires gravel calculator. Just insert your driveway dimensions and I would recommend at least a depth of 15-20mm gravel. So get ordering, crack on and start preparing for a beautiful new driveway!