Do you do a lot of maintenance on your gravel driveway?

[jamaisjedors]

[bores herself even just typing out the message]...

Currently v. thin layer of dodgy gravel, mostly weeds.

100m2 to do.

DH wants to pave the whole driveway for zero maintenance it but the man who came out wouldn't even quote, said it would be hideously expensive.

Also we don't want it to look like a carpark.

So we have a quote for nearly 2000 euro for them to dig it up, put some filler stuff insert technical word here down, a geotextile layer and then the gravel.

But is it all just going to grow over all weedy again in a year or so?

Bearing in mind we both work full-time, and the rest of the garden is a jungle v. fast-growing.

kill weeds with weed killer for drives and paths, get lots more gravel deliverd and lay on top.

If underneath is bare earth then you will get alot of weeds and it will be unmanageable, it needs to have some sort of lining (no expert) underneath the gravel to stop the weeds growing. You still get some weeds as soil gradually gets into the gravel and then weeds can grow on it. We have a huge gravel drive and not alot pf effort to maintain to be honest.

Tarmac would make it look like a carpack, you can get some nice paving but it is very expensive.

how about tarmac with a paving edge and entrance. A few round here have just been done like that and they look really nice and a change from the block paving that is everywhere. We have gravel with no membrane (cheapskate previous owners) and it's a nightmare.

DH thinks Tarmac would look like a carpark - actually a friend is getting hers tarmacked -sp? on the black so I will see what it looks like.

I'll look out for Tarmac with a paving edge - we are now looking at everyone's driveways for ideas!

The quote is for a layer of hardcore AND a membrane and then the gravel but we don't really like using weed killer - in fact we never do - but maybe one of those things that burn the weeds would do the trick - but I don't want to be doing it every week!

Tarmac is bad environmentally, and it looks ugly.
You can get weeds on paved drive, too.
I hate the way grave looks, and the stones get everywhere, and eventually sort of wear out & away, but I think it is the nicest low maintenance option.
Even Tarmac will eventually crack and need repairs.
I weed our gravel driveway sporadically; neighbours who use their car about 10x more than us (we have a shared driveway) they never seem to have to weed at all.
I don't use weed killer (ever).

Yes I noticed when I started looking that you also get weeds on a paved drive so it's not worth paying 10x the price of gravel and ending up STILL weeding.

The drive of our landlady's house (which our rental house also shares) has gravel on it. She employs a gardener, and one of his many jobs, poor fella, is to rake that bloody gravel to keep it in shape and weed-free. He loathes doing it and there is sweat pouring off him every time I see his hunched form scraping away. It's a long drive. The gravel also gets into the house and doesn't stay where it's supposed to - e.g., on the drive.

Ours isn't very long but it's wide.

The man who quoted us for the drive said you need bigger gravel that doesn't get into shoes.

But my fear is that we will BE that gardener, or more likely, we will spend 2000 E and then it'll all grow over again because we don't have time to weed it.

Weed killer is not the work of the devil

Really?

don't just get shingle poured on it. For a firm drive, that won't go into ruts and be loose, they use a material called hoggin, which is sand and gravel with a bit of clay mixed in to consolidate it. I have it in a 105-year old house, and it is still firm and reliable, even though at the front of the house some dummy poured a wagonload of pea-shingle on it, which needs frequent hoeing and raking.

A good driveway man will know about hoggin. It can be rolled with a camber to make water run off to the sides (this keeps mud and dirt off it as well, which spoils the look and encourages weeds)

Thanks - we are definitely getting it all excavated and then filled with hard-core and levelled off properly, then a geotextile layer, and THEN the gravel.

very good crime prevention wise.....apparently burglers hate it cos of noise

oh that's a good argument for DH! Mind you we have an electric gate which they'd have to hop over which is a bit of an obstacle too!

We have had a long gravel driveway for 31 years, two acreages a country apart. We now have a Kubota tractor with attachments, prior to this nice tractor we had a smaller one with a blade. If you have a long drive, you need some kind of tractor to groom it. I'd like to have our parking area and circle drive blacktopped, so grandkids can zoom around on it and I think it looks really tidy and groomed. DH sprays weeds on it, and uses blade to smooth out and rearrange gravel. That lady with a gardener needs to spend some money and get that gardener a tractor with blade.

She does indeed need to spend some money for that poor gardener, but spending money is not what they do best, and I know that because we're her tenants!