Building a 100m Driveway

[oilydan]

My driveway entrance is dangerous to exit due to oblique andgle with the road, and is narrowing due to a couple of big trees at the entrance.



We decided to cut a driveway with a different entrance, and go around the lawn, rather than through it like the existing one. This will be blocked off with a gabion basket (with a wall built in front like the one under the hedge), back filled and leveled with the rest of the lawn.

I have permission from planning and heritage, hired an 8T Excavator, a 3T swivel dumper, and a compactor. I have 50T each of Hardcore and Planings with access to more if needed.

The plan is to cut 150mm deep drive, I have 200m of planks 25x150x4000mm to line the trench, then 75mm crushed limestone hardcore, and 75mm planings.

I think I'm just about ready. All the gear, but no idea!

Any advice? Have I forgotten anything.

Pics to follow in 2 weeks when I get home and work out how to drive heavy plant.....

[Sir Bagalot]

May I recommend one of the best websites on the web for some help

Paving Expert

Edited by Sir Bagalot on Sunday 3rd June 17:30

[V8RX7]

You seem to be supersizing...

I built my drive 3m wide by approx 100m using a 1.7T digger, 1T dumper and around 60T planings.

Fair enough if you have a local contact but otherwise I'd downsize to a 3T etc

Unless you intend to tarmac / block pave in the future or have poor ground I doubt you need the hardcore.

Locally I get planings for £100/ 20T load and just 3-4" depth of these (2" in places due to roots) haven't moved appreciably in 3yrs it's been down

Why are you lining the trench ?
If you want to have an edge at the top - fair enough I'd use 4x1 tan an inch above the grass but you'll be replacing it every 5yrs or so (or when you hit it with the mower)




Edit - I ought to say my stalker Ed actually did most of the work

Edited by V8RX7 on Sunday 3rd June 20:47

[MrTinkerer]

Have you hired excavator?

8t seems over top for novice opperator and for what you are doing! 3 ton be easier for the job at hand.

[jjones]

MrTinkerer said:

8t seems over top

The is PistonHeads, you are doing it wrong.

The correct response is:

"8 ton? are you mad, you need at least a 90 ton excavator for that. Been driving them since I was three any imbecile can drive them."

[Vanordinaire]

jjones said:

The is PistonHeads, you are doing it wrong.

The correct response is:

"8 ton? are you mad, you need at least a 90 ton excavator for that. Been driving them since I was three any imbecile can drive them."

This might be meant as a joke, but actually it's right in a way. The bigger the excavator, the easier it actually is to operate. When you come out of a 20 or 30 tonner into a mini digger. The mini digger feels ridiculously unstable and jerky at first. Its a bit like reversing a trailer, the bigger it is, the easier it is (and more impressive it looks to the uninitiated).

[oilydan]

3T seems small. I have a Kubota 7001 with a little backhoe that could do the job, theoretically, and a 3T seemed just a small step up from that, not enought to actually justify renting it.

Requiring a real PH-worthy 8T machine justifies the expense. Go big or go home

I might dig a pond in the paddock too, so bigger is better.

The ground is very clay soil, so hardcore will probably be good to have.

Proper Hardcore, not your crushed brich rubbish but proper limestone road base is 18 a ton, and the scalpings/planings are free. I registered as a recycling facility so the council are keen to drop them off.

[Toltec]

oilydan said:

I registered as a recycling facility so the council are keen to drop them off.

A local farmer did that he would do a skip at a really good price if you were only filling it with earth, rubble and just the odd bit of timber. Made some money and had an endless supply of hardcore to build farm tracks with.

[oilydan]

Toltec said:

oilydan said:

I registered as a recycling facility so the council are keen to drop them off.

A local farmer did that he would do a skip at a really good price if you were only filling it with earth, rubble and just the odd bit of timber. Made some money and had an endless supply of hardcore to build farm tracks with.

Its free to do on-line, and means that the council can use you to dispose of road planings.

Otherwise they pay haulage and for recycling, if they can instruct the haulage company to drop them off somewhere that they do not have to pay to dispose of them, win-win.

I wonder if I can get a discount on my council tax for helping them out

[V8RX7]

Google it but with planings you don't need hardcore - they both do exactly the same job

[m3jappa]

Im not sure about an 8t machine being easier to drive than a 1.5t

visibility is much less, the bucket is fking massive and the damage you could do with it is unthinkable! I've got a kubota u17 and the work it will do in a day still shocks me. I can quite easily dig out 60+ ton if needed, infact the problem isn't how much can it dig out its how quick can you get someone there to cart the stuff away!

I've been driving diggers for years and have driven 8t machines and they still scare me (in a confined environment, obviously a big open space is different).

The small minis which are i believe cable operated from the controls are jerky. Newer stuff is really smooth, i believe they are servo controls?

[oilydan]

V8RX7 said:

Google it but with planings you don't need hardcore - they both do exactly the same job

So far I have been told:

- You only need the hardcore
- You only need the planings
- You need the hardcore and the planings

I'm going down the middle and using both

Just thinking logically, the hardcore is a heterogeneous layer that will spread the load better than a more homogenous layer. I would expect the latter to warp like it was a carpet on sand. I have seen stories of 100% planings drives potholing rather quickly as parts sink.

As for the size of the digger, with a big machine I reckon I'll be able to crack on quicker, and a single big bucket will make for a much more even dig than multiple passes with a little bucket? Won't it?

Looking forward to getting on with it, plant is arriving monday 18th...

[V8RX7]

Planings bind at least as well as MOT, the only reason people use MOT is it's quantity / availability.

As you have a backhoe and loads of planings if it does move a bit - you top it up.

[dsl2]

On clay the hardcore base is a good idea for sure.

I redid my near 300 mtr farm type driveway using a 14t doosan & 9t dumper to cart, only trouble is the doosan could of feed at least one more dumper it was so fast but what a great bit of kit!