How much gravel for my driveway?

[Wade Joseph]

One thing I never learned was how to figure yards of gravel/cement/pavement. My Driveway is approximately 4800 sq ft. How much gravel do I need to put a good layer down? Do I go one or two inches deep?

[boatfixer]

At 2 inches deep, about 35 yards

[fish with teeth]

what are you looking to do? put in asphalt, concrete, or just put a new layer over an exististing gravel driveway. just curious

[boatfixer]

I figured for gravel

[Wade Joseph]

Well, there isn't much gravel left after all the plowing this winter. I want to lay down another good layer over the mostly dirt and what little gravel is left. I would love to have it paved but doubt its in the budget.

[Pat K]

# of sq.ft. x depth divided by 27 (the # of cubic ft. in a cubic yd.) = cubic yds.

4800 sq.ft. x .33' (4" thick) divided by 27 = 58.67 cubic yds.

For 2" thick 29.33 cubic yds.

[boatfixer]

Sorry about that, our class 5 weighs about 2800 per yard

[gregg52]

i'm a blacktopper paved lots of driveway

put in at least 3 inches if you plane to pave in the future

another option that i've been useing the last few yrs

specially if you are not going to pave for awhile is crushed concrete grade it out and roll it somehow

i wouldnt put either one done till its dryed out and try to grade it alittle before you put the new material in other wise you will the same holes you do now

should take bout 60 -70 yds at 3 inches

[MuleShack]

An easy formula to remember is SF / 100 will give you the amount in yards for 3" depth. SF / 145 for 2/" depth and SF / 75 for 4" depth.

roughly 33 yards at 2"

[fish with teeth]

i used to do blacktop as well and now i work in excavating. as gregg said i would wait untill it dries up and grade out what you have left. then try to compact it the best you can before you put down the new gravel because the same holes will appear after some rain and driving over it wet. compaction is key, if its not compacted well you will have more problems. good luck

[Wade Joseph]

Thanks all!

[IFallsRon]

You can do a search for cubic yard converter and input your numbers. Your supplier can help confirm that you're getting enough based on the condition of the loads and the compaction.

[Wade Joseph]

Now to find a reasonable supplier in the Duluth/Superior area.

[bigswede]

Wade,

Check with Udeens in South Superior. Or Grube's out of Lake Nebagamon..

[gregg52]

not to steel wades thread here

fish with teeth who do you work for i'm presuming in the cities

are they lookin for operators ????

and ya your right compaction is the key there

[fish with teeth]

gregg, yes i do work in the cities. its a small company(specktacular companies) and unfortunately no we are not hiring, we still have about 10 guys waiting to come back. hope you find something

wade, when we were working in duluth (menards) we used omar's sand and gravel. they are south of duluth and we thought they were reasonable. good luck

[ZapBranigan]

Since this has been already hijacked.... I have had a asphalt driveway which was widened about 8 yrs back with a boardered 4" deep Class 5 Gravel driveway running up the side of my normal driveway. The city is getting real .... well you know they just really would prefer them gone. Plus it has become a maint issue (weeds sprot like mad at least twice a year). And the city doesn't allow anything parked on it any longer so it's just kind of a rock garden now.

So as I understand it the grade 5 can be paved over? asphalt or Cement? either? My asphalt driveway also is in really tough shape. So again can they just lay new on top or does this whole thing need to be tore up and start over?

[gregg52]

You can put asphalt on class 5 concrete to

If your driveway is cracked bad or settle in ares

take it out

if you go over the top of what you have with in a year it will crack in the same places its cracked now

plus in most cases it would be higher than garage floor and

you hafta to either cut it out there or taper to meet the garage floor and then its to thin to last

fly-by night out fits will tell you thet can go over it

but believe for what they charge you are wayyyyyyyy

better off tearing the old out

i've in the busniess well over 20 yrs now

[fish with teeth]

gregg hit the nail right on the head. a couple of these nice minnesota winters and your new driveway will look the same as the old driveway. more expensive to tear it out but will last a lot longer and you will be alot happier

[ZapBranigan]

Thanks guys my gut told me it sounded too good to be the right thing to do. I am not looking for a short term fix. Even if I decide to sell sooner rather than later I don't want to be "that" guy who short cutted the job and stiffed someone else. But plan is to stay quite a while yet so. I need to think quality and longer term better look. In a way I'll miss the gravel. It was a nice spot to shovel the fender boogers out of the garage and off the drive without wrecking the lawn. Maybe I should leave a couple feet of river rock on that side.