Senior, moved to lower northern US town, small home on a steep hill. When it rains here it pours; asphalt and concrete are not sustainable and very costly. Stone additions have not stopped the runoff making large ruts. The rain pours from the top of the hill between my house and neighbors, comes down the hill and inconveniently creates ruts in the smallest part of the driveway. How do fix? Not here long enough to know what type of contractor to hire. Is there a DIY fix? On a limited income. Thank you in advance.
by QueenLadyDi
14 Comments
Maybe its the type of stones used that are the issue? or the base under the stones? A lot of things I can figure out but not this. The ice storm earlier this year made the ruts triple worse. sigh.
Could make simple water feature with bigger rocks on the sides and smaller ones between to guide the water down that already created stream. With larger rocks as guides it might help with erosion. Might want to plant some plants that can handle a lot of water at a time to help suck up some of that water, maybe. Might be too steep of an angle for plants to be of much help with sucking up water but they would certainly help with erosion
Going to need to address water at the source and redirect or contain it. No matter what you put there (with the exception of concrete) the water will move it. Redirect it from the drive onto the grass, but you will then need to put a rip rap dry creek bed to slow the water down on its descent and stop it from eating the lawn.
A. Install rolling dips to get the water off of the road at regular intervals so that it doesn’t concentrate and cause erosion.
B. Rock line the ditch with 6-9″ crushed aggregate.
Also would probably help to have compacted aggregate base (AB) for the running surface.
Agree with other comments, redirect water in a way to a rain garden or even pond.
Not my occupation, but I have a longer, steeper driveway in Northern VT – so maybe that does make me something of an expert đ
I would create a ditch on each side, fill the ditch with rip rap / larger stones, and most importantly — make sure your driveway is crowned well so that water runs to the sides into the ditch first before it gets headed downhill. You can do this with a gravel rake with some sweat, sore muscles, and maybe blisters. If you have access to a tractor, a box grader makes things much easier.
Some sort of channel drain and underground pipe to grade at the base of the slope?
Pour a concrete flume, expensive. Use the honeycomb mat material I believe it’s about 2 in deep and fill it with soil, commonly used on riverbank edges.
This is a common issue for gravel driveways, the best solution is a ditch on the high side with large stones to support the gravel. Even a 2 foot ditch can handle lots of water from a situation like yours. Just a small ditch on the edge, and large stones put in to keep the gravel from washing away.
And if you really need it, put a metal culvert across the driveway to continue diverting the water.
Gravity will always win with water drainage, so use it to your advantage.
Really needs french drains that run along both sides of the driveway. That’s why the make ditches next to roads.
Fill it in with larger rocks that the water can flow through
You need a diversion berms on the driveway that look like speed bumps angled away. This will slow the speed as others mentioned and divert the water off the driveway in designated areas. A truck and a rake could accomplish this. Youtube has lots of videos as well
French drains.
Geogrid. But also put in gutters…