Hey! I have a small portion of yard up front by my driveway. I’m so sick of it tbh
I attached some pics— I’m looking to level it for now, and soon make it into a gravel driveway. The corner end meeting the street is the worse!
How would you do this properly?
by No_Purpose4673
8 Comments
Take out that sandy shit bring in good topsoil and make a swail between the concrete and retaining wall graded to the street
Edit: take out four inches and put gravel in if thats what you plan to do
Grub it, get a dual plane laser and haul in a load or two of road base and bobs your uncle!!
I would get two ten yard dump trucks of # 2 base material it will pack like a road . We used it all the time in oilfields of West Texas .
I* would dig out about 7-9 inches below the grade of the cement pad and add 4-6 inches of crushed limestone or crushed concrete base leveled in at least 2, better if 3 or 4 lifts (or 1.5 inch down, compact it, another 1.5 inch, compact it and so on) Then several inches of finish gravel. I prefer crushed granite.
Run strings and use long levels for accuracy.
Water runoff should be considered but would need more info than that pictured to guess as to what could help and nothing may be needed.
Thats the one fell swoop approach to leveling and filling with gravel
Jeez at first look the edge of the road appears as a curb. Better get on the before the city charges you to fix it.
Meanwhile a DEEP base will let the waterrunning from the house percolate better. In the end, cement pavers would be best if you’ll be driving on it all the time. As someone here said, a good deep base will accept any finish.
Take down 2-4 input down base rock compact till you’re an inch level from the driveway, lay down pea gravel. Make sure you have proper drainage.
I have no idea how to level that out…
But do I spy a Veloster?? Great choice!
Grab a heavy steel grading rake and a flat shovel to knock those high ridges into the tire ruts. That gets you level for the weekend. Just know that simply moving this dirt around is a waste of time if you keep parking on it. That exposed soil lacks structural integrity so the second a heavy vehicle hits it after a rain you will be right back to looking at the exact same mess.
When you are ready to actually build the gravel parking area you have to excavate. Dig out about four to six inches of that dirt to create a boxed out subgrade. Lay down a heavy woven driveway fabric so your new stone does not just vanish into the mud over time. Fill that dug out space with a compactable crushed stone base like crusher run that has the dust mixed in. You have to tamp that down solid with a rented plate compactor before you even think about spreading decorative top gravel.
You also need a solid boundary on the yard side. If you just dump gravel right up to the grass it will migrate straight into your lawn and look horrible. Install steel edging or partially buried treated timbers along the grass line to trap the stone. Pitch the final grade slightly so water flows away from the concrete and sheds toward the street instead of pooling in the middle.