What is the base under your driveway?

We used crushed 2" and under including fines so it bonds together. I'm no road builder but I wonder if that surface would hold up better than pea?

Full disclosure: my driveway needs work next summer.

I was surprised, 35 years ago I had a paved pull off to my mailbox so the mailman could stop out of the line of fire with people cresting the hill 40 feet away. Over the years they've repaved the road a couple times so it became higher than my pull off and dumped the water from the road to my side making a long mud bog by the mailbox.

I figured I'd have a load of stone dumped, and I asked the guy if I should go with small stone, say half inch, or bigger stuff like inch or inch and a half. He said nope, four inch. I thought that was nuts and would make it rough as hell. But he was right. After the mailman, heating oil truck, and UPS truck rolled over a couple times it all packed down tighter than an bulls ass at fly time. This is the second winter and we've had double the normal rain last year. It's still tight.

The pros know.

I've been hauling pea gravel for my driveway once or twice a year for 47 years.
At a ton a GMC load, I think I have a pretty good base by now.

Oh! Oh! Mr. Clod and I were just having a discussion about road paving, and maybe you guys can help.

When they repaved our street a few years back, it wasn't normal blacktop but rather a deep layer of gray gravel--only he and I remember the thickness differently. He says that the smooth surface was underneath, and the loose gravel was just some leftover that they didn't bother to sweep off; I maintain that the gravel WAS the surface, and it packed down to smoothness over the course of about 6 months from all the neighborhood cars going over it, and that this was in fact the intended design of the product. But I can't find proof that such a thing exists. "Unbound surface aggregate" was the closest descriptor I could come up with from Google, but all the results are huge PDFs that I can't make much sense of.

Two kinds of asphalt paving, blacktop which is the asphalt mixed with the aggregate like cookie dough. That's dumped into a paving machine that spreads it out hot and smooth. Actually more than two when you start looking at all the different mixes, but two basic styles.

In the sticks all we ever saw was what they called oil & stone. They would sweep any loose crap off the road and spray hot liquid asphalt on it. next they would coat the road with pea stone which settled into the asphalt as it cooled. For awhile driving on the shit would sound like Buddy Rich beating on the bottom of your car. Eventually the stone would get locked down, well most of it, then what was still loose would get tossed by vehicles or washed by rain, off the side. In hot weather if the road got sticky someplace like by your mailbox or some place the kids walked you could sometimes retrieve that surplus pea stone back on to the sticky spots. The oil & stone way covers the road pretty evenly so bumps and dips remain, unlike the blacktop which is smooth.

Yes, that sounds like it! Stupidly loud to drive on for months. Google says it's known by lots of names, but "tar and chip" seems the most common. The images look right, anyway.

Yeah, different slang terms around the country for the same process. The people who do it and the people who watch it may use different terms as well.

:rolleyes:

It's called "pie crust" or "chipping" here. It's ah,.. not great.

More gooder than not paved though. I remember when the mailman and school bus wouldn't come past the end of the pavement, so all the mailboxes had to be there for people living past that point.

Yeah, Dad tells stories about using the horses to pull the mailman and the milk through and how it was better in the winter when everything was frozen.

I've learned the term "chip seal" to describe the scenario in your neighborhood and on the street in front of our house. Your understanding is precisely correct.

As I type, mug of tea to hand, the sun is shining through some thin, high cloud and there's a light breeze. Tis the lull before the storm.

The Met Office has been drawing attention to the arrival of Storm Ciara since the beginning of the week.

It has its roots in Texas and was responsible for dumping snow on Oklahoma a couple of days ago.

It has been zipping across the Atlantic and a UK wide weather warning has been issued for 0800 - 2100 tomorrow.

Attachment 69757

To put some meat on the bones:

The leaning tower of conifer in the bank at the bottom of the garden is a constant concern in these conditions.

It sways worryingly in high winds but, as Gravdigr observed, while it's moving I shouldn't worry too much. (I paraphrase slightly).

However, the even taller ash and sycamores across the stream are old and clad with ivy and would cause one hell of a mess if they fell.

So, it's a question of watch and pray, although not necessarily in that order. :eek:

UK Met Office

It was raining when I met my boss at Dunkin yesterday. 1 1/2 hours later I was driving in 3 inches of snow, by nightfall the Subaru was knocking down snow drifts. Prolly 7" on the day plus drifting.