# Light duty driveway - geotextile fabric under gravel?



## Golden view (Feb 16, 2012)

I have a 250' driveway back to my shop. Used a couple times a week at most. It has 3/4 minus, I presume just over the native soil, which is a fine silty loam. Not very thick so it's getting rutty and sinking in places. I'd like to add 4-6" to bring up the grade and smooth it out.

Two questions:
Will fabric help enough to be worth it? A roll costs as much as an extra inch or two of gravel, so I could do that instead for the same cost
Is 4-6" too little coverage?


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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

4 to 6 inches of stone should be fine.

I would recommend installing the fabric underlayment, it keeps the soil from migrating up into the stone. The drive will require much less periodic maintenance.

I'd grade the existing and fill any low spots and get it smoothed out pretty well, then roll out the fabric and put down the new stone.

Fine tune the new stone and if you have access to a roller, put a roller on it, if not just pack it down with the machine you are using, or let the rain take care of it.


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## dayexco (Mar 4, 2006)

Tom, we've had a lot better luck if the fabric is 1 foot plus below finished grade. 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk


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## Golden view (Feb 16, 2012)

dayexco said:


> Tom, we've had a lot better luck if the fabric is 1 foot plus below finished grade.
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk


Me too in the few driveways I've built. But there is already stone that's been holding up OK. And very little use going to happen on this driveway.


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## builditguy (Nov 10, 2013)

I'm for the fabric. It creates a barrier between the sub-grade and the rock. If you just add rock, it will continue to sink in the sub-grade. Sink in, may not be the right terminology. More like, as you drive on it, the sub-grade is slowly leaching up and mixing with the stone.

Of course it seems like you already know this. If you aren't wanting to dig up your existing stone, I would still use the fabric. It would be better, down lower, but still better than not having it.


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## Golden view (Feb 16, 2012)

The fabric is also structural. I was asking about its use here because things are fairly solid. Where I used it in permafrost areas, it's amazing the difference it made. Of course under sometimes 24" of gravel, but a dump truck could drive on it, even though the soil underneath was jello.


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## farmboy55 (Aug 24, 2017)

With the cost of Rock now. Fabric is the way to go
Just take you time installing it & get it covered with a good layer of stone


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

Golden view said:


> The fabric is also structural. I was asking about its use here because things are fairly solid. Where I used it in permafrost areas, it's amazing the difference it made. Of course under sometimes 24" of gravel, but a dump truck could drive on it, even though the soil underneath was jello.


Some runways have been built that way. The only difference is they put a prefabricated asphalt impregnated surface over the top. It came in rolls, you'd just unroll the stuff onto the gravel. 

Compacted gravel or rock spreads loads pretty well, as long as you can keep if from mixing with the soil or spreading sideways at the edges.


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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

I cut out about 6" of grass and soil for this little lane. Put down fabric and +/- 6" crushed stone.

It's been almost 3 years, have not had to add any stone, but I have had to touch up the surface grade. Mostly due to drivers that can't stay on the path and muddied things up.

Took these pics yesterday.


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