gravel driveway questions, Pacific NW

[Mia]

We're building on a hill.  Next step is putting in the driveway.  It'll be roughly 300 feet, with the grade ranging from about 10% to about 28%.  The one contractor that we talked to said that we had to have a paved surface for the trucks (cement trucks & delivery trucks) to be able to go up & down the hill.  He was talking about asphalt.
The county didn't say that we have to have a paved driveway, & I see lots of steep driveways in the area that are gravel.  
Once the house is built, nothing bigger than a full size pickup will be using the driveway, which will lead to a gravel access road.
Any reason we have to have a paved driveway?  And, are there are useful links to making your own driveway?  Thanks

[PEG688]

  I'd say go back and check with the county . In NW Wa if the grade is that steep they want at least a paved driveway . One house off of Chuckanut Dr in Skagit county , right on the border with Whatcom county the guy had to have a small pond with like 3000 gals of water in it .  For fire dept use .    
 
  Other people have had to regrade the drive , use more of the slope of the hill to get below a certain grade slope .  It comes down to "Can the fire truck get there,, if needed" for the county.

  I'm not sure what the grade % are and they more then likely varie county to county / city to city. Good luck let us know what you find out . HTBH  ;)PEG  

[glenn kangiser]

I think it's 16% max by fire dept. here and in the winter my driveway at that is too steep and slippery- need more rock-- paving would be nice.  I slid going downhill twice last winter and it's about 500 feet over the edge down the mountainside to the next road.  I don't really want to do that ride. :-/

[Daddymem]

If you can't get them to go for straight gravel, try a product like this:  http://www.invisiblestructures.com/GV2/gravelpave.htm

Another option is pervious pavement like this (look for local suppliers): http://www.prestogeo.com/solutions/Geoblock/porous_pavement.html (One note, DO NOT believe them if they tell you grass will grow in the voids, it will not)

or use concrete block pavers (look for local suppliers):
http://www.paving.org.uk/commercial/cbp/bsd.htm

[Amanda_931]

Permeable paving sounds like a great idea.  And it wouldn't get hot like asphalt.  It wouldn't smell like asphalt either.

Another great idea is a bulldozer guy who understands water run-off.  Of the two I've used here, one did, one probably didn't.

If your local block place had a big bunch of banana or slightly broken blocks you could set them in gravel, fill with either gravel--or soil so you could plant them.  Somebody makes rather prettier ones than plain old concrete blocks (I'm from Nashville, I still say bricko blocks, from the name of a manufacturer there).

Somewhere I used to have a link to a country/logging road site that seemed to do a pretty good job of describing how to channel water so that your road wouldn't wash out.  That was a couple of computers ago, though.

For a while I did have a couple of boards going slantwise across my driveway to keep water from washing it out.  I may have to redo that system soon, the better of the bulldozer guys set the driveway up so that it didn't need them, but that was two and a half years ago.  It needs attention again.

[Amanda_931]

Oh, yes, and hydrated lime mixed with soil might be worth a try as a NON-BLACK but relatively impervious driveway topping.  Got an article from dirtcheapbuilders on that once.  It doesn't take much, under 5 per cent IIRC.  Soil stabilized with concrete might work just as well.

[glenn-k]

This is something I will be playing with in the near future - also , the adobe brick companies use asphalt emulsion at about 4% to stabilize their bricks- SS1H is available for about 1.50 per gallon plus or minus a bit.  I want to work it into the top 2 or 3 inches with clay and sand - maybe some cement as Amanda and the cement companies also say is good- lime also properly applied to clay soils and compacted is supposed to be good.  Moisture is necessary during compaction to cause the necessary reaction.

I am going to use my tractor with rippers on a Gannon scraper to do the mixing.  Water about 9 to 1 is good with multiple sprayings on the SS1H I understand.  I don't have any track record on this type of soil treatment for driveways so no guarantees- I will eventually try it myself though.

[Amanda_931]

Is that going to end up slippery (any kind of stabilized soil? or straight asphalt or concrete)

I really like the idea of permeable block--with big enough holes so they can be planted with grass or groundcover.

I also once ran into some kind of a plastic  coating on dirt/gravel roads/trails that at least wouldn't turn the surface black.

[glenn-k]

There is nothing much slipperier than wet clay - I plan on working in some sand with gravel and possibly some crushed slate on top.  I would think the mentioned products would be quite expensive but haven't seen pricing.

[Daddymem]

If I can find it again I'll post info on a product I went to a demonstration for.  It was a liquid that you sprayed onto a compacted dirt base.  It soaked into the first inch or so then hardened leaving the dirt as a great friction surface yet making the entire surface hard enough to drive trucks on.  It was not permanent, it eventually broke down and needed reapplication, but it may be a good solution for a temporary truck access situation and I don't think it was too costly.

[Amanda_931]

Might work forever for a light duty driveway.

But not if you hadn't take care of drainage and runoff issues.

I think I saw that one too.  Back when I lived in Nashville.

[glenn-k]

There are a couple of products that are environmentally friendly around here but water soluble so need to be replaced at least annually.

Descobond
Calbinder -lignin
Dustoff- hygroscopic-

Soil stabilizers - more permanent using soil on site
Lime
Portland cement
Asphalt emulsion  SS1H
Various asphalts road oils

Unfortunately large amounts of these all cost fairly large amounts of money.