How to fix a black mud driveway?

[Zeus81]

Hi everyone first time home owner/complete novice hoping someone can.assist we have a black mud driveway and i need help in determining how to fix it. I've been told to put stones but don't understand what that entails. Which stones? 

Issue being the car scrapes  out on the middle an has been bogged before. Gets worse everytime it rains. The block slopes downward slightly dfrom back front but also from one side to the other . 

 

 

[Jewelleryrescue]

Hi @Zeus81 

You can  use  any stones 20mm diameter  or  clean recycled concrete ,  Blue metal  stones look ok and are less expensive looking at your area you will need about 6 tonnes  of  them as they sink into the mud initially.  You can put weed  mat down first to  stop the mud coming up  more.  One  tonne usualy costs aprox $90 plus delivery charge  $100

Crushed  granite also is a favorite for longer drive ways and may keep costs down.  Add weed mat etc. You might beacle to by recycled  but watch out i comes with metal junk in it some times.

Or  consider looking at gum tree or ebay for  cheap or free bricks  or pavers  and putting them onto the ground it wont  be a perfect  job unless you want to go to alot more trouble.

You can  even lay down  wooden sleepers and drive on two tracks of them they can crack under the weight.

The best  neatest long tern solution is cementing two drive way wheel  tracks down.  using steel inside  100mm thick this can be done in stages. Or a  full stab.

Hope this helps with ideas.

[Zeus81]

Thanks for your response @Jewelleryrescue.

So just to clarify, could i just put weedmats on the driveway tracks and then put stones on top of them? I'm really clueless with this sort of stuff....ive been told  to.hire a digger thingy and excavate it...clearly by.my use of the word 'thingy' this is beyond my capabilities lol. 

Concreting is beyond my financial reach at the moment. 

I'm not too concerned with how it looks, just need to get the cars off the street and into the yard! 

[Jewelleryrescue]

Hi @Zeus81 

Yes probably best to hand level the car marks a bit fill the deeper car tracks.. The weed mat is a long  loll will roll out and form a barrier between the mud and the stones so they dont mix 

lay  out meed mat and pour stones on top. about 100mm deep 

[EricL]

Hello @Zeus81 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's wonderful to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about fixing your muddy driveway.

Sand and gravel start to get expensive once you begin building a large driveway. In order to protect your investment, I suggest building a large rectangular base made of 200 x 50mm 2.4m Treated Pine Sleeper CCA H4. This will prevent your gravel from being washed away in the rain.

Soft lawn soil is not meant to be driven on constantly. Generally speaking, in order to prepare it to become a driveway or parking spot the soft soil must be removed and the soil underneath must then be compacted using a Large Compactor. A mixture of crusher dust, aggregate and sand are placed in as a base and compacted as well. The driveway gravel is then placed above this and is compacted flat.

However, in an emergency my best advice is to level the area as best you can before putting the driveway gravel on top. It's best to use a compactor on the surface so that the gravel locks in place and does not sink when you drive on it. Keep in mind that this is a temporary solution and eventually the gravel will sink.

Let me call on our experienced members @Dave-1, @TedBear and @homeinmelbourne for their recommendations.  

Please remember to wear personal protection such as gloves, goggles and a mask when working on your project.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[Dave-1]

Evening @Zeus81 

Ahhh man 😕 What a pain... Can be fixed But some effort will be involved.

Going through the suggestions on how to improve your driveway I pretty much am thinking @EricL's suggestion or along his suggestion may be the way to go.

That soft top/yard soil needs to be removed, Id say that the "thingy" is a little bobcat you can hire. Shovel and mattock will work but believe me that is a job and a half as you need to remove all that "soft" soil on the tire tracks at the very least. 

I like the frame idea EricL mentioned, Not sure if he is talking the width of the driveway or just a box type deal for the tyre marks. You could go either way, as long as the tyre box base is compacted with a mechanical compacter so track has to be as wide as the plate of the compacter.

Id say 20cm of soil would be a good amount to remove (you should be getting down to a more solid/stable ground then), then gravel over the compacted boxed area. The box will hold the gravel in the path area, and also help it stop from pushing down and up when the weight of a car drives over it. 

Mmm trying to determine where all the water is coming from that is causing so much mud as it looks like its been happing for awhile? It may be an idea to factor that in as some kind of drain on the high sid eof the driveway (simple trench or dishdrain I am thinking until you know more)

How about this for an alternative. 

Same steps as above but not so much gravel needed. 

20cm depth

Compacted dirt base of the area (track width or the whole width, depends on how you go)

Instead of all gravel, see if you can pick up some pavers free or cheaply. Facebook market place or gumtree often have "free pavers being given away" you just have to be fast and keep an eye out for them. You could also contact a landscaping company and work a deal out if they pull up pavers for someone and need to get rid of them. I did that and picked up 600 odd pavers

So if you look at the profile of the driveway,

Compacted earth, 15ish cm of gravel. 8mm size

Pavers on top still within that framework. 

It may not stand up for a lot of traffic but will allow the cars to get off the street and not sink into the mud. 

Dave

[Dave-1]

@Zeus81 

Sorry forgot to mention that a guy I worked with when I had to drive down lots of paddock style driveways that were waterlogged taught me to stay in the rut as the soil even tho underneath the water it was still more compacted then the soil to either side. Adds a few +++ points to removing the tracks of dirt and compacting them properly is all.

(I shifted the work station waggon off the track to just on the side and he was yelling at me "what are you doing! get back in the rut" Yeah.... couple of Telstra workers, It was fun times and nah, not being sarcastic

Dave

[Zeus81]

Thanks! This sounds like somethg i can do! Appreciate the advice. 

[Zeus81]

Thanks Eric! That sounds like a good plan, but way beyond my capabilities at the moment, i'll go with option 2 for the moment! Appreciate the response. 

[Zeus81]

Hi Dave...its a downward sloping block, but the whole street also is on a slight incline,  all on blacksoil, so the water simply runs on the side of the block through the path of least resistance, being the driveway track. We also get some run off from the neighbours that can pool in the driveway....and it rained a lot here lol. 

Thanks for your advice, that sounds way beyond my capabilities at the moment, so i'll probably just go the temporary option. But its good to know what sort of thing needs to eventually be done in the future. Appreciate the advice!