Clay base under gravel drive - problem with drainage and rutting

blue_monkey_2

We have recently had our drive done in gravel and it has a sub base and gravel topping. It is on a slope and it has clay underneath and a few days after it was done a van came onto the drive, caused a big rut which then resulted in a huge patch of exposed clay. And then it rained. A lot. And now we have a few patches of muddy mess.

The result is that it seems the rain pools at the bottom half of the drive and it has nowhere to run to hence the ruts. We put the drive in as it was horrendous with it being lawn as I'd be standing in a few inches of water as it did not drain anywhere either.

I've had my landscaper in today who has suggested that he takes 4 ins of the clay out, put a size 1 sub base in and then regravels it. I've got to give him an answer ASAP as he can only do it next week.

I've been thinking on this all night that surely the same will happen again if the water has nowhere to run to, it'll end up getting pulled up as 4 inches of hardcore/gravel is not a great depth and the 1st van raked this much up after it parked.

Can anyone offer me any suggestions on what is the right thing to do. I know I am playing with time and defiantly have to get back to him in the morning but is what he suggesting the right thing to do? He has already done it once, I am a tad annoyed he did not notice this the first time when he dug the drive out initially but he did have hardcore down. I just do not want to pay out money hand over fist when it keep on continuing.

Would a concrete base with a sub base topping and then finished with gravel a better option or would the water still pool?

Thanks for any advice you can give on this.

plumb1_2

Its needs land drains installing, as the clay is still going to hold the water. No matter how deep he digs out. Get other quotes from builders as well as Landscraper(posh gardener).

Ask him where the rainwater will go???????????

keystone

blue_monkey wrote: »

I am a tad annoyed he did not notice this the first time when he dug the drive out initially but he did have hardcore down. I just do not want to pay out money hand over fist when it keep on continuing.

You should be annoyed. Irrespective of the water issue he obviously laid an inadequate sub-base in the first instance. Driveways are for putting vehicles on or doesn't he know that? Its the sub-base that takes the weight - the gravel is decorative TBH. I'd not be paying him another penny to put this right if it were me.

Would a concrete base with a sub base topping and then finished with gravel a better option or would the water still pool?

You now need planning permission to lay an impervious driveway or hardstanding in front of your house. A concrete layer would fall into that category. BTW the MOT subbase goes under the concrete not on top.

Unless he's built some drainage in - like this yes the water will still collect. Something like this leading to a soakaway or surface water drain should have been put in when he did the job in the first place.

Cheers

spectre

we have a similar type of problem , front drive was 1/2 lawn , now 1/2 mudbath
Layed some slabs over most of the worst and am going to gravel around once the landscaper can confirm the delivery of the 20mm gravel

blue_monkey_2

Thanks, this was my feeling as well. I am feeling a tad annoyed that it happened as it could have been dealt with 1st time around. When we had it done it was pretty dry and, to be honest, none of the people who came around suggested this. Now it has rained there is an obvious problem.

The thing we have to do is drain the water but not sure where we would drain the water to.

Thanks for the help.

silvercar

YOu drain the water to join your house rainwater drains or to a soakaway. If you haven't got a soakaway, you get one put in. Although physically hardwork it is just a matter of digging out a big hole and filling it with material.

vaio

When I was at school the three rules you had to know to qualify as a civil engineer were:

Bricks are square
Water flows down hill
You can’t push string

Rule two applies in this case and if the lawn that was there previously didn’t drain then changing lawn for gravel isn’t going to help. Soakaways in water logged ground invariably don’t work as there is nowhere for the water to soakaway to.

The only solutions I can think of are raising the level of the drive so the water runs off onto whatever is either side or pipes & a sump and pumping the water away.

TheMoneySpider

If you get a soakaway you just need to get through the clay layer & replace it with gravel, if you do this at the lowest point then the water will trickle down there and then percolate through the ground (although that can sometime take a while it'll be a darn site quicker than through the clay)

Speaking as a layman if you hired the person just the take the grass off and put the gravel on then you might struggle to convince them that the underlying ground is their responsibility...if it was a proper concrete drive then the footing would be their responsibilty (I think).

Digging a 5ft deep (4 foot wide soak) through the clay might well alleviate the problem...just be sure that you fill it with gravel and then thump it all down so it doesn't just subside.

DVardysShadow

A mixture of measures required here.

Obviously the problem is water on the clay, so a soakaway or other means of taking water away.

But wet clay still has some capability of load bearing - providing it is not flexed so it becomes a paste. Gravel straight on clay does not spread the load. The construction should be based on larger stone or rubble, proceeding to smaller material, finally covered with gravel. Below the gravel, the voids between larger material should be filled with smaller material, and the whole lot should be compacted below the gravel level, making a solid layer which will spread the load. I have successfully done this with a good 300mm or more layer of compacted rubble over very wet clay which would not support a vehicle in a wet winter, and it has remained firm without rutting - I didn't have gravel over it, but this would make no difference to the load bearing capability.

blue_monkey_2

Before it was a lawn but a raised lawn and I was parking on it, so it has all been scraped away and then hardcore put in (or whatever it is) and the gravelled. It does flow down hill now - in fact the top part of the drive is perfect - how we want the rest to be, the problem is where the drive meets the road. We have had 2 visitors that have spun their wheels on the drive to make the ruts, which in turn has caused the clay 'puddles' and when it rains it does not drain away and the more we drive on it the worse it get's. Tbh I am not having a problem with it and am able to drive in and out without spinning the tyres, so is hubby, it is everyone else who is causing it.

In retrospect, had we got it done in the spring it would have dried out and compacted with the cars rolling over it but we did not and did not think about it really. It is just these 2 places (but 4 tyre 'holes') where the rutting has occured. Hubby is going to rake it over tomorrow and we are going to wait until the spring and have a look at it then and consider the drainage.

Thanks for all of the advice, it is most useful and makes it sound like I know what I am talking about to my husband!! Ha ha!!

This morning I was chartting to a friend outside my house and my over-the-road neighbour butted into our conversation who, after a biut, proceeded to tell me how crap the work was and when I dared challenge his opinion of the water draining away from the clay (apparently water will drain through clay) shouted that I was a 'stupid little woman' and had a massive rant at me about it and when I walked off then proceeded to tell my friend that 'all the idiots had moved into xx'. To say I was gobsmaked was an understatement. Still, he has actually done more or less the same everyone else around here, no-one speaks to this guy so I guess my time was coming. What on earth is wrong with some people.