Large Driveway

renovation_man

The problem with this system is similar to the block paving, over a couple of years seeds etc get blown in and start to grow and you find yourself weeding, also if you take muck/dirt whatever it stays there. If the quality is cheap they also start to bend and the base is the same for most surfaces, a good consolidated hardcore.

The cheapest maintenance free driveway is plain concrete on a well compacted hardcore and sufficient crack control joints. A good slump and added fibres. Blended rather apc.

With concrete it can just be power washed off unlike the other surfaces, personally I prefer pattern imprinted concrete but is more expensive

xx_lucy_xx

Thanks for all the advice, its given me some food for thought for sure.

Here are the pictures if anyone is interested.

http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/...e/Untitled.jpg
http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/...e/DSCN0826.jpg
http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/...e/DSCN0825.jpg
http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/...e/DSCN0824.jpg
http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/...e/DSCN0827.jpg
http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/...e/DSCN0828.jpg

If we took the drive up ourselves, what would be the most cost effective way of removing the hardcore?

ian103

we have removed concrete paving in two homes now and changed to gravel (creates a quick easy drive and allows water to drain) we used a sledge hammer and a crowbar/wrecking bar (a posh example Spear & Jackson Insulated Crowbar Point and Blunt Product Code: 62765) and broke the concrete up into manageable chucks to lift and put in a barrow -you will need a number of skips or a number of grab wagen visits. the remove the existing hardcore use a pick to break it up and a shovel to dig - again into skips / grab wagon.
you may not need to dig down once the concrete has gone, I would expect it to be 100 - 150mm thick, you would need ot see what is underneath, it may be you need to import stone (MOT1) to bring to correct level. you could have a new concrete drive, but I would not recommend a diy concrete drive unless you know how to finish the surface. how about block pavers?

the easy way is to hire a jcb and driver for a day or so

ian103

oh and on the one picture it looks like you may have a stop top cover in the drive, its about 150x150

DVardysShadow

renovation_man wrote: »

Hi Lucy

I have sent you a pm as I dont think I can post my website on here

Too much pm'ing touting your website and your business and you will be gone from this site for spamming

DVardysShadow

xx_lucy_xx wrote: »

.... I only see myself at the house for another 2-5 years so dont really want to spend megabucks, any tips or advice on how to take things further would be really appreciated.

It is too big to sort yourselves in a week.

IMO, the roughest bit is the first bit from the road to level with the front wall of the house. I suggest dealing with just that bit to a good standard

renovation_man

A JCB that is a bit of overkill a 1.5 ton excavator would be more than suffice and a lot cheaper. If that was 150mm thick it wouldn't break up like that,you would get fewer but larger live cracks. If you break it up and the drain off point is lower than the point of excavation and fill it with chippings where would the water drain? it would mean putting in land drain and breaking in to the nearest manhole and also what about the stop tap that is going to be above your excavation point.

No disrespects but I've been doing this for many years, if you have a look at my website you see the amount of experience we have and we do this on a regualr basis and have lost count of the driveways we have done.

A sledge and wrecking bar will increase labour costs if you excavate manually you will need to use a breaker. Work smart not hard

renovation_man

Didn't read the website touting bit, could you remove what is nessessary please, touting not intended as we could not take on anymore work anyway

ian103

renovation_man wrote: »

A JCB that is a bit of overkill a 1.5 ton excavator would be more than suffice and a lot cheaper. If that was 150mm thick it wouldn't break up like that,you would get fewer but larger live cracks. If you break it up and the drain off point is lower than the point of excavation and fill it with chippings where would the water drain? it would mean putting in land drain and breaking in to the nearest manhole and also what about the stop tap that is going to be above your excavation point.

No disrespects but I've been doing this for many years, if you have a look at my website you see the amount of experience we have and we do this on a regualr basis and have lost count of the driveways we have done.

A sledge and wrecking bar will increase labour costs if you excavate manually you will need to use a breaker. Work smart not hard

the op stated they wanted to do it themselves and as cheaply as possible - this removes the option to use too much machinery, a jcb usually comes with driver - easier for layman to sort, they could use a breaker but again there is additional cost and also very tiring if not used to working them.

if the drive is gravel, there is generally no need for a land drain as the gravel and the sub base will self drain.

I haven't seen your web site so can't comment on your experience. I also have many years experience in construction, but i've answered the original post, its not how I would necessarily do it myself but that wasn't what they asked

renovation_man

Dvardyshadow I have just sent you a pm but your inbox is full, I have asked a moderator to remove any unsuitable wording regarding our website, it was not intended to tout but it is sometimes easier to show somebody a picture than to try and explain