Whether you are wanting a place to park your RV, trailer, or looking for an extra parking spot for your new “N” driver, gravel parking and driveways are an easy way to get extra space on your property, without the cost and hassle of putting in a paver driveway or concrete pad.
If we haven’t met before allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Back 40 Landscaping and our expertise is in retaining walls and hardscaping. We also like to bring education to those looking for gravel solutions.
Almost anyone can benefit from having an extra space to park at their house. Some homeowners want a spot to be added for guests who come to stay, or want to avoid having to find a spot to park on the street when they get home from a long day at work. Gravel parking spots are great for people looking to store their boat, camper, or even their lawnmower. The beauty of using gravel to create a parking pad, is that you can turn any space, whether it be a side yard or even part of your front yard, into a useable space in as little as a day or two. This fast turnover time, and maintenance free aspect, allows homeowners to get the space that they want, without the hassle of having concrete poured, or the cost of pavers being put in.
As with any project, the cost of a gravel driveway can go up or down depending on what you are specifically looking to have done, and what your property already looks like. What you are looking to have done specifically to your property, and the size of your space can fluctuate the price significantly.
This size of parking pad is great for a large pickup truck, or two small cars. In this example, the area for the pad is excavated, and the extra material is hauled away. Gravel is brought in to replace the excavated soil, and the entire area is hand-raked, compacted, and cleaned up beautifully.
This is a typical driveway that most homeowners have. It has room for two large vehicles with ample space to move and walk around, or four small cars. This includes excavation of the site, the soil hauled away and disposed of, gravel compacted, and the entire area cleaned up ready for a photo finish.
This driveway would be a good option for someone who wants to park a truck and car, along with equipment such as a boat, or camper. For this project, the site would be excavated, the excavated soil would be taken off site and disposed of, and gravel is brought in and hand raked. Lastly the area is compacted.
Annual gravel driveway renovation is highly recommended and regular Power Rake maintenance is very cost-effective. It will help to protect your vehicles and keep your gravel driveway looking and performing at its best. It will also help keep potholes and driveway ruts under control and improve the longevity and life expectancy of your gravel driveway.
New gravel driveways can look great, but over time they can compact and develop potholes and ruts, so it’s important to regularly maintain them. Filling in potholes is a temporary solution at best and won’t work in the long term. The only proper way to fix potholes, is to completely destroy them and then rebuild the driveway.
This is where the Harley Rake excels. With just one pass, the Power Rake can rework, level, and grade the entire driveway. Subsequence passes will achieve better and better results. Hands down, the Harley Power Rake is the best tool for renovating driveways and other gravel areas.
Compaction is available afterwards to help lock it all in place. Your finished driveway will have a uniform, newly built look and provide a much smoother drive.
The Harley Power Rake:
Keep in mind that for the Harley Rake to work effectively, there needs to be enough gravel already on site. If your driveway only has 2” of gravel on it, there is not enough gravel for the Harley Rake to do its job, because there is not enough material to help level the area. Luckily, as mentioned above, this is fixed with bringing in more gravel before Harley raking, which will of course add to the cost of the renovation.
While the Harley Rake cannot be beat for large areas, it is not suitable for small areas. The Harley Rake is a fairly large unit with wheels behind it, and is unable to get close to garage doors or tight areas. Because the Harley Rake is unsuitable for these areas, for this gravel renovation job an excavator is brought in in its place. The excavator scrapes off the top inch or two of the old gravel, and new gravel is spread over the entire area. Once that is done the area is compacted.
The last thought I want to leave you with is in regards to your long-term planning of your property.
The excavation depth for a gravel driveway or parking area is not the same as the excavation depth when installing either pavers, concrete, or asphalt.
A typical excavation depth for a gravel driveway is 6”, while the excavation depth for pavers, concrete, or asphalt is 12”.
If you are planning on upgrading your gravel area with pavers, concrete, or asphalt at any time in the future it may be wise for you to excavate deeper now, and avoid having to excavate soils later.
Excavating soils later would require stripping off the 6” of gravel, making a huge pile of gravel (do you have room?), and digging deeper into the soil, replacing all the old gravel, and then adding more gravel to reach your final finish grade with the pavers, concrete, or asphalt.
Gravel driveways are a great option for anyone who is looking for a new driveway that looks aesthetically pleasing, is safe to walk on, and that garbage cans and lawnmowers can easily roll over.