Limestone vs Gravel in driveway

NW-PA, you getting from Cooperstown? Was just looking into getting mine added to. I never liked the straight stone, as every driveway I dealt with was sloped and it would easily spin out. Crushed packs much better for traction.

I paid $900 for 25 tons of #4 in SW TN this summer.

i like how rather than have the sub grade properly engineered and compacted once and lay down geotextile fabric, he added hundreds of dollars of gravel per year for over two decades

Do it once properly and you wont need to do it again.

Just the info I was looking for... thank you.

I wonder if a real road base installed at the start 20+ years ago would have been cheaper?

I like it

Both are the same, gravel is crusher run limestone

Would it be more cost effective to put down geotextile fabric then limestone? The added cost in my high cost of living area would be about $1,320 for 1/4 mile of 12ft wide driveway. That's 5.8 loads of rock at $450 each.

Try 3/4 minus- it will Harden like concrete

Damn doing that every year, asphalt is cheaper. My driveway lasted 20 yrs and its still ok. I payed $5000 in 2004. for 2800 sq ft. You will spend 8000 to 16,000 over 20 years.

I used 2 inch base for the first layer it packed down in a few months just about like concrete and have 2 inch clean on top i really haven't had any sink and disappear

Its 2-300 where i live 750 is crazy

Interesting comparison.... My drive is only 300 x 12 feet and has a 15degree pitch to it. After the initial gravel and clay base was packed down, I had 18 ton of #57 rock put down and rolled. I bought too much stone for the pitch so I have some spin ruts occasionally but it is clean, neat and apart from grading it with my ATV and a 8' piece of chain link fencing, it is holding pretty well. Thanks for the video....

Well locally, limestone simply does not exist.

Did you make any money on this video, being it went viral im just curious.

How do both do when it comes to plowing?

Not sure where your at, but in Iowa all gravel IS limestone.
And it's yellow.
You can hear the difference from yours. Yours sounds like a harder material. Almost like granite. Ours is a soft sound and yes it breaks down.
River rock here is HARD smooth round stones that you could never use in a driveway. Only good for gardens and in concrete.
It's weird how stuffs different by location.

who uses round rock on a driveway?

Thanks for the information and own land in California 3300 sq feet. Equally important thinking of graveling the whole property and don't really have a long drive way. .

MUST remove the topsoil first or you will have no stone left in short order as it compacts. you'll see

$650 for 25 tons of 21AA delivered in mid Michigan. Packed heavy clay base, geo textile fabric then the gravel. Its been very solid so far.

$330 delivered for caliche for 1 tri-axle, chained and spread in Central Texas

Aggregate pricing is all relative to how far away you are from your reseller or the grave pit. The trucking cost is what determines the varying prices, not the price of the gravel itself.

What we do when we build driveways or parking lots is we use road cloth underneath the base. This helps to stop the stone from disappearing into the soil. This is similar to how highway roads are built.

Since when is round rock a good base? Round always moves. Crush rock doesn’t move as much. That’s why the stuff called road base is crushed limestone it compacts and locks

Im in the mid south it hits 100 in summer and 0 in winter along with extreme rain in May and surrounding months my driveway is about a quarter mile also threw swamp like heavily wooded area near the Mississippi river The local rock company talked me into getting clay gravel mixed and a geo weed barrier to start as a base drive over it around a year then add a layer of crushed concrete forming a type of domed shape running into irrigation trenches along both sides of the driveway it has worked great absolutely no problems as of yet..

Thanks for sharing! We're developing a 12.5 acre parcel in northern Indiana (currently it's corn/soy farmed) and will be putting about a 500' driveway in over the tilled farmland. This was helpful!

Why do you say WE, when it was obviously YOU. 🤣

Use geo fabric under your gravel for areas driven over often. More upfront cost less additional gravel needed over the years. I personally use 825b which is essentially #57 which is what you have with some pieces a bit larger with the fines in it as well. The fines helps everything lock together.

The limestone should help to prevent weed growth because of its low PH level, would like to see an update on this to see how effective the limestone was at preventing weed growth.

Need geo fabric to keep that rock from disappearing

Just do DG. ?

love the limestone just for the packing and locking together ability. I personally have yellow clay for ground ( yuk, so slimy when wet ) I used 1-1/2 rock for a couple years to pack and firm up the ground , then I started using 3/4 minus crushed with all the fines in it to help lock it in. I found a supplier locally of crushed Granite with all the fines in it, that is even better than the 3/4 minus. the crushed granite does not wash out for me, and packs in way better... give it a try , you may like it. the crushed granite in north central MN cost me roughly $600 for a 10 yard truck load ( tandem truck ) .

How much is a truck load cost????? Nobody mentions cost????

Where are you buying from? I’m in NWPA as well. Thanks.

You should have installed geo grid.

First of all river rock IS NOT GRAVEL. Second, why why would you use rounded river rock for your driveway?? Those rocks will never bond together and the reason you think they are "breaking apart" is that if you lay round rock, on round rock they snap easy under load. Think eggs in a basket if you must to understand. That is why your driveway keeps "disappearing".
River rock on river rock is basically a gravel slip and slide.
So sorry you waisted so much money over 20 years adding river rock on top of river rock just for "looks"
Jagged cut rocks (recycled cement) that is what gravel is. River rock are just large pebbles.
Always always use gravel (jagged cut rock) to build your gravel driveways.
Lay a good 3 inch layer of 3 to 4 inch jagged rock. Then add a layer of crushed jagged rock with fines in it and Compact it all together. THEN lay down a top coat of 1 to 2 inch jagged rock (gravel) and watch the bonding magic take place.

I used clean crushed concrete for base and low spots with nice coat of limestone on top to look good.

$675 - 25 yard of limestone - March 2024 - Detroit.

Lime is very acidic and will corrode lots of stuff and ruin paint

Crushed/recycled concrete is the absolute best way to go. It packs and no more pot holes . I did mine 5yrs ago with crushed concrete and have had no problems

You did it backwards. The limestone would have locked in a tight base 10-15 years sooner

In my early days, driving a dumptruck, the often-said phrase was "river gravel always finds its way back to the river." We always recommended crushed stone, especially for topping. 3/4 inch minus (3/4 or smaller, has dust and fines in it) was the recommended size unless a lot of heavy traffic. Perfect for a driveway. Gravel is great for making concrete, and for leach fields of septic tanks. Other than that, crushed stone for aeverything else

My driveway is a 1/2 mile long and I started out with 8 inches of railroad gravel from a old track being removed locally and then added some crushed concrete, it only sank about 4 inches, only thing I don’t like is the fines in the crushed concrete that’s always getting into the garage, not to mention the 2 wheel barrels of metal pieces we picked up out of the crushed concrete.

If it where me, I would have cut in the roadway down 3" or so, put down a base of 3-4" crushed concrete or same size rock, topped it with cheap unfiltered sand, then put on the shale or limestone.

38 dollars per ton in Allegany NY

Why didn't you just put down 8 oz road fabric as a base then you would get the quick sand effect?

Your driveway will only be as good as your sub grade!, the last thing you want to do is keep adding more stone every year which adds up in money spent!. Limestone locks in and gravel rolls around!. If you dont want to use fabric before you put stone down then you should put down 6 inches of #2 limestone and 2 inches of 3/4 inch limestone with dust to choke your #2 limestone in place. And to make your wife happy the cover your drive with an inch of gravel to still maintain the rustic look. No matter what you put on top if your base isnt good it will keep pumping dirt up and stone down.