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Re: Mirafi needed? (was: Gravel/Dirt driveways)

To: Bill Rabel <brabel@dlux.net>
Subject: Re: Mirafi needed? (was: Gravel/Dirt driveways)
From: Mark Andy <mark@sccaprepared.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 15:15:33 -0400 (EDT)
Howdy,

Btw, a "sorta to scale" drawing of the areas is at:

http://www.maracing.com/driveway.gif

Thanks again for advice/help!

Mark

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005, Mark Andy wrote:

> Howdy,
>
> The area that I need to make into driveway and parking lot does indeed get 
> reasonably wet at times...  Its currently lawn, and in the spring it gets wet 
> enough that the tractor will leave ruts, a pickup can get stuck, walking on 
> it gets your shoes wet & the lawn feels spongy, etc.
>
> Is Mirafi appropriate for this kinda thing, or will just putting in 8" or so 
> total of a larger rock base with smaller rocks on top be enough to firm stuff 
> up?
>
> Any idea as to the square foot / yard cost of Mirafi?  I've probably got 250' 
> of driveway that I'd like to widen by 4' (existing driveway is asphalt, but 
> the 'shoulder' section I'd like to put in would be gravel), plus about 6000 
> square feet of parking area.  The fabric sounds like a great idea, but cost 
> is definately a driver here...
>
> So far, my process seems to be:
>
> 1) strip sod using a rented gas powered sod stripper Dunno what I'll do with 
> this...
>
> 2) rototill remaining soil to a depth of 8" or so.
>
> 3) scrape or dirt scoop away to a depth of 8" or so (put this soil in 
> backyard over the leach field that was put in last fall...  Its already got 
> soil over it, but we never smoothed it out, so now its a nightmare of 
> bumps/ruts/some grass/etc.  This time, we can put the soil there and 
> landscape rake it down smooth, then seed).
>
> 4) (maybe) lay down fabric barrier 5) put down a layer (5"?)of bigger 
> unwashed rock/limestone/whatever is cheaper locally.
>
> 5) lay down a final layer of 3" or so smaller unwashed rock.
>
> Does that seem reasonable?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mark
>
> On Fri, 3 Jun 2005, Bill Rabel wrote:
>> If you have any muddy spots on your road, put down a layer of Mirafi 
>> fabric. This stuff looks like black visqueen, but it is porous. It will let 
>> the water through, but it will prevent the mud coming up through your rock 
>> layer, or (worse yet) the rock disappearing into the muck. Mirafi is a 
>> brand name, but it is a generic description of this barrier material that 
>> your building-supply store should know about.
>> 
>> We once put Mirafi over an entire two-acre site, because the soils engineer 
>> told us that the in-place cost of a layer of Mirafi would be about 20 
>> percent the cost of an additional six-inches of fill in the high traffic 
>> areas. Since the entire lot was exposed to heavy loads, we covered the 
>> entire site. We simply laid Mirafi ahead of the fill, starting at the 
>> street.
>> 
>> The bogs on the site, one of which nearly swallowed a tractor-trailer rig, 
>> were never a problem again. I'm sold on the stuff. I wish I had known about 
>> it years before, because one of our sites has asphalt that is about 18" 
>> deep in one spot where there was moisture.






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