Driveways

[STARGASA]

Can anyone recommend the best material for a driveway out in the sticks.

Thanks

Rob

[RichCor]

Out in the sticks, they actually make it out of sticks.

Well, bamboo strips spaced and running crisscross and tied together with wire to make up a fiber mesh floating just above the pre-compacted substrate.

Concrete cement is mixed and poured over the top, thickness to suit the expected traffic load, troweled smooth or rough.

What you make it out of really should depend on what you expect to use it for, and the load it's expected to carry.

Our driveway every once in a while sees heavy trucks delivering sand, bags of cement, or dirt. The edges were reinforced as they tend to want to drive off the sides.

[farang000999]

You probably need to be more specific about the uses of the driveway and other considerations.

[wayned]

I live in the sticks and my driveway is modern gray gravel. It;s easy to level occasionally and fill with more gravel as required especially afterr rainy season and won't crack, buckle or bend creating unmanageable potholes if it is not installed cirrectly over properly prepared ground. For that matter my entire front yard is modern gray gravel and the vegetation that tries to grow in it is controlled with weed killer.

[IMHO]

Best material? I still don't know anything that bests concrete for a driveway.

[cooked]

Best? Maybe you should go for what's doable. You should easily be able to find someone that can lay a concrete drive for you. Persuade them to leave joints every 8 meters or so. If you don't like the look of concrete, there are plenty of finishings that you can put on top later. And don't forget drainage of surface water,you don't want to drive through puddles / breed mosquitoes.

[Crossy]

Laterite (the red stuff they use on dirt roads) is good and inexpensive, gives that rural look.

Ours is grey gravel, compacted over the years and occasionally topped up where it's sunk, it's now got grass growing in the middle.

[thehelmsman]

Laterite (the red stuff they use on dirt roads) is good and inexpensive, gives that rural look.

Ours is grey gravel, compacted over the years and occasionally topped up where it's sunk, it's now got grass growing in the middle.

The red stuff is what we have and is most common in my neck of the woods, ahhh I mean rice fields. It packs down nicely.

[bankruatsteve]

If you want a DIY project that looks great (well, I think so), you can lay down a few cm of sand, stagger in bricks (like the 2nd photo), fill gaps with more sand, and then plug the cracks with bits of sod (torn off). This driveway took about 6 months to have complete overgrowth of the grass and now over 4 years later.

BTW: 2nd pic showing bricks is in the shade most of the time and the grass just doesn't grow very well there.

[STARGASA]

Thanks for your replies.

[thaibeachlovers]

I'd use pavers. They are cheap and if sink can easily be taken up and more sand put under to level.

Concrete is too permanent, and in the event of poor quality or a bad compacting job will crack and look unsightly.

I have just spent a lot of time replacing a broken concrete patio with pavers, and it looks 100 % better.