I have been asked to help a pal lay a gravel path - looking at the sort of thing MTB trails are built from. Its not going to have much traffic on it
Anyone know any good resources? My google fu is weak on this.
I think its normal to use coarse gravel as a base then topped with fine stuff? What is this called? 10 cm layer of course and 5 cm layer of fine? In which case I will need about 10m3 and 5m3 - or is it sold by weight?
I will have a skid steer digger thing to work with. some of the area is already gravel so only needs a scrape and maybe some fines, some of it is "made up ground" ie a swamp filled in with rubble so will need rather more gravel to get a smooth surface. Its all quite wet so I was thinking to build it up above the surrounding land rather than dig a trench to fill it in. Is this daft?
help! I'm a bit out of my depth here. A steer in the right direction would be great
Ta folks
Have a look at gravel grids. I used some to to make my Mom’s garden path safer for her to walk on.
edit, I would use hardcore to make up the ground and level with fines then grids on top before the gravel , if that makes any sense.
This place is normally pretty useful for that sort of knowledge. What materials you need will.obviously depend what it's going to the use for but this will be a good starting point.
https://www.pavingexpert.com/gravel01
Whindust on top of your type1? Then a whacker plate to completely compact, whack the type 1 before the whin.
Depends where you hire stuff from I needed a whacker for a 40min job but had to hire for two days, I had it for two weeks as the pick up guy said he'd pop back before it's next needed. I got an electric one with the 240/120V invertor.
Ta for that. I am wanting to end up with a surface that is smooth and bound together like the MTB trails at glentress ie a top layer of fines I think. Its for riding bikes on as well as walking
Whindust on top of your type1? Then a whacker plate to completely compact, whack the type 1 before the whin.
Thats the badger! whindust and type 1? Whacker plate essential? or will driving over it with the skid steer compact it enough?
Ignore - already been posted above.
I would use a very good quality weed control membrane and depending on required depth and financial situation -
Hardcore base, type one MOT limestone aggregate followed by a layer of 20mm to dust with a treated timber edging. Use a whacker as it vibrates the aggregate to fill voids and compresses evenly. The skid steer will only compress where it tracks.
If you have a lot to do then Evolution products from Sheffield do some good machines that you could sell on afterwards.
Oh yes, wear appropriate clothing that isn’t a pastel colour if you want to be taken seriously at the builders merchant’s!
Oh yes, wear appropriate clothing that isn’t a pastel colour if you want to be taken seriously at the builders merchant’s!
Lolz
Ta
Whereabouts is it you're doing it ? Markle quarry at East Linton is not too far away from Edinburgh and will have all you require as in whinstone type 1 and stoor to top it off. They will sell it for £20 a tonne but you need to get an all in price for delivery and better to get a full 20 tonne lorry load 10m3 is probably 15 tonnes or so
Don't use a merchant selling you 0.8 t bags as you would need to just cut them open
As for membrane that's a waste of money, plenty depth of type 1 it's not organic
Imagine how much weed control needed for all the 7stanes
Other quarries are to the West of Edinburgh or South of the city
Ta muchly redmex
Pretty much as the others have said, no membrane, dig out a trench, we usually go spade depth, no need for timber side. 100mm plus of 100mm to dust followed by 50mm of 20mm to dust limestone. Needs to be limestone, kther aggregates dont bond in the same way and remain lose.Whacker plate is essential. Get the surface smooth before whacking otherswise you will get hollow spots which you want to avoid as they create puddles that turn into holes. Think about drainage, camber the surface slightly so water goes off sideways and doesn't run down the trail. Have the finished surface higher than the edges again to avoid puddles. Make sure you haven't built a damn, put pipes through (6 inch) at any low points where water might pool so it can drain under the trail.
This is based on 16 years of trail building with Forestry England with several hundred thousand riders a year.
As folk have said a whacker is essential, it will compact everything so you won't need anything else to bind it.
It will need to be deeper than you think.
Quarries will be cheaper but a merchant will be able to drop the bags at intervals along your path, depending on access, quarry delivery might manage too.
Don't underestimate the physicality of shoveling tons of stone, I did the equivalent of 5m of path last year on my own and it was hard graft.
Hmmmm - ta folks. I am going to have a small skid steer digger to move stuff around. sounds like I have somewhat underestimated the scale of the project. Its not going to carry much traffic tho
Lay your base and whacker it good and proper, lay your next 'base' and whacker that good and proper - the whackering should get the gaps filled. Once those are done, get the whin down and whacker it...then whacker it again.
Don't make it absolutely flat as you want a slight camber to allow water to run off...almost a crown in the middle with a camber either side - shouldn't be visible to the naked eye, but it helps stop water pooling and causing erosion.
It is hard graft but it is also a very good days work (or several days work!).
A skidsteer is going to be OK for moving stuff around, but what about digging out the trench ?
I thought they were a bit awkward for that and a small digger would be better.
How long and wide is the path?
Too long I think for me 🙁 maybe 50m that needs the full work done. I may have rather underestimated the amount of work
I was going to just use the skid steer to scrape out a shallow trench. Its not going to have much traffic on it at all
Anyone fancy doing some graft glenrothes way? My pal is setting up a holiday place for neurodivergent kids so its a good cause 🙂
Hi TJ, i think you also need to consider what the top layer is going to be. The 'bound gravel path' method described above is great, but bound gravel can be messy when its wet, it leaves chalky wet residue that gets on shoes & tyres, if that's being tracked into accommodation in a holiday park it could get old quick.
Grothes is in the Kingdom so there are a few quarries to choose from, Breedon are west of Kirkcaldy and Newburgh North west Fife . Skene/Hillhouse are in Glenrothes supplied Fife side of the Queensferry bridge construction but ring Cartmore in Lochgelly they will probably give you the best price
I was getting 6" gabion stone delivered for £25 a tonne six months ago full 20t six wheeler, looks a huge pile but goes down gradually every day no skid steer just a wheel barrow
I was getting 6" gabion stone delivered for £25 a tonne six months ago full 20t six wheeler
Minor point of order, not esp important to TJ.
6 wheeler load would be ~16tonne max
8 wheeler is needed for a 20tonne load (typically you'd get about 19.5t in a delivery to be sure the vehicle is under max gross weight on the road)
(Sorry, but pedantry is one of those things we do well here!)
I was going to just use the skid steer to scrape out a shallow trench.
That may work if you're scraping backwards- but a digger is going to tidier as a skidsteer may chew up the ground.
The area that needs most work is "made up ground" ie rubble dumped in a swamp! The thing I was going to get is a small one of these
https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/Caterpillar/CM20190730-e346c-4dbd8
We have other work to do onsite with one such as moving topsoil around and clearing some gorse
Thanks very much for all the help. I have had a chat with my pal and we are going to scale back a bit what we are attempting - just dig the trench and lay the type 1 now for the path then reassess.
Thanks again
The area that needs most work is "made up ground" ie rubble dumped in a swamp! The thing I was going to get is a small one of these
I'm only going on my experience with the loader on my small tractor which is similar to that, but if there's stones of any real size then the bucket will quite possibly ride over them if you're scraping backwards.
You could dig out going forwards but then you're need to reverse back and out to dump the soil you've dug out .... and then go back in - this is likely going to make a mess of the trench behind you.
Obvs your trench/path will have to be at least the width of the bucket.
Ideally a small digger could be used to dig out the trench, to whatever width you want, putting the spoil to the side of the trench. This would keep the sides tidy and probably be quicker too.
Might be wrong but this would be my tool of choice. Skidsteers are great for moving piles of material quite quickly - but may not be ideal for this purpose.
Obviously I may well be wrong and you'll fly through it!
having asked the hire co they agree and its a small digger we are getting not a skidsteer
Have a look at the Paving Expert website referred to above and think about whether to use a geotextile membrane (not actually a weed control fabric), which IMHO is beneficial. (The Sustrans gravel paths that I helped to build all had a geotextile membrane.)
having asked the hire co they agree and its a small digger we are getting not a skidsteer
Hopefully that's a great move - look forward to hearing how it goes.
(there is a reason why a loader bucket is called just that! 😉)
Have you given consideration to how this will affect the "swamp". Not much fun if you end up cutting the drainage path and your swamp comes up and over permanently.
You might be better floating kt over the top and using some geogrids to keep everything together.
I think it will be OK from the various heights and angles but I will bear this in mind. there is drainage on site
You might be better floating kt over the top and using some geogrids to keep everything together.
It's a shame sleepers are so expensive now.
You could create a raised path using them either side and then fill the middle with stone - would stop people from wandering off the path also!
It's the no-dig solution 😉
The same could be achieved with edging boards and wooden pegs - £120 on treated boards plus some pegs.
It's a shame sleepers are so expensive now.
Yep, there ain't many wooden sleepers being pulled out and replaced any more; I'd imagine they're pretty much all done in most of the country. They were really handy for building garden raised beds and the like, once upon a time.
Oh yes, wear appropriate clothing that isn’t a pastel colour if you want to be taken seriously at the builders merchant’s!
Also works to repel the charity chuggers in supermarkets, especially if slightly mucky from work.
The recommendation for geotextile is a good one as it stops the soil filling the type 1 from underneath as you compress it (the type 1) maintaining it's drainage flow.
Thanks for the advice folk. It all went well tho hard work. Under the top layer of moss and weeds was gravel much to my surprise so a dig down to the firm gravel layer and build up with dusty type one seems to have done it,. I'll get some pics
some pics of my labours. its not going to take too much traffic
Looks good
.... And you got to play with a digger 😉
So digger or bobcat do you think?
could have dine with both really
could have dine with both really
Haha... Yeah I get that - digger for digging the path, bobcat for moving materials