Exploring Landscape Setups

Gravel Driveway Recommendations To Help You Improve Your Property

29 August 2020 by Tanya Green

Your yard landscaping project can take many weekends when you do it on your own, but when you hire a professional site contractor to help you with the labor-intensive jobs and earth moving work, it makes your end of the work more manageable. When it comes to preparing soil to install gravel or a new lawn, there are a number of jobs that can require the help of contractors and their heavy equipment. Here are some recommendations that will help you with your landscaping project and gravel installation.

Excavate the Topsoil

A gravel parking area or driveway is a great addition to your property and you can add in a layer of compacted gravel that forms a hard surface for your vehicles without the cost of pavement. However, it is necessary for you to remove several inches of soil from the site so you can layer the required gravel thickness and give your driveway durable protection from dirt and mud coming up through the gravel.

To remove the top layer of soil from the area, you can hire a landscape contractor who has experience in working heavy equipment. They will be able to scrape off the top layer of soil to leave an even surface to provide a foundation for your gravel driveway and room for the gravel layers They will also need to remove any large boulders or rocks from the area and scrape off vegetation, such as weeds or grass. And when you hire a professional excavation contractor they can arrange for disposal of the unneeded topsoil and yard waste.

Install the Gravel

After your contractor has scraped the soil from your gravel driveway site, they will be able to begin layering on the gravel. The gravel will likely arrive by truck load from your landscape company and will be deposited as close to the gravel driveway site as possible. This makes spreading the material onto the area more easy. However, with excavation equipment, such as a skid steer, they can scoop and spread the gravel onto your driveway site within a short time. 

A good gravel driveway should be layered with larger gravel on the base layer and progressively smaller sized gravel installed upon the larger in layers. This provides a stable formation, which your contractor can apply in layers with their heavy equipment. Otherwise, you will need to spend hours scooping the gravel into wheelbarrows and moving it onto the site where you pour it and spread it around manually with shovels.

For more information, contact a site work contractor.

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