Gravel Driveway Care
Cause of Potholes
Potholes form when puddles are allowed to stay on the driveway. As your tires splash through the pothole the water carries gravel, sand, and other bits of road way out onto your car, and into the grass. Every splash takes a little bit more. As the hole gets bigger, the bigger the splash, the more gravel gets carried away. And so on.
Prevention
Keeping your driveway well drained is the key to a strong, long lasting road. When the driveway drains there are not any puddles, and no potholes. Instead you keep your gravel on the driveway, not scattered in the grass along the driveway.
Professional Repair
Hiring a professional is the best way to repair your pothole. Packing the gavel down well is the key to long term success. Using machinery, pick axes, and shovels to make the pothole bigger, tearing up the whole section to make it larger is the first step. Then replacing the gravel, adding more, and compressing it is the key to a long-term fix.
Slow Plow Damage
Most damage in Wisconsin on gravel driveways is done by snow plows. Plowing snow naturally cuts off the crown or hump down the middle of the driveway. It is important to hire or buy machinery that will pull the gravel back into the middle of the road. This is important to do when it appears that the crown is flattened out.
Quick Fix
The quick fix is to shovel more gravel into the hole and tap it down. However, this leaves that area less solid that the rest of the driveway, and in addition to the puddle that reforms, the loose gravel will just result in another pothole in the same place. A quick fix pothole repair will not last very long.
Proper Installation
When a gravel driveway is installed or repaired it is important that the installation company uses a roller to get good compaction. If you get a bid from a company that does not use rollers look elsewhere. Gavers Pavers always offers rolling as a part of the road installation or repair process. The compaction from a roller will be the base for a good long lasting gravel driveway.
