Maintaining the visual appeal of your gravel driveway
Gravel is a great alternative to concrete and asphalt in making outdoor spaces, including garden paths and driveways, functional and attractive. Additionally, gravel may also be used for general landscaping to offer a beautiful contrast around the garden or when sprucing up borders as well as flower beds. Gravel driveways are very common in rural areas. Gravel is mostly used because of its advantages, including good drainage, low maintenance, no cracks and no wear and tear, as is the case with concrete and asphalt.
Although gravel driveways do not require regular maintenance, it is good to have the surface maintained from time to time. This will maintain the good impression of the landscape and the aesthetic value of the property in general.
It is important to grade your gravel driveways from time to time. This is aimed at loosening the gravel that becomes hard-packed with time. This also helps in loosening the gravel on the driveway up to the depth of any pothole, which may be on the driveway, and ensuring that the potholes do not occur again. To grade gravel surfaces, you should scrape the surface from its edges to the center. This will form a crown-shape. After this, you should then feather the gravel outwards, towards the edges lightly. After grading, you should then pack the gravel to ensure that the driveway is level and that it has a proper base.
Potholes on the gravel surface can turn an otherwise beautiful surface very ugly. Additionally, potholes will worsen drainage problems and make it uncomfortable for you to drive over. As such, potholes on gravel surfaces should be repaired as soon as they appear. In addition o t raking the gravel well, it is also essential to replace the missing gravel in such potholes.
Another problem that can occur in gravel driveways is drainage. Poor drainage in sections of the driveway should be addressed immediately as it can cause washouts, ruts and erosion. However, this problem can be avoided by having the gravel properly installed in the driveway. Alternatively, you may also add more gravel to the flooding region to make it higher than the surrounding regions. You can also solve this problem by constructing a ditch to lead the floodwater from the driveway.
Some of the issues that affect a gravel driveway may be avoided during installation by using the right materials. For instance, using gravel with large grains can easily lead to ruts, potholes or pits on the surface of the driveway after sometime. Instead, it is advisable to use gravel with pea-size, (¼”) grains during installation. Additionally, you should also use quality, strong and durable driveway reinforcement grids, like the ones from MatsGrids, during installation to prevent gravel migration on the surface.
For the parts that are affected by snow during winter, you should keep the gravel clear of snow. However, you may end up removing some gravel from the driveway along with the snow. This gravel should be replaced in spring. Additionally, you are also supposed to rake back the gravel that had been pulled outwards by the snow.
Basically, much of the maintenance work on gravel driveways can be reduced using quality materials from the reputable companies and having the gravel installed by knowledgeable professionals. Using the high quality driveway reinforcement grids from MatsGrids can help alleviate such problems as soils migration, the bearing effect of gravel and potholes on the surface of the driveway. Being the best producer of ground reinforcement grids in the UK, you can be sure that you are always getting the best when you source your gravel driveway materials from MatsGrids.
