Today we’re laying down a new gravel driveway for our customer. This one’s going to be 250 feet long! This new stone road will cover the entire length of our customer’s property. It will stretch all the way across the yard, connecting our customer’s house to his utility shed all the way at the end of his garden. There is some overgrown foliage in the way, so we’ll have to clear that our. In addition, there is a stump in the way of the path, so we’ll need to grind that out. After that, we can lay down the stone. If you need some crushed stone spread on your property, get in touch with us at 317-784-8760 or email us pictures at HappyDumpTruck@gmail.com for a free estimate on price.
First, we need to prepare the ground for laying down the stone. We attach a stump grinder to our Vermeer S925TX mini skid steer. The stump grinder works like a circular saw. It has a vertical toothed disc that spins and grinds through whatever it touches. We use this powerful tool to grind out all the bumps and roots in the way. Eventually in this process we come across the tree stump in our path. We begin to grind it up with our grinder, but the old wood of the stump has hardened due to age. We have to push down hard with our Vermeer’s loader arms to even begin to burrow through it. It takes effort, but after some difficulty we are able to grind out the stump. The yard is clear of roots and the stump and we can move onto the next step.
We need to thoroughly power-rake the ground. This step serves two purposes. First, it chews up the ground so we can excavate 4-6 inches of soil off the ground. We do this so when we spread the stone on the newly lowered ground it won’t rise higher than the dirt around it. Second, chewing up the ground stops any grass from growing there. If we leave any grass on the ground where we lay down the gravel, it can grow out from between the individual stones. We don’t want this to happen because it looks bad.
We start raking the soil. The power-rake spins a metal cylinder with teeth above the ground, upsetting the ground and chewing it up. It’s like a ground cultivator that you would use when sowing crops. This part of the driveway work is very satisfying to watch, so skip to 2:10 in the video if you want to see the power-rake in action. After we’ve finished raking the ground we use our simple but reliable dirt bucket attachment on our mini skid steer and shovel up all the extra dirt to haul away. And now it’s time for the best part.
It’s all coming together. The soil is prepped and we’re ready to pour. But this driveway is so long that we’ll have to lay down the gravel in chunks. The process for this is simple. First, pour out some crushed stone from our distributing dump truck. Then, take the trusty bucket we employed earlier and use it to distribute the stone over the ground. After that, drive over the fresh stone with the dump truck to compact it. Finally, put on a leveler tool and smooth the gravel out. Rinse and repeat this process four times, and we’re done! Now the customer has a brand new driveway through his entire property. Laying down crushed stone like this is no problem for us here at Schott Services. We’ll take care of all your crushed stone needs, so call/text us at 317-784-8760 or email us at HappyDumpTruck@gmail.com for a free estimate on price.
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