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Replacing lawn with gravel
jimbogarner
Posts: 2
Hi,
Apologies in advance if my question sounds stupid, i'm a novice!
My wife and I recently bought our first house together (previously rented!), the front of which has a garden and a narrow driveway, we want to widen the driveway by pulling up some of the lawn adjascent to it and laying some gravel down - I just wanted to know whether you think I may find any problems with doing it whilst the ground is still wet? The plan is to dig up the lawn, lay a heavy duty fabric membrane and then lay the gravel on top of this? Just conscious we will be parking a car on it?
Thanks in advance!
James
Apologies in advance if my question sounds stupid, i'm a novice!
My wife and I recently bought our first house together (previously rented!), the front of which has a garden and a narrow driveway, we want to widen the driveway by pulling up some of the lawn adjascent to it and laying some gravel down - I just wanted to know whether you think I may find any problems with doing it whilst the ground is still wet? The plan is to dig up the lawn, lay a heavy duty fabric membrane and then lay the gravel on top of this? Just conscious we will be parking a car on it?
Thanks in advance!
James
0
Posts
Two things though: gravel will stick to your car tyres and track onto the road. If there's a pavement, you will get gravel migrating onto the pavement which is treacherous for pedestrians. The Council may have bylaws to say you are responsible for stopping it happening, or if not, people may complain and you'll be told to do something about it. And gravel has to be weeded - weed seeds see it as a perfect germinating medium.
You might want to consider either something like 'grid pave' (other similar products are available) which reduces the tendency of gravel to move, or using a bonded gravel of some sort. Both options are fairly expensive though.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
https://www.sure-green.com/grass-reinforcement-mesh-heavy-grade.html
If there's no hardcore underneath the soil will compact unevenly under the weight of the car and you'll end up with troughs and ridges.
If you use membrane the shingle will slide around on top of it and bits of the membrane will eventually start to show through or become exposed at the edges. Even worse, it can start to fray. Then you'll be forever catching heels, tools etc etc in the threads. It can get really messy and also be a trip hazard.
A layer of compacted hardcore stops troughs developing in the soil and shingle.
Compacted hoggin works (to a small degree) as a weed suppressant.
The shingle slightly sticks to the hoggin and significantly reduces shingle movement.
Shingle is an easy, relatively cheap, DIY solution. You will, however, always have a problem with weeds self-seeding and also with some shingle migrating to where you don't want it. Make sure there is some edging between it and any grass or borders - we used paviors.
Shingle has, however, proved the best solution for us in several areas of the garden - including the drive. It does require some straightforward, easy maintenance but so do many other surfaces.
I will look into getting some hard-core and renting a whacked plate. To be honest I hadn't heard of hoggin before but will definitely look into this also.
Thanks very much, appreciate all the replies and help