Gravel road construction & maintenance

It is priced per job after we have walked the length, because two drives of the same size can be very different pieces of work. The main factors are how long and wide the drive is, what condition the existing base is in, how steep the run is, how much ditching or culvert work the drainage needs, and how many tons of stone it takes. Re-grading and topping up an existing drive is a much smaller job than building one from bare ground. We give you a written price that separates the stone, the drainage work and the machine time so you can see where the money goes.

Almost always because water is running along the drive instead of off it. If the surface is flat or dished rather than crowned, every rainfall turns the drive into a channel and carries your stone downhill. Adding more gravel on top of that does not fix it — it just gives the water more to move. The fix is shaping a proper crown so water sheds to both sides, cutting or clearing ditch lines to take it away, and setting culverts where the run-off crosses. Get the water right and the stone stays where you put it.

Usually, yes, and it is the first thing we look at. A lot of drives that feel finished just need re-grading, the crown re-established, the ditches cleared and a top-up of surface stone. A full rebuild with a new base course is only necessary when the ground underneath will not hold a surface layer any more. We will tell you which one you are looking at when we walk it, and we would rather quote you the repair if the repair will hold.

It depends on the layer and the job. A base course uses larger, angular stone that locks together and carries the load; a surface course uses smaller material that packs down and drives comfortably. Rounded river gravel looks fine but rolls under tyres and migrates, so it is generally the wrong choice for a drive that gets used. We will tell you what we are proposing and why, and the tonnage will be on the written estimate.

Yes — longer rural access roads are routine work for us across Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties. Those runs are usually about grade and drainage more than surface finish, and they often need culverts at the crossings. If a stretch is too soft or too steep to hold stone as it is, we will say so when we walk it rather than build something that fails in the first wet season.

Yes. Because we do tree work and land clearing as well, a new drive or access road that needs a line cut through trees and undergrowth can be handled as one job by one crew rather than coordinating two contractors. Tell us that is what you need when you call and we will quote the clearing and the roadwork together.

It depends on traffic, grade and how good the drainage is, but a drive that is crowned and draining properly needs attention far less often than one that is not. If you are seeing ruts forming, potholes returning in the same spots, or stone piling up along the edges, those are the signs it is due. Fixing it at that point is a grading job; leaving it until the base is exposed turns it into a rebuild.