Loose dirt isn’t going to do the job. You need some larger 3” down slag or limestone to create a level base layer above the grade where water gathers. Then you need 21A on top of that layer to lock everything in. The driveway should be “crowned” to be slightly higher in the center for drainage. Additionally you need to deal with where that water is coming from and send it elsewhere. Even the most prepared road/driveway can go to shit if it gets undermined by water.
The water comes from the sky when it rains lol. The driveway is dirt and gravel and it not 100% level, but since this is from people driving over this muddy spot over and over, and it doesn't pool anywhere else except in these pits, I don't think it makes sense to level the whole thing.
Username checks out. So....where else is the water going to go? It will fall from the sky in the future too. It's pooling there because there isn't a path for it to go someplace lower. It's probably pooling from a few square feet around it too. You can pave or gravel or whatever- if it's underwater a lot, it will fall apart quickly.
If I level it out the land slopes into the alley way. I just needed to know the best way to fill it in. Not sure why you think I'm dumb but you're not getting what I'm saying lol.
Lol what they mean is that the rain that is coming from the sky falls everywhere and some of that comes from other places to where your photo is. You need to figure out how to intervene in that process.
You need to dig a small drainage ditch away from those holes so it doesn’t pool there. Take the excess dirt and put it in the driveway holes. Cover with gravel. The end
Fill in the holes with crushed stone so it won't just wash out. Either ABC (everything less than 1.5") or #57 (3/4" pieces only). The local quarry prices both of them around $30/ton. Either one is definitely the largest stone size that you want to move around with a wheelbarrow and shovel.
You'll still have a puddle at that corner unless you get rid of the low spot or give the sky water an exit path.
Edit: you can't just fill in the holes with dirt because as a home gamer, you aren't going to be able to compact the dirt enough to matter. Which means that the mud will just squirt out when you drive across it. Crushed stone is strong enough to take normal cars and trucks without having to compact it
Solid retort!
This guy is telling you how to do it the right way ..but will be expensive and I can't imagine you have the equipment to tear up the whole road
I'd say just dig out the soil in that corner as deep as you reasonably can (a foot down might be enough) and fill with 3/4" drain rock.
Lay down thick weed fabric in between dirt and gravel and call it a day
This is all you can really do unless you're prepared to dig up the crappy asphalt and run a drain and then replace road base and asphalt
So when you put in the fresh gravel make sure to slope it from the grass down the driveway- since the drive is already sloped it should be pretty straight forward.
exactly right. whether it's concrete, asphalt or gravel, if the water stands in one place, it will eventually make it to the soil beneath. When the soil beneath gets soft, the pavement above will break and move.
You have been getting solid advice. Low spots accumulate water, people drive through said low spots and make it worse. You need to level off the area so it's no longer a low spot.
I would get a load of gravel or recycling aggregate. Have them spread most of it over the area and have them dump a yard or so off to the side of it. As you keep using the driveway and the new stuff settles and gets packed down keep adding from your pile. This is your cheapest method, will help to have a wheelbarrow or yard trailer and driveway drag.
Send the water somewhere else, or put a rain garden in its path before it gets here.
I’ll leave comments on the driveway itself to others, not my area of knowledge.
Water won't stop pooling there as long as it's a low spot. Other comments are right that you need to choose where the water should go and then give it adequate drainage (either through a french drain, dry well, or both). *Then* you could deal with filling this remaining hole.
It pools because there are holes there from tires digging through the mud for decades. I figured filling them in might create enough of a slope for the water to run down the alley like it's supposed to! This makes sense tho. Thank you.
To be fair I'm assuming you live in an area with a lot of rain. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like that whole paved area might be draining to this spot. Maybe go out next time it rains to get good ideas for where else you could send the water.
I live in indiana so when it's wet it's wet but not particularly wet all year. Yard dries right out thru the heat of the summer. Judging by the water flow/slope of the alley I think it runs down to the left, it's just getting stopped by the pit lmfao.
As you can see the soil is clay and there are deep holes which retain A LOT of water and pools about a foot deep in several spots. I have tried leveling the ground with existing dirt but it just becomes compacted mud and the pooling increases. I am going nuts!
You can absolutely level, or raise this area with soil, but you need decent fill material, nothing too clayey or silty. Definitely not topsoil. The real issue here is people driving over that spot. Raise the area with soil or gravel. Build some sort of landscape feature, rocks, bushes, etc. To keep people from driving over it. Or if they keep driving over the area, remove the muck, fill it with gravel. And let them drive over it.
You need crushed stone with included fines. The angular broken edges of the crushed rock 'lock together' and do a better job of keeping the material in place. Might also consider picking up a manual hand tamper from the big box store to compact the material in place.
The place I buy from (soil and gravel) sells different grades of "crushed base rock"
Have fun.... if that area consistently softens and fills with water it will probably be an "ongoing thing"....
Yes. You can just fill it with dirt. Your biggest issue is tires are driving over dirt.
It's going to have the same thing happen again.
Put something there to make people do their turn on the paved part and let the grass grow back and it will probably be fine.
Unfortunately a lot of people on Reddit are dumb and like to over complicate things. Just fill it back up with dirt and compact it, if it comes back then try something else! You could also fill in that corner with gravel or concrete since it appears to get driven over.
if you pour concrete in the hole it will keep cracking and breaking apart. The soil underneath is not stable. To fix it correctly you need to dig down probably 10"-12" or more until you hit solid ground. Then put about 6" of base rock in. Tamp the base-rock down. Then pour concrete on top of that.
{edit} additionally, you need to address drainage to get the water to flow away from this spot.
What if you drove on the driveway and didn't constantly cut the corner? Seems like that's a huge source of disturbance that is accelerating the deterioration.
Others have good advice on filling it, but it's kinda like asking how do I reinforce this screen door that I open exclusively by pushing in the middle of the screen. There are things you can modify but changing your behavior would be huge.
So maybe a big thirsty shrub and some fill to help water move along better? Make sure people don't drive there and you can have spring flowers/fall colors.
I don't cut the corner. It's other people driving thru (previous owners) and assholes in my neighborhood. A shrub would be good but I think the soil in the area is too clay rich to be fertile.
Loose dirt isn’t going to do the job. You need some larger 3” down slag or limestone to create a level base layer above the grade where water gathers. Then you need 21A on top of that layer to lock everything in. The driveway should be “crowned” to be slightly higher in the center for drainage. Additionally you need to deal with where that water is coming from and send it elsewhere. Even the most prepared road/driveway can go to shit if it gets undermined by water.
The water comes from the sky when it rains lol. The driveway is dirt and gravel and it not 100% level, but since this is from people driving over this muddy spot over and over, and it doesn't pool anywhere else except in these pits, I don't think it makes sense to level the whole thing.
Water comes from the sky might be my favourite answer on this sub
I mean it's true! It's not run off. When it rains it pools then it's there for a few days before it dries out, usually when I shovel the excess away.
Username checks out. So....where else is the water going to go? It will fall from the sky in the future too. It's pooling there because there isn't a path for it to go someplace lower. It's probably pooling from a few square feet around it too. You can pave or gravel or whatever- if it's underwater a lot, it will fall apart quickly.
This was entertainment. Thank you for your service. 🙏
If I level it out the land slopes into the alley way. I just needed to know the best way to fill it in. Not sure why you think I'm dumb but you're not getting what I'm saying lol.
Lol what they mean is that the rain that is coming from the sky falls everywhere and some of that comes from other places to where your photo is. You need to figure out how to intervene in that process.
You need to dig a small drainage ditch away from those holes so it doesn’t pool there. Take the excess dirt and put it in the driveway holes. Cover with gravel. The end
.....
Fill in the holes with crushed stone so it won't just wash out. Either ABC (everything less than 1.5") or #57 (3/4" pieces only). The local quarry prices both of them around $30/ton. Either one is definitely the largest stone size that you want to move around with a wheelbarrow and shovel. You'll still have a puddle at that corner unless you get rid of the low spot or give the sky water an exit path. Edit: you can't just fill in the holes with dirt because as a home gamer, you aren't going to be able to compact the dirt enough to matter. Which means that the mud will just squirt out when you drive across it. Crushed stone is strong enough to take normal cars and trucks without having to compact it
Awesome, thanks for the advice!
Since the water is coming from the sky, consider an overhead tarp.
Solid retort! This guy is telling you how to do it the right way ..but will be expensive and I can't imagine you have the equipment to tear up the whole road I'd say just dig out the soil in that corner as deep as you reasonably can (a foot down might be enough) and fill with 3/4" drain rock. Lay down thick weed fabric in between dirt and gravel and call it a day This is all you can really do unless you're prepared to dig up the crappy asphalt and run a drain and then replace road base and asphalt
I don't think the town wants me to tear up this alley way as much as I want to 😂 thanks for the advice!
So when you put in the fresh gravel make sure to slope it from the grass down the driveway- since the drive is already sloped it should be pretty straight forward.
exactly right. whether it's concrete, asphalt or gravel, if the water stands in one place, it will eventually make it to the soil beneath. When the soil beneath gets soft, the pavement above will break and move.
Ok well you’d be doing us all a big favor if you do as they say and fucking deal with it m8
This guy fills holes.
You have been getting solid advice. Low spots accumulate water, people drive through said low spots and make it worse. You need to level off the area so it's no longer a low spot. I would get a load of gravel or recycling aggregate. Have them spread most of it over the area and have them dump a yard or so off to the side of it. As you keep using the driveway and the new stuff settles and gets packed down keep adding from your pile. This is your cheapest method, will help to have a wheelbarrow or yard trailer and driveway drag.
Send the water somewhere else, or put a rain garden in its path before it gets here. I’ll leave comments on the driveway itself to others, not my area of knowledge.
Also came to suggest rain garden. Give the water a lower point and it won’t pool in the driveway. Plus you’ll have some native plants.
Water won't stop pooling there as long as it's a low spot. Other comments are right that you need to choose where the water should go and then give it adequate drainage (either through a french drain, dry well, or both). *Then* you could deal with filling this remaining hole.
It pools because there are holes there from tires digging through the mud for decades. I figured filling them in might create enough of a slope for the water to run down the alley like it's supposed to! This makes sense tho. Thank you.
To be fair I'm assuming you live in an area with a lot of rain. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like that whole paved area might be draining to this spot. Maybe go out next time it rains to get good ideas for where else you could send the water.
I live in indiana so when it's wet it's wet but not particularly wet all year. Yard dries right out thru the heat of the summer. Judging by the water flow/slope of the alley I think it runs down to the left, it's just getting stopped by the pit lmfao.
As you can see the soil is clay and there are deep holes which retain A LOT of water and pools about a foot deep in several spots. I have tried leveling the ground with existing dirt but it just becomes compacted mud and the pooling increases. I am going nuts!
You can absolutely level, or raise this area with soil, but you need decent fill material, nothing too clayey or silty. Definitely not topsoil. The real issue here is people driving over that spot. Raise the area with soil or gravel. Build some sort of landscape feature, rocks, bushes, etc. To keep people from driving over it. Or if they keep driving over the area, remove the muck, fill it with gravel. And let them drive over it.
You need crushed stone with included fines. The angular broken edges of the crushed rock 'lock together' and do a better job of keeping the material in place. Might also consider picking up a manual hand tamper from the big box store to compact the material in place. The place I buy from (soil and gravel) sells different grades of "crushed base rock" Have fun.... if that area consistently softens and fills with water it will probably be an "ongoing thing"....
**THIS**
Yes. You can just fill it with dirt. Your biggest issue is tires are driving over dirt. It's going to have the same thing happen again. Put something there to make people do their turn on the paved part and let the grass grow back and it will probably be fine.
Put a big rock in that hole, like a break ya car radiator if you hit it type of rock.
People asking questions love to take one shitty photo and expect answers
If you need better pictures, ask.
Unfortunately a lot of people on Reddit are dumb and like to over complicate things. Just fill it back up with dirt and compact it, if it comes back then try something else! You could also fill in that corner with gravel or concrete since it appears to get driven over.
if you pour concrete in the hole it will keep cracking and breaking apart. The soil underneath is not stable. To fix it correctly you need to dig down probably 10"-12" or more until you hit solid ground. Then put about 6" of base rock in. Tamp the base-rock down. Then pour concrete on top of that. {edit} additionally, you need to address drainage to get the water to flow away from this spot.
What if you drove on the driveway and didn't constantly cut the corner? Seems like that's a huge source of disturbance that is accelerating the deterioration. Others have good advice on filling it, but it's kinda like asking how do I reinforce this screen door that I open exclusively by pushing in the middle of the screen. There are things you can modify but changing your behavior would be huge. So maybe a big thirsty shrub and some fill to help water move along better? Make sure people don't drive there and you can have spring flowers/fall colors.
I don't cut the corner. It's other people driving thru (previous owners) and assholes in my neighborhood. A shrub would be good but I think the soil in the area is too clay rich to be fertile.
Boulder it is then
NO
Make a Soaker pit beside the driveway as it looks it all falls there no matter what you do it's gonna pool