I have this sinkhole close to the house side of the driveway, right where it flairs out to 2 cars wide. It is oval in shape, but for ease let's call 3'x8' with the deepest part a good 6" deep. The current drive is in OK shape, could certainly be resealed and fix all the cracks. I'm avoiding this as my 5-10 year plan is to build a garage, mud room, and farmer's porch and tackle the driveway after that construction is complete. So right now I need a 5 year fix. The problem is most likely due to a collapsed PVC pipe used to take the water away from the house. So as I see it, any solution has to include a new way to disperse that water. What products, techniques or solutions can you offer that may help me here? Thanks in advance, Craig
You can see the offending gutter, but pretty sure there is some buried PVC that probably clogged which is why the previous owner just did the lazy downspout runoff on this side. All other gutters run underground far away from house.
Looks like my driveway that we just resealed. Does it raise up in the winter? I think you need to cut out the spot that's depressed and see if there is a pipe there. If there is, you are going to have to repair it. If not, dig deeper and drop some stone, like item #4, tamp it good and then cold patch it. I used a new one by Sakrete. Just dump it in and roll over it with your tires. It's ready to go, no waiting. It ain't cheep, though. If not, use the regular one and let it set before driving on it. Should get you a lot of years before any other problems.
Sure looks like water settling to me. I would take the time to find the problem and fix it. You are going to want to repave someday and fixing a water problem at the same time may prove to be the wrong approach. If you fix it now, and it turns out the problem still exists, you are not cutting a brand new drive to fix it again.
I agree with the repairing.....cut out the section that is low, remove that stuff and see what (if anything) is causing the low spot, or if it is just settled dirt from long ago. Then I'd get some bank slate or shale, pack it down in there really good (vibraplate or tamper), and have a repair patch put in....
Cut it out, dig deeper, fix any problem, fill, tamp, patch. My thoughts exactly. I've read good things about US Cold patch, any thoughts on that? Should I rent a demo saw for a day? I have some other areas I could use it so I bet I'd get my money's worth on the rental.
I'd look around and see what your local "mom and pop" blacktopper companies would charge to put the patch down....might be quite affordable, and it would beat the pants off of the cold patch...
I've used the cold patch to good results here but not on anything that big..... Biggest repair I've done is maybe 1 ft square?
I would agree, you need to cut the second out and excavate it. I know when we set our granite curbing 3/4" crushed gravel when a compactor run over it is optimal for frost resistance. A cut off saw does work to cut the pavement but they don't work as good as a pavement saw. Keep the water to it or you'll have black dust every where. Pull out the material and see whats going on than back fill compact and patch. A compacter would serve double duty for compacting the soil than compacting the hot and or cold patch.
Well I'd say if you're looking for a temporary quick fix here's what I'd try. Not sure if the slope from that downspout across that sidewalk and along that driveway is enough or not, but if it is, I'd cut from the yard back into that water puddle and just trench it down along the driveway for now, maybe trench from that downspout across that sidewalk and down along the driveway.
So, I basically took no one's advice including my own, and did the quick, dirty and cheap approach. RAP from my wife's uncle... cost = 12 pack of Sam Adam's Octoberfest Borrowed a blow torch from my neighbor... cost = $0 Borrowed a friend for labor... cost = my labor to be paid in return at a later date Borrowed another wife's uncle who brought his wacker packer thing a ma jig from work... cost = a gift card to some restaurant I haven't picked yet All "costs" are my thanks, no one bartered with me but I like to show gratitude as the rental of a plate compactor alone would have been $50 for 4 hours. So an hour and a half later (after hauling the yard plus of RAP)... We will see how long it lasts. Its hard but I certainly can't plow it, might try hitting it with the torch again.
dagnabit, I had a hunch you were looking for a quick fix for now, based on the fact you'd be tearin' it up in a couple years.....nice work mate. You ram that with the snow plow a couple times and that'll tell ya how well it stuck
