Fixing a Gravel Driveway with Standing Water

Here I improve a gravel driveway as best as possible to deal with standing water by the client's house and parking spots. Due to how the neighbor's driveway, easement and house is set, there was a lot of water making it down the center of this client's driveway and sitting near his house. Unfortunately, there were not too many good options to eliminate how water was getting down to and sitting near his house due to aforementioned easement and house grade.. However, I believe that we made the best of what minor slope existed on the site and removed all standing water issues from the driveway space.
Equipment Used:
Mini Excavator: 2021 Bobcat e26 R-Series
Greade Tool: ZipLevel-2000
Camera: GoPro Hero 7

[@patrickrooney5130]

As long as the home owner is happy. That's all you could ask. Good job buddy. and on to the next one.

[@reggienance]

Great Job! It's nice how you went back to ensure everything was working the way it should. Only some contractors will take that extra step.

[@joebacarella2829]

Your drainage seems to be working well, you can`t ask for much else, it looks great, well done.

[@chiefkyle1098]

You've come a long way. I just finished watching a video from three years ago where you rented an e45 excavator to remove a tree stump, because the Kubota backhoe w/ ripper couldn't hack it. great job man.

[@bwdiver1]

I agree, many angles are hard to deal with unless they do a paved driveway. You do good work. I’m getting better on my E35 but so far I stay away from driveway repairs until I get more skilled.

[@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC]

Thanks!

[@jdmapple]

shout out to the snake around 36:05

[@stevestock2439]

You had very little to work with based on his elevation of his garage doors. You did about as good as anyone could do. I think the key is the owner has to realize that this driveway will need to be managed yearly after the winter season and plowing. Super job on your part.

[@aaronburford5701]

The excavator is so quiet and smooth! Great job!

[@aaronburford5701]

Watched, Liked, Subscribed, Shared, Commented... love the video and the excavator work! So smooth and clean!

[@mcc19606]

Always love your after sales service. Must give your customers a greater degree of confidence. Mike 🇦🇺

[@aaronburford5701]

Love your channel and your work! Been fan of your attention to details! Great Job!

[@fit4ya1975]

Just saw this channel. Gotta say you have a lot of pride in your work, great job man! A top coat of 3/4' Clean Limestone would make this perfect, wouldn't be muddy during wet weather. Did same to my driveway and it made world of difference.

[@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC]

Thanks! Ya, I had mentioned that, but due to plowing in the winters, leaving it without makes it a bit less maintenance which the client preferred

[@MikeKincaid79]

A little sediment pond in front of the culvert might help the problem. Nice video!

[@joegomez5807]

You do a great job. Keep up the good work

[@BmertheLab]

I really enjoy how you revisit your work and include it in your videos. Great job man.

[@ThriftyGarage]

Nice work! Looks like minimal slope closer to the house where the swale is coming off the driveway. It looks like you are working the best with what you have.

[@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC]

Yeah, there was virtually zero slope. Not easy to grade and definitely not easy to maintain that minimal slope!

[@jasonbuchanan84]

The driveway and everything looks great and yeah, the dump truck guy could’ve spread the gravel for you a little bit however, a solution may be to stop the silt from going into that pond is maybe put some rocks out by the road and maybe that’ll stop the silt stay out there and from going down into the pond and then into the culvert. Just an idea Also could you put a French drain from the yard by the barn into the trench you made?

[@trevinbyrd758]

Something that some of the logging companies around here do to help with the swale situation at the intersection is they will bury a 4” wide 1/4” wall C channel and lay a grate over it so it a solid swale that directs the water rather then having to try and build up gravel and having a bump and subsequent “ditch” in the driveway

[@jakem.6359]

Nicely done. Someone should teach that dump truck driver how to tailgate spread 😆

[@walterverlaan1286]

Looking good. Great video.

[@georgea6403]

Great job. Thinking of looking at excavators instead of a new tractor. That 26 seems to be big enough to get er done.

[@aaronburford5701]

Great content, great video, love the skid steer work 😊

[@MerMachinery]

Great job🎉

[@Tcw2019]

This would stress me out with the summer we’ve had 😂

[@kal5jg7]

Szzzzz

[@kal5jg7]

I fççcçģ

[@raymondgochenour8725]

That zip level sure is nice. I use mine a lot.

[@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC]

It sure is, I use it all the time

[@KennedyandDredaddy]

You an letsdig would be a good combination for content

[@fredrobinson6990]

Good job!

[@aaronburford5701]

That has to be the quietest excavavtor ever!

[@jimmydaring9494]

Nice job !

[@aaronburford5701]

Great video and content. Liked and subscribed!

[@JasonRutan-rv3dj]

Why didn't you remove the old pipe after you found it good job tho

[@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC]

Digging up that pipe would have led to more void space that could settle and then a pipe I would have to pay to discard. It was plastic, so it won't decay and at that depth shouldn't collapse

[@aaronburford5701]

Greqt video!

[@dsfreddo]

Anyone notice the snake at 36:10? Love the videos thanks for all the tips!

[@SavLad]

Man I would love to know how you bid jobs. That’s my biggest issue right now.

[@ritzan43]

I dont understand why you dont have tiltrotor on your excavator in Usa, in Europe almost everyone have it, for a jobb like this it would have helpt you a lot and saving time. But you did Great 👏

[@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC]

I am getting one for my E50 right now, but they effectively cost 50% of the machine cost! Hard to justify until you get the base number of machines you need to be successful in the jobs you want to take at a baseline.

[@MRosati5000]

Yes. You seem very resposible.@@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC

[@matteoricci1449]

great video how much does something like that cost ?

[@denispherbert2542]

You should get a mini roller to compact all the earth etc.

[@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC]

For sure would be a good buy if I keep getting more driveway jobs. I have only had a few this year.

[@dillondance1393]

Awesome content! I just picked up a new Bobcat E26. What do you think your most used attachments/buckets are? I plan on renting it out with my dump trailer business.

[@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC]

Thanks! I find myself using many different attachments but mainly the regular digging bucket and ditching buckets are my most used.

[@VandSlandscaping]

Ballpark for an estimate for a project like this?

[@elbrianromo1585]

💥NiCE💥🌧️🌧️🌧️ WHEN iS THE CONCRETE COMiNG..💯🤘😁

[@Natural-Causes]

I used to plow both of those driveways, and yes it’s always a pond about 20 feet out from the garage, which when frozen it was almost impossible to plow because of no traction. What company do you use to haul fill and gravel when needed?

[@kenactofkindness4017]

low or no compaction created th ponding if graded and compacted would be like concrete plus sofdt spot vneeds to be dug out with 5 to one then compacted. possible ditch , over all better vthan most, 1000s of projects in 5 states , i am the guy they call lol 40 years .... lots more steps to prevent ponding, .. take vcare seem like great contractor

[@kobedunkz2098]

How much would you charge for a job like this?

[@Rigoknow]

👍

[@Natural-Causes]

I would love to know what you charged for this job?…

[@GaetanoCostanza]

There was a pipe already it was to short need to be big longer

[@RandyWatson80]

What’s the quote on a job this size?

[@BillyBobVlogs]

Spot the snake 36:00

[@AntonFromCrimea]

молодец

[@iambigsteveo]

Bunny spotting 42:01

[@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC]

Ha yeah, the neighbor has a bunch of rabbits that roam. Many of them just hung out and supervised from the lawn.

[@alexandr4466]

а старую трубу надо было достать. а так ощущение халтуры осталось.

[@danagrey3534]

I'm sorry, but this is yet another driveway drainage disaster! See my comment(s) on video...kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnjNpoJmjtCFrM0 and you will learn a lot. On this one, at 0:50:00, you show the problem. You have a public roadway going uphill (left to right) in frame. If you pause the video, you will see the berm of the aggregate driveway is higher than the actual aggregate driveway leading to your customer's driveway. That right there is funneling surface and storm water down to your customer's driveway and causing severe erosion and drainage problems. This is easily correctable. You should have inquired with the owner of the main drive, if you could have cut and graded that berm to allow surface water to transverse across the drive and down into the woods to the left. Next, standing at the head of the customer's driveway looking out, right and left, examine the existing grades. To the left, looking at the public road way, you have a slope elevation going up hill from left to right, and a downward slope elevation from the public road to the customer's driveway with a cross section slope falling right to left. Now looking right, to the neighbor's you again have and show a contour of elevation falling back towards the customer's drivway, with an existing 8 inch culvert conduit tranversing right to left across the customer's driveway. Silt and sediment has prevviously clogged and buried this counduit. Heading into the customer's customer's drive, you have a slight downhill elevation towards the customer's garage and with it falling off to the left of the garage. So how do you fix this without creating a financial nightmare for the customer? As I pointed out in your video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnjNpoJmjtCFrM0) I am seeing more and more KZbin excavating contractors with fancy new or newer equipment but no one wants to get off their lazy asses (out of the cab) and check grade with a laser level and a grade rod. When I point this out, the excuses come rolling in with comments like, I did that off camera! I have grade controls on my equipment! The list goes on and on! *BULLSHIT!!!* One of the worst influencers is Chris - Letsdig18. Now I like Chris and his work. He is an exceptional operator. But he mainly does land clearing, pond and mass excavating where you can hog dirt. You don't see him out of the cab in the S.C. heat doing much handwork or checking grades. Don't fall into that trap! Let's start with the existing 8 inch culvert pipe. Noticing the divit with the wet silt and sediment near the customer's head of the drivway and on the left facing into the driveway was adn is a prime indication an existing culvert conduit was there, that you failed to check when assessing the job. Once discovered and digging along side it once found, you instead abandoned it which is bad! You should have dug it up and laid the new culvert in the same place and outleted it to day light in the wood to the right. Oversizing a culvert will help with preventing it from plugging or clogging. While you did good to bump it up to a 12 in., even a 15 in., or 18 in. would have been better. State DOTs if we abandon a culvert conduit, we plug both the inlet and outlet and pump it full of concert grout to prevert collaspe, sink holes, erosion etc., in the future. Groundhogs and other animals love to burrow along side culverts or make abandoned culverts a home. Trust me I inspect culverts for a State DOT and give them a federal rating. Second, I cannot stress this enough and see KZbin excavation contractors (yes like Chris - Letsdig18) just toss in culverts and back fill with existing material. I will post this again here... assets.adspipe.com/m/3c4e41e5a3e27510/original/TN-2-01-Minimum-Maximum-Cover-Heights-for-HDPE-per-AASHTO.pdf Each conduit manufacturer has specification and standards for installing conduit whether it be ADS storm culvert, ductile iron water lines, or PVC sewer and sanitation pipe. Yet more and more KZbin excavation contractors evidence just digging a ditch, haphazardly throwing the culvert conduit in the ditch with no bedding or control contolled lifts of 6-12 inch lifts. As the above ADS link shows, you need at least 1 foot of cover on the pipe and 5 feet before using somethin like a hoe-pack. But it is too labor intense to add a foot and use a plate compactor in this case to bring it back up to subgrade. No, you all backfill to the top and track it in with your hoe or skid steers. WOW! A much bettet option would have been to to cut the berm from the existing public road down to the customer's driveway. From there, a swale cut down along the right side of the driveway... from the head of the drive to a point where you showed daylighting the new culvert pipe. On the left side, the culvert inlet should only collect what surface water cannot transver across the drive. This would reduce the silt and sediment coming from the neighbor's drive. Building the aggregate berm across the head of the customer's drive is a longterm financial nightmare! When it comes to winter, a snow plow is going to hit it and begin peeling it up and where is it going to end up? In the low collection point culver inlet area. Even with rip rap there this will quickly silt up and end up plugging and clogging the new culvert conduit you poorly installed. There will likely be a bump and washouts at the head of the driveway. In my state what you guys call "Crusher Run" or ABC, we call 304 or 411 Limestone. 411 just has more fines in it. If you want to make a rock hard base, take a truck load of 304 or 411, add a few hunded pounds of hydrated lime and/or cement and you''' have a hell of a time grading once graded and compacted. This could have been done in the wet area near the customer's house. When you first graded the area in front of the shed and garage area, I knew you would have water laying there before you showed coming back during the rain. A promblem they will have is that turn around. With an agregate drive, when you turn the wheels and move, you are consistently loosening and "rolling the stones" and that is why they had a soft spot there. My goal here is NOT to BASH YOU! Rather it is to provide useful and positive information to help you, other followers (both new contractors and property owners) so that it is a win / win for you and your customers. Trust me, I get it, everyone in the comments is an expert and most have never done what you or I have. I done it 34 yrears and now play consultant and inspector for a State DOT. One thing I will say is also don't fall into the trap of... I'm not in your state and we do things different! That is only a half truth and federal standards. For example, about 8-10 States use the the same "Collector" app and that includes townships, counties, municipalities for their culvert assets inventory. In order to get federal funding, the major of their culvert assests must meet or excced a "5" rating or above. Materials, standards, specification, applications can vary a little place to place, but the concepts are the same. AASHTO and ASTM standards are used world wide. We all gotta start somewhere and learn. But hopefull you will use this info to better yourself down the road when it comes to driveway installation, grading, repairs, etc.

[@CarlsonSonLandscapingLLC]

ok

[@georgea6403]

At 0:50:00. It’s showing the garages. By the time you wrote all this you could’ve went over there and did it all yourself the right way.

[@danagrey3534]

@georgea6403 No shit George! Yes it shows the garages that are down hill from the public roadway and he done a pour job of diverting the surface water. And only took a couple of minutes George as if you get with the technology, such as AI, there is You Talk, It Types software. 😂🤣😅 Yeah I could have done the job quicker and cheaper and the client would have maintenance problems and cost down the road. But thanks for your comment.