# Forum More Stuff Go to Whoa!  New driveway

## DNL

I've just finished my first paving job which was our patio area and backyard path. It made a huge difference, and as I had so many pavers left over (due to limited breakage) we also commenced a path to the shed. All the old pavers and bricks in the yard, I will recycle across the garage and the garden shed. 
So after laying 70sqm of paving, I decided to do the driveway. It has those two ugly concrete strips, all cracked or broken, with just dirt in the centre. I had a quote for $7k to lift and relay the concrete drive - but have opted for DIY paving.  
Of course a concrete base would be the optimum, but I see people have used road base and then cracker dust or road base and sand for a driveway. It seems ants like sand, which we have already found in the back yard. 
I am thinking it will be viable to do the driveway in compacted road base then level off using 50mm of compacted cracker dust.  
Is cracker dust a good alternative to sand - especially for the driveway? If I use sand, I was going to lay 50mm then compact that before using a 10 to 20mm screeded base. 
cheers
Dave

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## DNL

After spending time reading through plenty of posts on the forum, which actually keeps me from working outside, I bit the bullet and started to re-do our driveway. I opted to lift the concrete myself and have decided I need to find a mate with bob-cat and truck if I ever do that again. 
Phase one of the re-make was to cut, lift and dump. Everyone advised me there was no need to cut the concrete first because the bob cat would lift it easily. Wrong! These little ones just don't have the capacity to do that, plus I would have dug the driveway up from wheel spin which would have created another job. Here's a few pics of the job so far.  
One thing I have worked out myself though, lifting a driveway makes it rain...

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## DNL

Once excavating, it has to go somewhere. At least now all the bindies in the front lawn are gone...along with the lawn. If anyone in Canberra needs some clean fill, let me know. 
I calculated that I needed to take off about 100 mm to get me back to the original height of the concrete. This allowed for 100mm road base, 35mm screed base and then 65mm paver. The concrete driveway was around 100mm. 
The screed base was what prompted my initial question. Is it better to use sand or cracker dust (blue metal dust) on a driveway. I've solved that question as you'll see soon. 
The theory of 1m3 of compacted soil ending up as 1.5m3 is sound. After lifting the soil, I was surprised at how much actually came out of the ground.

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## DNL

While I had the truck and bob cat, no better time than to get the road base and spread it. I had spent my Christmas hanging off the end of a shovel while paving the back yard, and while really good for core strength and back muscles, I was not keen to wheel barrow the road base across the driveway.  
I liked using the bob cat - but there was still some shovel and rake work to do to get it reasonably level. 
Rain was on the way, so this job needed to be done before the rain started. When the rain did start, it basically did not stop for a couple of weeks!

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## sundancewfs

Nice job DNL, keep the pics coming.I'm about to lay a few hundred interlocking pavers on our driveway.
I like you comment about bobcats making it rain.....
Every time I have booked the excavator to come and set the levels for our job it has poured down!  :Biggrin:

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## DNL

Thanks Sundancewfs...I no sooner had the road base down levelled and compacted and it just started to pour with rain. 
I was amazed at how much the roadbase compacted with the rain. In the end, it was a good thing. The rain so much, I needed the roadbase to dry out so I could work with it. Cars in and out where just sinking at the beginning of the the drive, so I just kept on putting more roadbase in.  
The job was going really well, and I thought this is going well. I cleared the concrete area under the garaport of the shed ready for the delivery of all the pavers. We opted for cheapies at $19 per sqm and while not the best, when 120sqm of pavers turned up, the fun was about to begin. Everytime we have pavers, or tiles or anything requiring a forklift, all the drivers think they wont clear the carport over the drive.  
When the guy with the driveway pavers turned up, he was right! It was the mother of all forklifts and it just would not get under the carport through the gates and into the the garaport. 
There really was no option, set them down in the driveway!!! :Yikes2:  The driver asked me what I was going to do....all I could do was smile and say "move them by hand of course!"

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## Draffa

> ( The driver asked me what I was going to do....all I could do was smile and say "move them by hand of course!"

  Do you have a 'brickies grip' or whatever they're called.  You can move 6 bricks at a time.  Damn sight easier on the hands and wrists.

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## DNL

Draffa 
Yes I had a tool my young nephew dropped in. A brickies mate, a brick lifter, not sure what its called but what a great tool when working with bricks/pavers. It took the time to move a pallet from 90 minutes by hand, to 70 minutes hand stacking into a wheel barrow and restacking onto concrete to 45 minutes with the brick lifter. 
A mate came around and we had two wheel barrows working and got a good system happening. But still, with breaks and chats, it still took 5 hours of solid yakka to move the remaining 5 pallets from the driveway.  
Now they are stacked on concrete, paving has commenced and I need to move them all back down again.

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## DNL

Well another day spent in the driveway laying pavers. in total. We've had around 12 hours spent shovelling, screeding, compacting, screeding, compacting, screeding, compacting and screed and compact just again for good measure. 
The first section of the driveway is a tad dubious, although solid, we still need to lift a few pavers, repack and re-lay. 
On the first weekend, we only spend two half days. On the second morning, my wife came out and identified the pavers were pretty crooked, so after much robust discussion  :Argue:  we lifted the pavers and re-laid them. My point was at $19 per sqm the pavers are not uniform in shape. Anyway, I folded, and we set about trying best as possible to lay them straighter - but still crooked.  :Kissing: Since this little discussion, I've checked out every driveway, footpath and any area which has brick pavers laid in herringbone, either 45 or straight, and guess what, I'm yet to find any that are straight....soooo I keep showing wifey the photos, which I think has proven my point. But every now and again I cop one back :Crutch:

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## an3_bolt

Are you using several string lines to keep it straight? 
I know when I did mine I needed several to keep it running straight and if you pack them tight against each other the pattern will turn very quickly. 
Keep the Mrs happy.......she might need to massage the lower back after laying pavers :2thumbsup:

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## DNL

an3 
I was only using three lines, one down the side, one in the centre and a cross line. Even with this, there has been some twisting. 
Now I am at the main area of the carport, I will set up more to create smaller grids to work to. So far though, I'm pretty happy with the result. 
Heres we we are up to
Cheers
Dave

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## an3_bolt

Looks pretty straight in that photo!! Great job! How the back?

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## DNL

Thanks An3 
It is pretty straight - but it took about an hour of mucking around, lifting and relaying the pavers to get it to that point. 
We were really surprised at how quickly it started to deviate in the space of around 2m - but as we were at the widest part which is around 6m across, it was mucking around with 12sqm. 
As soon as I re-set the centre line, the task was on to fix it. I told the wife even I could not live with that job, even after a couple of days of heavy work. We needed to fix it there and then.  
So, hopefully it will get finished next weekend, now day light saving has finished, I am getting home from work too late to do anything. 
And the back...well Monday morning I felt every one of my 50 years! 
Cheers

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