I spent last week clearing a site for my sawmill and need to put in a driveway/road to access the lot. I've been reading a lot about geofabric both here and elsewhere. My soil is very soft when wet with lots of clay. I'm planning to use a woven fabric. Will likely be going over it initially with DOT Type D. With 3/4 gravel over top at some later date. My question is: What tensile strength should I be using? Road will mostly be pickup truck and tractor traffic with occasional log truck or dump truck. What should I be using?
Thanks
Mac
dont know about strengh but i have used that stuff for other things than its intended use,, and it is pretty strong, i think the stuff i used for retaining wall block had a 1 inch square pattern, it was tough to cut too and heavy
I've used several 500 foot rolls of the omni directional Meraffi (sp.) fabric. It's crazy strong and reasonably priced. If I was worried about strength, I'd use 2 layers with 6-8" of good packing fill between them.
I used the cheap 3' wide roll of landscape fabric and it worked enough to keep the driveway from disappearing. However, the clay seeped up through the fabric and gravel. I did tear it putting it down though and I think the tear is where the clay leaked through.
I think that section of the driveway has been in place for over 3 years now. Maybe closer to 5. I park 4 vehicles on it and its still working great.
For your application a fabric that weigs 3 oz per square yard and has 150lb tensile strength should be fine. If you think you're going to have more big truck traffic at some point then go either a 5 oz /250lb product. For best results be sure to have a minimum of 12" of gravel on top of it.
The big mistake many road builders make is using to small/fine base rock. for regular drive way with an occasional 12-15 yd dump or load or two of logs, a minimum base of 3" rock 6" deep over the fabric topped with 3-4 " of 1" or 1 1/2" will make a good base that will not sink out of sight is just a few years
I don't know about your area or cost but they lime treat the ground under some streets out here (Sacramento area). Makes it as hard as a rock!