Material for driveway paving

I have to revise myself, I had really only referred the price difference to the 20cm base layer and not to the entire quantity. So it will be a bit more expensive than expected if I include the entire frost protection... Accordingly, I am still considering what I will actually install.

hergegangen

Yes, the price difference is probably somewhat larger now. Basically, there is nothing wrong with RCL. You just have to be careful that the fine content is not too high and that there is not too much brick chippings in it. Otherwise, I do get annoyed when I find construction site waste like reinforcement remnants, bits of paper, and ETICS dowels in it. The only things missing are cigarette butts and beer bottles. Roots are often included as well. Since I place everything by hand, I can always sort out the dirt well. Of course, every landscaping guy laughs at that, who cannot understand why I don’t first painstakingly dig the dirt away from the sub-base only to then dump new dirt in. But once you have brought the concrete recycling material in moist, the stuff can be compacted excellently. Finally, brushing with a brush and one last round with the compactor gives you a concrete-hard surface. But never pour down thicker than 20cm single layers and already work in the slope in the sub-base!

Frost protection is generally a hotly debated issue: even specialist companies and university-trained craftsmen swear up and down that it’s all nonsense, although it is included in every technical regulation for all paving and slab coverings. Clearly, something like that costs money and time. That is gladly saved and it is just waited to see how the surfaces look after the first winter. Of course, you can also lay small-format paving only on 20cm of gravel + chippings bed. In the past, fieldstones were even placed directly into the humus. But everyone knows how the walking and driving quality is on that. If you only remove the humus and the rest down to the frost line is well permeable to water, deformations can be kept within limits with little clay and loam. If you have poorly permeable soil, it gets correspondingly worse. Then there are also problems outside the frost period when the sub-base is water-saturated and heaves upwards. That’s why make a trial pit and assess your subsoil carefully if you don’t want to take the safest solution of soil replacement.

Oh, when digging up, we also found quite a few things here... no beer bottles though, but parts of old telegraph poles... Our landscaper, who currently doesn’t have time to do it, told us that the soil is good enough so that we don’t need to do any additional frost protection. There is no clay or loam in our soil either. He recommended applying a 20-25cm base layer and compacting it well.

So we already started excavating the driveway ourselves. Nice and hard with muscle power, hoe and shovel... tiring, but it hasn’t hurt an office worker like me so far...

Let the very busy GALA person sign that! Unfortunately, you can't just hold him liable because you are carrying out the project yourself. If you find so much dirt, the surrounding soil is also "contaminated," so you need to excavate even more. The mast was probably already in the stage of humus conversion.

Before a base layer is compacted, the substructure must also be leveled, given a slope, and compacted as well. So what is supposed to be applied as a surface now, and how are you making the curbs/edges?

The telegraph pole was not found in the entrance area but during the basement excavation. I just thought it was funny what you find there. Of course, I can hold him liable, but we don't want to. He is an acquaintance of my father-in-law and is just advising us on these matters because he can't do it himself at the moment.

The slope is clear, and we have accordingly already made markings and finished everything so that the subgrade naturally includes the slope, ensuring that the same thickness of base layer is installed and compacted everywhere.

Oh yes, and the pavement will be laid with 16x24 cm large shifting pavers from Jasto. I don't know if I am allowed to provide a link to the site here? We have already concreted the curbs, where we used 8x30x100 large deep curbs. Those things were quite heavy...

The pavement gives a very stable impression. When skimming through the installation instructions, I only noticed that with 20cm of gravel for these stones and the expected load, you are at the lower limit. Maybe you should increase it by 10cm if you are already saving on frost protection. It would be a shame for the high-quality surface.

By the way, next door I can perfectly observe how a professionally installed pavement surface made of concrete stones develops under constant parking and driving: first, 1m of dirt was piled up, not compacted, then fleece, then 50cm of RCL 0/32, compacted in one (!) layer, then fine sand, stones in, joints = fine sand and compacted once. The area is just 4 weeks old and already deformed. This is how professional companies work who don’t have to worry at all about the subbase and frost protection.