My 6 Month Project - Fence, Driveway, Gate, Gravel - Time for a Corona

[Tidybuoy]

I'm just about finished with my 2019/20 project.

My driveway has been a sore subject for many, many years. A crumbling asphalt driveway with a fence that is falling down. My driveway is behind my house and very private so it hasn't been a huge deal on how it looks but I'm finally sick of it and gonna replace it.

Project #1: New fence between me an my crazy neighbor. My neighbor lives in Marin County which is about 2 hours north. They have been flipping this house for about 8 years and have basically done nothing. They come every month with a truck load of leaves and spread it over their yard and then add decomposed granite. After that, they bring about 10 cases of oranges and slice them and sprinkle them over the yard. They never talk to anyone but when they do, it's always advice on how to do things.

Bottom line, my fence is falling down and I want a new fence that is tall enough to keep them out of sight. I let the neighbors know I was going to build a fence (at my cost because it was going to be extra high quality). I showed them my design and they were ok with it. I had all the materials delivered and tore down the old fence. Two days later, the neighbors had a temporary fence built that was 6" off the property line and left me very little room to build my fence.

ORIGINAL DRIVEWAY WITH OLD FENCE ON RIGHT:


NEIGHBOR'S TEMPORARY FENCE: (right next to my posts???)




MY FINISHED FENCE 6 TO 6.5' TALL. ALSO SURFACED OLD TOOL SHED WITH SAME MATERIALS AS FENCE:


ORIGINAL ASPHALT DRIVEWAY AND GATE:



DRIVEWAY DUG UP:

[Tidybuoy]

1ST, 2ND POUR & FINISHED DRIVEWAY:







ALLEY BEHIND HOUSE - GOT RUINED DURING DRIVEWAY PROJECT. DECIDED TO FRAME & FILL WITH GRAVEL:




BLOCKWALL FENCE AT END OF DRIVEWAY:






Next will be an entrance gate. I'm going to make a steel frame with wood slats to match my fences.

[Tidybuoy]

Just a few more progress photos in no particular order:

[asphaltgambler]

Man, really very nice. Your concrete bill must've been huge......

[Scott Douglas]

Was going to comment earlier but lost my internet connection.

Looks really nice.
Is the alley a 'public' thorough fair or semi-private?

[Bugsinrugs]

Nice job. Came out great.

[rfaust6024]

Thanks for sharing that, you have a beautiful home. Looks like you've worked hard and it paid off. Amazing..

[peppy]

That looks really nice. I like the gravel.

[A930Rocket]

Nice job. What are the two vertical steel I-beams for?

[billybek]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Nice job. What are the two vertical steel I-beams for?

Think those were the uprights to anchor the block wall at the end of the driveway.

[porsche tech]

Like it. No mowing!

[masraum]

Wow, huge project and end results are fantastic!

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

They come every month with a truck load of leaves and spread it over their yard and then add decomposed granite. After that, they bring about 10 cases of oranges and slice them and sprinkle them over the yard.

WTF is that about? Leaves, gravel, oranges?

[Tidybuoy]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Nice job. What are the two vertical steel I-beams for?

Those are the posts for the gate. You can see then directly on the inside of the blockwall entrance.

One problem: I purchased a 12' gate from Home Depot a couple of years ago and it's been sitting in my garage. When we set the posts, we followed the directions to a T and the posts were set 153" center to center per the instructions. When I took the gate out of it's crate, it was 138" (11.5') vs the stated 144" (12ft'). I sent all documentation to Home Depot and they are giving me a bunch of crap since the return period has expired. However, they screwed up - not me. The receipt, owners manual, install instructions all quote 144". So now I'm working on a solution to replace the gate with one that I have built (and, working on getting a refund)

Originally Posted by masraum

WTF is that about? Leaves, gravel, oranges?

Hence the reason I wanted a tall fence - the neighbors are a bit crazy.

[Tidybuoy]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

Is the alley a 'public' thorough fair or semi-private?

The alley is private and dead ends at my property line. It was initially my neighbors driveway back in the 40's but they added a driveway to the front and stopped using the alley. They built a brick wall at the end which prevents anyone from driving onto their property. Myself and two other neighbors share the alley.

[Tim Hancock]

Looks really nice! What are the steel curved pieces in the the stone area for?

[gtc]

Originally Posted by masraum

Wow, huge project and end results are fantastic!

WTF is that about? Leaves, gravel, oranges?

I bet that cases of Limes are too expensive, so they bought oranges instead.

Clay soil can be stabilized by the addition of small percentages, by weight, of lime, thereby enhancing many of the engineering properties of the soil and producing an improved construction material. In order to illustrate such improvements, three of the most frequently occurring minerals in clay deposits, namely, kaolinite, montmorillonite and quartz were subjected to a series of tests. As lime stabilization is most often used in relation to road construction, the tests were chosen with this in mind. Till and laminated clay were treated in similar fashion. With the addition of lime, the plasticity of montmorillonite was reduced whilst that of kaolinite and quartz was increased somewhat. However, the addition of lime to the till had little influence on its plasticity but a significant reduction occurred in that of the laminated clay. All materials experienced an increase in their optimum moisture content and a decrease in their maximum dry density, as well as enhanced California bearing ratio, on addition of lime. Some notable increases in strength and Young's Modulus occurred in these materials when they were treated with lime. Length of time curing and temperature at which curing took place had an important influence on the amount of strength developed.

[Tidybuoy]

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

Looks really nice! What are the steel curved pieces in the the stone area for?

That is a product called Geo-Grid. It's flexible honeycomb plastic grid. It gets stretched out and tacked down. Once it is filled with gravel, it won't budge and keeps the gravel very stable. You literally cannot make a tire track thru the gravel and I should never have to rake or smooth it out. It's supposed to be able to support an 80,000 lb truck without leaving any grooves. Since I've finished the project, I've had pg&e trucks back there doing something and not a track left.

That area has been full of pot holes and always had water and mud, which tracked into my garage. The gravel is much cleaner. I went this route because I thought it would be cheaper but I think it was probably the same cost as if I had asphalt brought in. Regardless, I like the look and it's working well.

Someday I am going to knock down the brick bbq (no longer functioning) and rebuild to match the block wall with an outdoor fireplace on the other side, which is my patio.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by gtc

I bet that cases of Limes are too expensive, so they bought oranges instead.

Wow, as scary as that is, I can see someone thinking that lime is limes, and therefore Oranges are the next best thing.