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If you’ve outgrown your driveway, perhaps by adding another car or upgrading to a larger car, you may need to widen it. When you can always Extend your driveway with pavers or pouring concrete, these options seem difficult and rather expensive to carry out, especially if you want to choose a professional installation. If you’re on a budget and want to confidently do the job yourself, here’s an idea: widen it with gravel.
If you are installing a new driveway, gravel will be the cheapest option at between $1 and $10 per square foot for professional installation. On the other hand, pavers range from $10 to $30 per square foot, and concrete costs between $8 and $20 per square foot. The same cost considerations apply when adding to an existing driveway, but cost isn’t the only reason to choose gravel. It’s less labor-intensive to install, it adds an attractive touch to your property, and it’s permeable.
Permeability is a particularly useful feature when it comes to extending an existing driveway. Instead of pooling on the edges of existing driveways or creating gullies, rainwater drains through the gravel border. This means you don’t have to be as careful about grading as you are when pouring concrete. That’s definitely a plus if you plan to save money by doing the work yourself instead of hiring a contractor.
Costs to Consider When DIYing Your Gravel Driveway Extension
If you’re going to pave your driveway with gravel, you’ll need to order the material, and technically, it won’t actually be gravel. It will be crushed rock, which has sharp edges and holds together when compacted. The two are often confused, but you usually will Landscape with gravelBecause it is more decorative and has smooth edges that make it less stable.
A cubic yard of crushed rock starts at about $50. To calculate how much you’ll need, multiply the length and width of the driveway extension by the depth of the gravel bed, which should be at least 12 inches for stability, and convert to cubic yards. Don’t want to do all that digging? Consider installing a permeable pavement system TruGrid Pro Plus Permeable Pavers To stabilize the gravel. This will add $4.38 per square foot to the cost of the project, but you will only have to dig to a depth of 8 inches and you will need less gravel.
After you remove the sod from the edges of the driveway and dig a bed for the gravel, it’s important to put in a weed barrier before you spread the gravel, or you’ll soon be battling weeds. 4-inch wide roll of Super Geotextile Woven Geotextile FabricFor driveways, which is recommended, it adds about $0.80 per foot to the cost of the project. If you’re trying to save more money, though, you might want to consider this Landscape fabric alternatives to weed-free gravel. You may also want to hire equipment to effectively dig and level the trench, but after the fabric is laid, it’s just a matter of getting a couple friends or family members to shovel and help you drag the crushed rock into place.
