Gravel driveway installation and regrading in the Finger Lakes

A gravel driveway around here has a hard life. It gets plowed all winter, it goes soft in March, and on a hillside it tries to wash into the road every time a thunderstorm rolls off the lake. The difference between a driveway that lasts 15 years and one that needs fresh stone every spring is almost entirely what's underneath the top layer.

We build driveways from the ground up: strip the organic layer, install geotextile fabric where the subgrade is soft, place and compact a proper crusher-run base, crown it so water sheds to the sides, and finish with the stone you want to look at. On existing driveways we regrade, add base where it's thin, fix the drainage that's been undermining it, and top it off.

We also handle the parts of the job that homeowners don't think about until they're a problem — culverts at the road, ditching, and the highway work permit that most towns require for a new or widened driveway entrance.

Driveways in lake country: slope, frost, and plow trucks

Hillside driveways are the most common call we get from the Bristol Hills, South Bristol, and the lake's west side. A steep gravel drive needs a heavier, more angular stone that locks together, water bars or cross-drains at intervals, and ditching that carries runoff to daylight instead of down the wheel tracks. Round pea stone on a 10% grade ends up at the bottom by June.

Frost heave is the other local problem. Water trapped in a poorly drained base freezes, lifts the surface, and thaws into soup. A driveway built over Ontario County clay with no fabric and a thin base will heave every year. Six to eight inches of compacted crusher run over geotextile fabric is the fix, and it's cheaper than re-stoning every spring.

If you plow your own drive or hire it out, tell us. We can build a wider shoulder and set the finish stone slightly below the edge so the plow blade rides on base instead of scraping your fresh stone into the lawn.