Just moved into another house. Still living with the parents and have a small problem. I've got to park my truck on the grass. This in itself is not a problem, the problem of ruts developing when spring hits will be huge. I plan on removing 4-5 inches of soil and filling in that with gravel, but does anyone have any other possible solutions in the meantime? The gravel trucks can not haul until the frost lifts here in Wisconsin, which will be Mid April.

 

3/4 inch plywood works...i have a gravel "driveway" and even though i just plowed 14 " of snow off it yesterday i have a good 3"of mud allready...other than that there is'nt much you can do ...zap!

 

haha just make sure ya park in the drive way before everyone else gets home so they have to park in the grass not you

 

^^^^^^^^ ...zap!

 

park on the street!



It sounds like you might just have to deal with the mud for now...at least you will have a head start on the removing 4-5 inches of soil part

 

I used to have to park my '87 Cougar on the grass so we laid down some 1x12's and I parked on them. It worked really well to keep the car from making ruts and/or getting stuck! If you don't think you can keep the wheels on the boards, I'd go with zap's idea and use plywood.

 

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I would park on the street but you can't between Nov 1 and April 1st. I think I'm going to lay down some boards for the time being. I wish I could find a big piece of rubber that I could lay down. It would have to be pretty thick to support the truck however.

 

If you lay the dirt in the spring take a couple extra steps to save you a huge headache down the road. First if you don't dig out the top soil at least rent a portable compaction machine to compact all the new dirt you are putting in. Then lay down some landscaping fabric, then lay your gravel down. This will prevent your new gravel from combining with the dirt and just making a HUGE AZZZ MESS. The fabric lets water soak through and the comaction of the dirt will prevent the dirt from becoming soft after alot of moisture hits.

If you want to really do it right this is what I would do.


I would dig about 4" off of the old dirt, compact, put in some landscapeing fabric the really thick kind not the cheap-o stuff, then put in 4" of crushed stone, compact it, then put 4 more inches of stone and compact it. The stone will compact more than you think. this will give you years of use from the stone. They make a white crushed stone that is designed for driveways and parking lots. Not only does it compact more but it gets hard almost like concrete.

 

The first layer of stone you put down needs to be the big stuff - typically #2s for a good base. After the gravel is compressed down (a year or so later - depending on how much use it gets), go over the top of it w/ smaller stuff that can be better graded (#8s)

I wouldn't mess w/ using the landscape material. The gravel will puncture and tear it, and it will serve no use as a weed barrier, and because it lets water through, it won't prevent the soil from getting muddy and soft.