Timber Driveway - How & what ?

[SteveAndBelle]

Just a stupid question but if I don't ask, I wont know, wouldn't a timber drive be slippery in the wet weather compared to pavers or concrete?

Yeah, it probably would be slippery in wet weather ... but hey, how many times has it rained in Brisbane in the last 2 years ? Kidding of course

I would leave 20mm gaps in between each piece of timber so that in itself would hopefully provide a bit of grip but you're right, wet timber is very slippery plus over time those nice sharp edges would wear down.

Hmmmm, more food for thought anyway. Thanks for the input.

[SteveAndBelle]

From your first post, I assume you're trying to reduce your environmental impact ...

Yep, that's priority number one for all our house & garden renovations but WoW it's difficult as I'm sure a lot of you would know. It's so difficult weighing up the pros & cons of each & every material selected & descision made. It can really do your head in.

My favourite is the good ol' light bulb argument ... save energy buy changing all your lightbulbs to compact fluros which consume less energy but are problematic at disposal due to the mercury etc. contained within OR do you just stick to good ol' fashioned energy guzzling filament type lightbulbs knowing that when they're disposed of there's no real nasties to have to worry about ? Same goes for fossil fuel vs. electric powered cars or even cloth or disposable nappies where you're just transferring the problem to something else whichever method you choose.
Don't even get me started on Nuclear power ... oh boy :doh:

So yes, environmental impact is priority number one for us however there are times when it's just far too difficult (& ridiculously over-expensive) to go all the way. It's tough, but at least we're trying to do the so-called 'right thing'.

[rhancock]

Yep, that's priority number one for all our house & garden renovations but WoW it's difficult as I'm sure a lot of you would know. It's so difficult weighing up the pros & cons of each & every material selected & descision made. It can really do your head in.
...
So yes, environmental impact is priority number one for us however there are times when it's just far too difficult (& ridiculously over-expensive) to go all the way. It's tough, but at least we're trying to do the so-called 'right thing'.

That's why I went with recycled concrete - its already been produced and used, it will go into landfill if there's no recycling market, every extra ton recycled is another builder convinced that a big bin to throw everything in, regardless of potential reuse (how many of you risk a car crash peering into skips as you drive past, looking for that beautiful t&g flooring they've thrown out) is a crime against the planet....

The way I see it, anything you can do to help is a good thing, and don't forget it might persuade your friends, builder, real estate agent, etc when you tell them where the materials come from.

[SteveAndBelle]

... it might persuade your friends .. when you tell them where the materials come from.

Yeah right ! We've got two sets of good friends who think similarly but all our other friends are too busy striving to buy their concrete McMansion and fill it with as many energy guzzling appliances as they can not to mention the whopping great big full house AC systems they run during summer. Oh and a few of them are in the middle of buying large 4WD's along with boats and everything else that the Jones' have too.

Kinda disgusting really but hey we're all different so who am I to judge I s'pose. I'm looking at putting poisoned timber onto & into the ground to run our car over so I'm probably just as bad when it all boils down to it

[rhancock]

Yeah right ! We've got two sets of good friends who think similarly but all our other friends are too busy striving to buy their concrete McMansion and fill it with as many energy guzzling appliances as they can not to mention the whopping great big full house AC systems they run during summer. Oh and a few of them are in the middle of buying large 4WD's along with boats and everything else that the Jones' have too.

Kinda disgusting really but hey we're all different so who am I to judge I s'pose. I'm looking at putting poisoned timber onto & into the ground to run our car over so I'm probably just as bad when it all boils down to it

Shouldn't stop you trying though!

[SilentButDeadly]

Steve and Belle.........what you need is not timber.....it's this stuff.

Gravelpave http://www.landplan.com.au/gravelpave2_product_info.htm

Made from recycled plastic.....

Pull up your driveway and get it ground up on site. Lay the gravel pave on the prepared ground then way your crunched up concrete over the top.

[David L]

The timber will definitely become slippery when wet and mould if damp long enough such as in the shade.
No way I would use it with my experience.

[rhancock]

Steve and Belle.........what you need is not timber.....it's this stuff.

Gravelpave http://www.landplan.com.au/gravelpave2_product_info.htm

Made from recycled plastic.....

Pull up your driveway and get it ground up on site. Lay the gravel pave on the prepared ground then way your crunched up concrete over the top.

Gosh, what will they think of next... I think it looks interesting though, the gravel certainly wanders around a bit. You don't think it looks like you've buried all your empty stubbies under the drive, though???

I've seen a concrete version of "Grasspave" in the UK, but I'm not sure they can get away with describing it as "exciting"...

[SteveAndBelle]

Steve and Belle.........what you need is not timber.....it's this stuff.

Gravelpave http://www.landplan.com.au/gravelpave2_product_info.htm

Made from recycled plastic.....

Pull up your driveway and get it ground up on site. Lay the gravel pave on the prepared ground then way your crunched up concrete over the top.

Wow, what a fantastic idea ! I was concerned that it might not do too well on the slope however looking further into the info on the website it seems that if you add a bit of cement (7%) to the gravel on the sloped surface everything will be fine !

The fact that this product is 100% recycled plastic and the fact that we can crush up the concrete (onsite) from the existing driveway & garage to use as gravel with this stuff just makes complete sense.

Thanks you very much for the link Silent, I'm going to look further into it for sure as it just sounds too good to pass by. I just can't think of any cons with it either apart from the fact it may not be too good after 20+ years ;) They also have a few other very interesting products too including a similar plastic device you can stack together to create your own custom water retention or storage system and cover it with grass or concrete or even a road surface for a driveway ! Great stuff indeed.

I think I'm sold but does anyone else have any other solutions better than this for the application ? Bring 'em on.

[silentC]

I rang them about this stuff today. The girl I spoke to says they haven't actually sold any of it here yet (US product) but she is mailing me the product info. Said it is about $33 per square metre.

[SteveAndBelle]

... about $33 per square metre.

That's just under $2000 worth for the approx. area we need to cover (3mx22m) but of course I'll then need the gravel and the various other things to finish it off and I'm not sure if the slabs we can get crushed will be enough to do the entire job so we may need to find/buy more old concrete to get it done.

I have no idea how much concrete costs to process, especially onsite, however I'd say that even at this price I'm sure it'd still be cheaper than most other methods plus you get the benefits of everything being 100% recycled (except I doubt the geofabric layer is made from recycled materials).

Hmmm, wanna race to see who can be the first in Oz to install it ?

[silentC]

Given that I'd need about 210 sq. metres, which comes to around 7k just for the mat, and I've been quoted $6,600 for a finished crushed rock driveway, you wont have to rush to beat me

[SilentButDeadly]

There is always the grasscrete option from the UK http://enviroconcrete.com.au/

And it looks like these dudes http://www.invisiblestructures.com.au/ are the Oz distributor of the Gravel Pave product - based in Angelsea, Victoria.

And there's Turfpave http://www.elmich.com.au/turfpave/turfpave.html or http://www.denare.com.au/turfpave.htm

Or the Austral grass paver http://www.australbrick.com.au/vic/product.php?ID=3022 but I suspect they ain't available in Qld

Master Masonry in Taree, NSW do a similar concrete product too

[SteveAndBelle]

Given that I'd need about 210 sq. metres, which comes to around 7k just for the mat, and I've been quoted $6,600 for a finished crushed rock driveway, you wont have to rush to beat me

Yeah, I see your point.

[SteveAndBelle]

There is always the grasscrete option...

Yeah there is, but probably not the best for our application. My parents had that in their old house and used it to widen the double driveway so a car could be stored on the side without getting in the way of the main cars in & out of the garage. The driveway was on a fair slope and of course when the grass grew through the holes it meant that you wouldn't get much traction until your tyre 'burnt' through the grass and gripped onto the concrete bits.

All in all it was a good idea and a heck of a lot less visual impact that just a solid slab of plain concrete however as we also have a similar grade slope in a part of our driveway I'd hate to have to train up the wife in how to control a car on a slippery grassy slope just to get the car out. We don't really use our car much anyway but maybe we should just buy a big 4WD, that'd solve the problem ! We could easily get up slippery grass

There's also the issue that where the driveway will go doesn't get a lot of sun so it can stay very damp for ages after rain plus I don't think the grass will grow too well there anyway so it's probably not a good combination.

Nah, I reckon the timber idea is awesome but probably isn't too good in practice for this application. The gravelpave system seems to best as it seems to be perfect for the job plus allows us to recycle the concrete from the curent dodgy garage & driveway to use as 'gravel' for the new driveway.

I'm sure there are a few other things we could do so please let me know if anyone else knows of anything but I'm keen on GravelPave so I'll look more seriously into it from here.

Thanks again !