A couple of months ago, this blog touched on tips for installing a gravel driveway. As professional excavation services can be a great asset to that specific process, they really also set the groundwork – pun intended – to installing any sort of driveway.
Beginning with excavation in putting in a new driveway can make your process smoother and safer. Here are a few ways that’s the case:
It helps to provide the appropriate foundation
It’s true of houses, sheds, barns, large-scale buildings and, yes, even driveways, essentially anything you build: the foundation matters and will lend stability to the structure.
In the specific case of driveways, selecting the right substructure – material below the driveway – will help lessen the likelihood of shifting and cracking, helping both the aesthetics of your driveway and its safety.
This will depend largely on what type of soil lurks beneath the desired finished product. Sandy or porous soils, which drain water quickly, won’t need as much gravel or stone as, say, clay soils, which do not drain water quickly. The idea is to keep water moving away from both this driveway and whatever it leads up to – your home, barn, garage, etc.
The site analysis and planning-ahead process that comes with hiring professionals such as Little’s Excavating will determine first steps here.
Drainage is critical
To hammer home a point we just made, keeping water on its merry way can be accomplished in a number of ways but is ultimately critical to preventing other unsightly blemishes on your property that can also be hazardous.
Sloped construction of the driveway (away from whatever buildings may be in the vicinity) and a channel drain system are common ways to achieve this. Absent these, water running toward your house can hurt both the structure’s viability and the health of those living inside it.
It gets professionals involved with the process
We believe it is, generally speaking, better to have workers with experience in handling a variety of situations involved when someone’s property is at stake. Little’s Excavating will do the homework to make sure a solid plan is in place, and we have the follow-through to make sure it’s executed properly and safely.