How to Build a Gravel Driveway. Building a Cabin DIY - Video 4

In this video I'll show you how we prepared and then built our rock solid DIY driveway by excavating top soil, rocks and dirt with our John Deere 310SG backhoe and then built it up with shale and a top layer of gravel.

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This video is part of a series where we document our joys and challenges of building a family cabin about 30 minutes south of Moncton, New Brunswick.

We affectionately call it THE LAND because our cabin is not actually built yet. Grab a coffee and come along as we say to all those who are new to our channel: "WELCOME TO THE LAND!" and to those who've been with us all along: "WELCOME BACK TO THE LAND!"

This series has been inspired by YouTube channels such as "My Self Reliance", "Pure Living for Life" and classic videos such as Dick Proennike's "Alone in the Wilderness" as well as an unrelenting drive to build your own special something from nothing, whatever that "something" may be.

[BellsofBregenz]

Thank you. I bought land last year on PEI and will be building a road though woodland and it was a nice suprise when the video started to play that you said you are building in NB. I hope your cabin build is going well. This was really helpful, inspiring and having the timelapse really helped to get an idea of the true scale of this kind of project. Happy you had a friend to give you that advice about the layer under the shale.

[bobcat]

Thanks for the post..I feel much more comfortable and confident taking on this task..its simple but there are a few tricks as you mentioned

[illtrax]

We are in NB, as well. Thanks for sharing.

[treasureseekerintheway]

I am not sure why people are complaining so much about the audio. I had to adjust it a few times but it wasn't terrible.

[lemiwatts]

wow thank you for making this! this is the exact kind of video I've been searching for on YouTube and I haven't really found a good one until I seen yours. I plan on doing the same thing so its nice to get a good idea of what I'm looking at, with some narrating. this video should have more views than it does because i'll bet I am not the only one looking..

[chrisgoldbach]

Praying I can figure out a way to pay for some land to do all of this one day. So much to learn and do but it just looks so satisfying.

[LuisSantos-tbcj]

Like your video
Were in New Brunswick

[timberray]

You should have had the dump truck driver dump and drive, it would have saved you a lot of time spreading the dirt around. Other than that, great job.

[FromSteelToWood]

I enjoy this kind of video where you can see progression of the work.  Looks like you got a great machine for your project!

[drewt]

Interesting you don't back drag the fill. I've never seen anyone push it like this with the bucket down like this.

[willphelps]

Thanks for posting this. I'll be going through this process soon. I'd be interested to know how you got the 3D image of your house on there. Which software did you use? How did you know it was the correct scale. Cheers!

[jedidiah]

Here in Nova Scotia they charge 10.00 a foot. My road was 900' . I had truck size boulders so I couldn't do it myself...they remove the stumpage but you have to take all the standing timber...more cost if they need to fill in wet low areas ...

[Hordeup]

If you have time to edit the sound, run the video thru free program called Audacity. You can easily boost volume by dragging and selecting audio then increasing the Dbs. Then sync the audio back up to your video using a video editor /muting original track and add the audio track :)

[seazestyt]

I would never dump shale or clay material on the road . It will be quite a messy in a rain season. Dump rocks 6 to 10 inches for good drainage or even larger and top with crushed rock 2 to 3 inches. I went through this process so I am describing my experience as I had to re do part of my road. Of course it will depend of the soil you have in place in your area and the terrain gradient. My property had some gradient towards where the cabin would be built so the lower areas would the most prone to be muddy after few days of rain.

[samanthafranklyput]

I am building an off- grid home... this video was exactly what I was looking for. You had a bigger challenge than I will (size and location), but it was great to watch :) Also in Canada over in Alberta!

[jkay]

Excellent video, thank you. How wide is the finished driveway?

[acedrawer]

Hahahahah I love your music is the baby music on YouTube. Must have kids!

[davecalvo]

I personally would have used road fabric and stone, really don't see the need to haul in all that clay/dirt. Akso the driveway is a bit narrow, maybe ten feet at best, I typically will make a driveway 12 feet min as the vegetation grows back very quickly.

[pisby]

were you able to clear the trees with and carve the raw path with that machine?

[syl]

What was the cost of putting that road or path to the cabin?