Bobcat to cut a driveway.

Wondering how you go about cutting in a driveway. The block in question has had a single owner since the 1961 It is heavily treed and with lots of roots nad has never had a drive eventhough it is 45m from the street to the garage.

Water has made some quite deep ridges and troughs and I really don't see how you could get in there with a sedan.


I was thinking a bobcat would come in and cut the drive out and level it, maybe a dingo would suffice, then put down some blue metal and possibly lillydale toppings.

Is this how it would be done??

It very much depends on what standard you want, how steep or flat the drive is and what the natural soil is like. Engineers look at the strength of the natural material when compacted and rate it. Usually you cut a "box" trough through the natural material, compact the natural material at the bottom of the trough and then fill the box cut out trough with gravel, which is also compacted. In high rain areas, or steeper slopes you then need to seal the surface with sprayed bitumen seal, hot mix asphalt or concrete.

So budget and natural conditions determine what you do and how long it lasts.

Good luck.

Bit hard to advise without seeing it Dale, main problem at this stage would be the roots if they're at ground level. Whereabouts is it? Might be able to advise if local, I also have a bobcat and small excuvator.

It is in Croydon, and it has a 4m fall over 76m so it is quite a gentle slope almost flat.

Next door there is a bitumen drive and on the other side a gravel drive.

When you say compacted is that with a whacker or a roller or something more heavy duty??


Yeah some of the roots are showing on the surface maybe 30-40mm Dia. those are coming of gum trees. DJ is there anything you don't have???


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Quickest and best job I saw was done by a grader. They backed it up the drive dropped the blade and when he got to the end he didn't even stop, just lifted the blade and drove down the street. It took all of about 10 minutes from beginning to end.

Done this before,just get it scraped to level then a good layer of roadbase on top,if you get a Bobcat on site he can do both jobs.
I would not worry too much about conpacting the soil as it lloks as you have done that by driving on it for some time,get the Bobcat to drive over the roadbase.

Now that I've seen the pics, same as what nrb said, quick scrape, tidy up and a layer of 20mm crushed rock should sort it out

Thanks guys!

If you are getting roadbase which you will need to, try the quarries direct. Hanson in Lysterfield will be able to help. I did mine from there. Ordered 35 tonne of c grade road base, and a bobcat bloke to spread it out. Turned out beautiful!