astreea,, my driveway is 12 yrs. old. Would park in the garage if I could get in. We remodeled, leftover constrction "stuff" & pallets of tile, un used, still take up the space. Hubby thinks it's great now that he has a place to toss his stuff. I won't describe what I think of the mess!!!

The garage, which is behind the house, is accessed from a dirt/gravel alley, with a narrow concrete strip in front of the garage door. Next to the garage are 2 open parking spaces, 1/2 concrete and 1/2 dirt and mostly weeds. I've only been in the house a year, so I'm ignoring both. The house was a fixer-upper, so I've had plenty do do without worrying about the drive. Some day!

Our new house is in the country on 26 acres and so the driveway to get from rock road to house will be crushed stone and longer than a normal drive would be. I would love to have a circular drive for easy in and out and may be able to work that into the plan.

When we bought our house in April, there was a horrible asphalt driveway that had not been properly taken care of since it was originally put down in 1994. It had to go! We're now the proud owners of 3700 square feet of lovely square pavers.

Cobbled pavers....long drive...LOVE IT!

Gravel - Michigan stones

Ours is a U drive way with crushed blue stone. Thinking of closing off one of the driveway entries to increase privacy though.

I clicked on this topic thinking it was about the type of material people prefer for driveways. Can we get that discussion going?
We have an old asphalt one and would like to replace it, possibly with the cobblestone edging and pea stone. Wondering if anyone regrets this if they too live where it snows. I'm envisioning lots of pebbles on my lawn and in my garden beds!
Length and shape is not something you can usually choose except for new construction, though you do notice this when shopping for a house. I have turned away from several nice houses that had very steep driveways, as I live in the snow belt of NE.

Just a short driveway even for my suburban house.

We live in a rural area, have a quarter-of-a-mile-long driveway, and have it covered with gravel every 3-4 years. I battle the weeds that want to take over, but invariably give up by the end of summer. I have learned to accept our "cow path" but wish I could afford asphalt to cover it. We buy AWD vehicles so we can get to the house when it snows.

@sguest35, my brother had a steep 1/2 mile long drive in an area that usually had a snow pack 5 months of the year; he initially had it asphalted (although the neighbours were at the bottom of the drive snickering as the truck lumbered up the drive).

The next year he had the asphalt dug out and replaced with crushed rock. Better traction, no more having to winch our 4x4s up the drive for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner!

The key is to have the roadbed proper deep (iirc his were below the frost line @24-30" deep but I may be recalling incorrectly as it's been 30+ years), and to have good 'kerbs' - his were 18 or 20" deep (I think) and kept the gravel in place.

Except the one time our sister's boy did a 'Dukes of Hazard' run up then back down the drive. I recall my brother made him get all the gravel back into the drive and that taking my nephew nearly a week. Other than that, the gravel stayed put owing to the depth of the bed and the kerbing.

Thanks for the tips, sunnie2day. Any advice from your brother on keeping the weeds from taking over?

We have a large U shaped driveway. One half leads to two of our barns and one to our house

Long winding driveway enhances the overall look of the home for sure.

@Jdd3612 - he used to sprinkle wood stove ash over any weeds daring to pop through the gravel, seemed to work well for him on the drive. He did use a pre-emergent herbicide on his fields but thought using it on the drive was a terrible misuse of chemical. He didn't much like using it on his fields to be honest, but was dead horrified at the thought of applying it to the drive.

I use wood-stove ash on my patio pavers to kill over any weeds and it works a treat for me; in the winter we use it on all the paved paths around the house to give traction during the icy spells.

Our driveway is a 130 feet long (LONG!) stretch of concrete -- boring! I'd love to have the center drilled out to plant grass between tire tracks.

Concrete, curved...can fit 3 cars on driveway end to end. One of my day dreams is to have it re-done in stamped and stained concrete to look like cobblestones.

Have a home under construction now in the Atlanta area. The driveway will curve from the street to reach a 3-car garage. Much of the driveway will be in front of house. Believe this is called a plaza drive. My husband wants to do stamped concrete. Any pointers as far as advantages or disadvantages? How about costs compared to regular concrete?

Crushed stone that meanders through the woods...delivery people don't believe me when I tell them it's 1/4 miles long :)

If the stamping pattern is to deep it could hold water, thus, mosquito's. I've seen this in coral pavers around an encolsed pool.

Normally driveways are at a slope so the water does not pool around the foundation, a stamped driveway should pose no pooling issues if sloped properly.

sunnie2day:I have never heard of using wood ash, but sure will give it a try next spring. I typically use Round-Up in a 2 gal. sprayer, but would rather use something more natural. Our neighbor tried regrading his drive, but the weeds came back quickly. Thanks for the idea! I have hope!

Ours is a 'difficult' driveway. Being a hill dweller, I seem to have been cursed by these at almost every home I've ever owned or rented. The current driveway is not long, but narrow and steep, with retaining walls both sides, a drive in - back out, slightly not quite straight job. I crunched Mrs Roses Merc backing out in a hurry one night, so I 'decorated' the darn thing on either side with Solar lights. Others have been: 1. Two gravel strips, 250 yards long and lined with beautiful trees but the bottom of the Porsche scraped all the way, right thru the cow manure on the grassy centre lane : 2. 100 yards of very steep concrete with a 1 in 4 gradient ( good for keeping visitors away): 3. A short, sharp, down hill, right hand turn in, back out - proved 'Mission Impossible' for women : \ I'd like a level, circular driveway please, with a fountain of champagne in the centre !

Rosecafe, there was a person in ancient times who went through the same thing. He was always climbing uphill and slithering down again. He was doomed to repeat for eternity. Not sure if his name was Atlas, or whether that was another one. Like the champagne!

Sisyphus.

Paulac67 - LOL!!!

A ver long concrete driveway. I wish it was gravel or pea stone...love thar look!

@GYPSYROSE--

There are a few interesting ways to get the LOOK of stamped pavers on existing concrete---look on PINTEREST for the how-to's.

We live way out in the country and on top of a hill. We have a dirt--gravel is much too elegant a word here!!!!--"lasso" drive that comes up the hill from the road--paved!---to a point before and to the side of the house and then encircles the house completely and then joins back up. Just picture a lasso with the house in the loop!

This is great most of the time---when someones car is parked exactly where YOU need to go; when we need to go around the house with the motorcycle and someone has dared to park a CAR; when the Snow Plow Guy comes and can't make the turn at the far back edge of the house and we end up with a winters worth of hard plow packed SNOW and NOT being able to go around the house for---it could be MONTHS.

And then there was the overly enthusiastic person who never DREAMED that we would one day have masses of cars--at LEAST 5 at all times--going in and out and planted TREES along the drive and at the junction, Silly moi! And the Plow Guy and at least one of my kids and several delivery people HAVE hit the tree at the junction. Since it was so HARD to get trees to GROW here--top of extremely windy hill and not that great soil; they get but so tall and the wind comes along and snaps 'em---I was just HAPPY to HAVE a few trees that LIVED. So NO I will NOT cut that tree down! Watch where you are GOING!

The driveway got IT'S revenge when I broke my leg and ankle out there in the snow----

Chook chook chook. Atlas? Mmmm. Um, wasn't he the guy depicted with the whole world resting on his shoulders? wait a minute...yeah... That WAS me. Hercules is who I want to be, so I could push the walls apart and make my driveway WIDER.

Our place is 48 acres in the country, our driveway is long and it has a circle when you get to the house. It's made from highway pavement that has been removed from highways to repave them, it was delivered loose and all broken up, but after leveling and driving on it, it becomes hard again...it may not look as pretty as these stone driveways, but it was FREE!! :) We are currently building our own 60foot bridge on our property to cross a creek.... I guess things are different in the country, I never see places like ours on houzz. The first pic is where the bridge is going. The 3rd pic is part of our yard, and some of the driveway, if you can see it in the pic... It's a long way off of the road..

Ours is only around 6 or so metres long.

Just a standard one, slightly sloping up. I would vote for a circular one. Actually, I like the ones that are in a half circle in front ot a house where company can park.

I have a stamped, colored concrete driveway. Would have loved a stone driveway but did what we could afford. Glad it isn't long...sometimes long driveways cost as much as the house! Do love the long driveways that have grass in them...concrete for the tires, grass under in the center...car width. But you do have to drive carefully. Also driveways that are stone with grass between stones..gorgeous even when no cars are around.

ours is a standard size.
so short.

Tera, I like your attitude! In the region called The Kimberley, in north western Australia, I drove to and stayed at a Cattle Station ( Ranch) called Elizabeth Station. At just 650,000 acres it's not the biggest of its type, but they are the most hospitable people and served the biggest roast dinner I've ever enjoyed. Their 'driveway' is 29 kilometers long. It definitely one for 4 x 4 vehicles only, required some skillful driving, it took me past their airfield, through rivers, over rocks and amongst wandering massive Brahman cattle that stood in the middle of the driveway defiantly staring at me. Such an adventure driving from the main road to the residential compound. worth a visit when you have a month to spare.

An ugly one. :-)

@rosecafe omg!! You live in Australia!! How lucky are you!! I've never left the USA, but I would love to visit Australia. Some of the houses on here are so extravagant to me, we have a nice home on 48 acres, but compared to some of the mansion type homes on here I am sure most people on house wouldn't be impressed with ours. I love our place though, all I would change if I could would be to add more land to it and build on a huge living room, but I am happy just like it is.

Visit Australia! We love tourists.

Nice long one with plenty of leaves and acorns to keep me is shape sweeping. Yes I bought a blower as well!

Be thankful it's a flat drive, no steep hill to clean.

Ours is short... Only cos we rent!

Me Uggh. Try:- http://www.neolithicdesign.com/flooring/ancient-stone-slabs.html

I love our long driveway! So much privacy, even if it means a long walk to the mailbox in the morning.

I have rocks for a driveway.

Our vacation rental has a circular drive way with crushed red gravel, it feels very earthy and blends into the mountain environment very nicely!

Our second home which we are hoping will be our only home is several months, has a sligthly longer driveway than the one we are in now. It also has less of an uphill incline. We would like to do some sort of concret design, but really not sure what. It has some cracks and a couple stains in it. But, the least concern we have is the driveway. We love the Sunroom in the back and that is what sold us on the house.

My driveway is horseshoe shaped. It's concrete with a stamped concrete border.

We are building a home on 70 acres, and it has a 1500 ft long meandering tree lined driveway from the main road to the house.

I have a gravel driveway, but it is also graded to provide drainage away from the house.

It might look wonky, but it is just how it needs to be.

And it crunches when you walk on it.

Love crunchy gravel.

We have rather long asphalt driveway with a parking area out front- it also goes past the side of the house and then it widens out back and up to the front of the polebarn. It needs to be replaced some day- but I don't have the $$ for that now....it is extremely expensive!!