Tyre driveway foundation

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with using tyres for elevating a driveway? We are in the early researching days of planning our future off grid home on our block that gets wet and soggy in winter.  We will need to make a driveway before building can commence which will need to be about 150m long to reach our desired building envelope. I was wondering the suitability of using tyres as a foundation packed with clean fill soil and topped with limestone? Thank you 😊

I'm guessing it would work decently for quite a while.  You may want to consider the person who has to dig up the degraded tires in 50 years though.  Especially if that's going to be you.  They'll probably leach things into the ground so you may not want to grow anything edible around them.

Thanks Mike, good food for thought!

I have seen footpaths or ATV trails made of old tires in boggy areas. They work well enough, but there is essentially no weight on them and no consequence when (not if) they shift around.

For a load bearing driveway? I think the springy nature of the tires means they would keep shifting around, exposing the tires (and maybe their sharp metal components as they break down), and generally cause endless headaches. My 2c.

I think they’re very valid points, thanks Douglas! Back to the drawing board!

I feel like I have seen tires used as a means of "mechanically stabilizing earth" in areas that it might otherwise shift away, such as on a slope, or fill over a soft base. I think the tires had at least one of the sidewalls cut out, for ease of filling, and the remaining hoop (tread of the tire) is laid flat on the ground in a tight pattern of hoops, and packed full of gravel. There is a commercial product that is a "honeycomb" mat that ships folded up, which gets opened up and staked in place then filled with gravel. There is also geo-textile for placing under gravel, to keep it from mixing/sinking into soft base material.

As a Civil Engineer who has built roads, I have to say Kenneth is close to the ideal method.
Rock is much better than soil, since any soil may turn to mud when wet. Limestone over the top will not stop groundwater seeping in.
Water is what is damaging the road now.
The advantage of the tyres is that it may stop the rock moving sideways.
BUT with 150M involved I would recommend a traditional road making technique, used by the Romans.
A modern addition would be to lay a geotextile material and I will show one later.
From; http://www.hsgeosynthetics.com/contact
"Geotextile, also known as geotextile, is a permeable geosynthetic material made of synthetic fibers by needle punching or weaving. Geotextile is one of the new materials geosynthetics.
It is divided into woven geotextile and non-woven filament geotextile.
1. High strength, due to the use of plastic fibers, it can maintain sufficient strength and elongation in dry and wet conditions.
2. Corrosion resistance, long-term corrosion resistance in soil and water with different pH.
3. Good water permeability There are gaps between the fibers, so it has good water permeability.
4. Good anti-microbial property No damage to microorganisms and insects.
5. Convenient construction. Because the material is light and soft, it is convenient for transportation, laying and use.

Then cover the textile with 150mm of 40mm crushed rock.
Then use the construction traffic to compact the rock.
When the whole job is finished, top up with 20mm crushed road mix [ its different] and finish with a skid steer machine."

Geotextile is used a lot by industry here for access roads. It reduces the cost of gravel substantially (especially in boggy spots which would otherwise soak up infinite volumes of gravel). Since the base is still spongy, the roads need regular maintenance to smooth out potholes. But it works.

Potholes are generally caused by vehicles travelling too fast.
If people slowed down on their own driveways they will last for years.
My own drive lasted 35 years before a tenant arrived, who drove at 50kph instead of 20 and the drive fell apart in 2 years.

Speed does matter. Heavy truck traffic will cause washboards and potholes too, even if they're moving slow. Hopefully that's less of an issue after construction is complete.

hello, tried something similar on a friends farm fields --at several of the  gateway entrances.---   the movement of cattle and farm machinery always poaches the ground away--- then these become a puddle of mud ---first he used packed down hardcore stone with geotextile cloth and it did  last for awhile , but started to wear away and unravel around the edges ---another heap of work and mess to remove .We then used what is called MECHANICAL CONCRETE ---if you gogle it shows up the process , we cut out both sidewalls off each tire and used gutter bolts to hold them together --4 holes drilled per tire on site---- back filled with graded rock and stone , and it works--- stops the bulk of the infull from drifting away and might just need topping up  after a few years.  I had planned doing my driveway like this  about 50 meters long---the amount of tires needed at a rough count was 900---which would use up all my stock and cancell out my other planned use for making tire mats ---to use as removable walkways around the various projects on my property. So get busy collecting and buy lots of cutting blades , if you plan to cut the sidewalls out yourselves ---it might pay you to knock up a little homemade drill powered machine for this ---again you tube --is full of ideas, lots of hardwork to do but longlasting .

tony uljee wrote:We then used what is called MECHANICAL CONCRETE ---if you gogle it shows up the process , we cut out both sidewalls off each tire and used gutter bolts to hold them together --4 holes drilled per tire on site---- back filled with graded rock and stone , and it works--- stops the bulk of the infull from drifting away and might just need topping up  after a few years.  I had planned doing my driveway like this  about 50 meters long---the amount of tires needed at a rough count was 900---

Interesting approach. But that's a LOT of tires to process.

If I were needing a road to replace an existing road to a little cabin in the woods that I would only visit occasionally I might consider this method.

I believe in building a driveway that will last. Especially if I were having a lot of heavy trucks delivering a lot of heavy loads of lumber and other building materials.

I also don't want my building contractor saying he will not show up due to my road needing repair.

The last time I repaired a driveway, I called the local rock supplier and asked for the name of a road builder.

The road builder gave me a flat fee price, handled ordering the road base and the rock and the delivery.

I told the road builder that I wanted silver dollar size washed rock.  It may be more expensive than the gravel though it hold up longer over the long run.

Tony, the description you gave of the road sounds like it was done poorly in the start.
-Top soil needs to be removed
- 40mm or 11/2" rock only 6 inches deep at least 3-4 Metres wide.
- Because cattle would use it I would roll the loose rock with a vibrating roller initially
- Once settled and compacted with trafic top up with 40mm road base that has finer rocks with it.

Farmers do a lot of creative improvising, since they don't have the deep pockets of a municipal government department. Curiously, they succeed more often than they fail.