How to prevent gravel from parking area from rolling onto concrete

July 11, 2020 8:13 AM

We have gravel in our parking area which is about 5" lower than our driveway. When we pull the car from the parking area onto the driveway, gravel rolls onto the concrete and then scratch the concrete. This would be no big deal but it makes annoying noises when it does this which annoy my otherwise very nice neighbors. Is there anyway to make it stop?
posted by arnicae to Grab Bag (5 answers total)

When you say gravel, what do you mean? Is it crushed gravel (sometimes called airport mix)? Or is it some kind of stone, ie., uniform-sized pebbles or rocks? I can see this problem happening with the latter, but if you had crushed gravel, after a while it tends to get packed into an almost-solid surface that should not "roll onto the concrete" or make annoying noises.
posted by beagle at 8:47 AM on July 11, 2020

Response by poster: small pebbles. Thanks!
posted by arnicae at 8:58 AM on July 11, 2020

Hmm. Without re-engineering everything (eg: by converting to permeable pavers or geotex and grass), maybe try some kind of transition -- like a berm, or one of those recycled rubber curb transition strips but flipped over so the "bump" faces up?

...the idea being that the berm or transition strip will tend to let gravel get off the tires before you hit the concrete.
posted by aramaic at 9:15 AM on July 11, 2020

As Beagle notes, if the parking area is uniform-sized pebbles then it may not compact easily and so remains 'loose'. Perhaps if you added sand to the parking area it would help fill the voids between pebbles and keep them in place. This will affect the permeability of the area of course.
posted by TDIpod at 9:35 AM on July 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

Agree that one of those curb transition slips might help, but you should probably consider paving that area.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:46 AM on July 11, 2020