As potholes are driven over a cement-like wall forms around the sides and at the bottom of the pothole. If this “wall” isn’t broken down then any gravel put in the pothole either by grading , by hand or whatever is pretty much like cereal in a bowl; it doesn’t bind properly to the material around and can actually make it worse.
after watching numerus pothole videos of greater editing quality. I had learned absolutely nothing. Your video was straight to the point and i learned something. Kudos to you sir
For visually impaired or just impatient folks: 1. With pickaxe, loosen gravel 6" around outside of pothole, making motions towards hole 2. With rigid rake, smooth lose gravel over hole and roughed-up area 3. Use back side of rake to smooth it out. 4. Stomp down on smoothed area, use back-side of rake again.
Thank you for the video, sir. I was about to order 28 tons of gravel with the idea that filling in the potholes with gravel would solve it. You saved me and my family $1000. God bless you and yours.
This worked for me thanks. Spent years filling potholes with type one aggregate that just washed out in the rain, this method appears to be longer lasting fix
And it’s little things like this we Appreciate the most , there’s a pothole on my street that’s been there since I was 11 years old maybe longer , I’m 21 now and let me tell you something, How the hell isn’t anybody irritated to the point NOW THEY WANT TO FIX IT THEMSELVES 🥴
There's a cheat to get the council contractors to fix it quick... buy a road marking spray.. a RED one.. and put a ring around the pothole in red marker... just one smooth motion... when the contractors drive around and they see a red ring, they are obliged to fix it within 2 weeks, so many fix them on sight and sort the paperwork out after.
That pot hole will quickly return! It's the compacted dirt in the centre of the hole that's the issue. Every time it rains and the hole fills with water. Driving over it causes any remaining loose material to be ejected from the hole and further compacts the center making the problem worse. Fix a pot hole permanently by digging out the compacted center along with the surrounding area refilling the hole with new gravel or a least gravel that hasn't been worn down and where the individual stones are still rough so they interlock and stay in place.
Video is not 3d so does not show high spots well. Sides of Pot hole became higher than the driveway magnifying the bump and adding to compacting. By breaking up the high compacted sides and using that material as fill made it smooth. Almost a year now with heavy traffic still smooth. Lager Pot holes would require more excavation.
@@2pls what was demonstrated by your efforts here is good, breaking up all around the edges and raking in the broken up aggregate is an important part of the process. That said, what will almost certainly result in a premature failure of the repair at this location is the fact that It appears like you left the “hard pan” undisturbed at the bottom of the hole. Unless you break through that portion of the pothole as well, any material placed in the the hole to fill it up will fail to bond effectively. When the surface gets really wet and tires passing over it will once again that action will begin to pull material from the hole and the cycle will start all over again…..I’m sorry to have to say it but as long as the compacted surface remains the fix won’t last.
That’s exactly what I’m looking for. I put new gravel two layer into the hole and the hole come out again in one week. I will try your method now. Thanks
I've got a 1/3 mile gravel driveway I share with 2 other people. One guy, the one with the most money, always has some expensive fix he wants to do to it and myself and the other guy don't go along with it. Once it warms up a bit, I'll try this and see if it helps the problem. We've probably got 10-15 holes to fill, but based on this video, I'm guessing I could knock them out in an hour or 2.
Unfortunately, this pot hole will reappear within less than a month. The reason being he never went down to the bottom of the pothole. With gravel pothole you have to dig up the entire pothole. If you don’t they will come back within a matter of months. You can add gravel and fill in the potholes and they will reappear within months. All he did was loosen the gravel around the pothole and fill it in with the surrounding gravel. So pothole not fixed, just filled in temporarily.
in another comment he said its been fine for a year and he even left a comment explaining what you wrote. Always good to check the comments before you write
My driveway is asphalt and I’ve gotten a pretty good sized hole in it.. don’t have much money but do have a cat and then I had the thought what if I just buy extra cat litter and dump it in the hole.. it’s definitely helped.. maybe not a perfect solution but it’s what I got right now and it was super cheap lol cost me less than $5 for 2 bags
What did it look like after one month? It seems like that just made the hole bigger the next time it washes out. I keep filling mine in and they just keep getting deeper every round.
Have tried just filling in Pot Holes. Fill seems to work its way out and make Pot Holes deeper. Have had lot better success when using pick to take material off high spots and using that to fill in Pot Holes.
First of all, get rid of the water. This is how potholes are created...water. Secondly, the pothole's walls and bottom needs to be scarified, just as the surrounding 6 inches, or more, should be. Are when placing gravel back into the scarified pothole, be sure to compact the new materials into the base and walls of the pothole, compacting everything until it is level to the road. A repair like this will last much longer than what he just did. But doing something is better than doing nothing at all.
Close, that's not a pothole. You got the technique down it's just not a lasting fix. It's a low spot and eventually it will become worse. Mix a $1.30 bucket of shale. As low spots appear in other areas of the driveway, just keep applying shale. Shale is a base staple for building roads.
We just moved to the country and there damn pot holes frustrate me daily. Great straight forward video that makes sense. Even I can do this. Pick axe and rack. Done
He did it right. You can’t just dump new gravel in. The new rock doesn’t mix and compact with the old. That’s like pouring popcorn in a plastic bowl, it pops out. When you break the crust around the hole, when you rake it back in, all the loose rock mixes and compacts together when driven on. That combines with the existing stone and hardens up, especially with rain.
Fine Gravel (Chrusher Dust) is best for filling Pot Holes, Packs better than course Gravel. Hole you described could be done as in the video may take a few more minutes. Also comment above is worth reading.
So I did it. It took me 3 weeks but I finally accomplished my goal. I had to level out the dirt road in front of my driveway & my mailbox and up to the end of the street. I live on the corner… I ended up using a flat edge shovel to scrap of the top of the sand & move it to my side of the street. The county comes down my street & lays down sand just in the middle of the street.
So glad I found this video... been fixing a bunch of pot holes in gravel driveway last two days. Shocking how much smoother it already is to drive on. I need to be more proactive and treat the repair before they get this big. Question: Do you recommend a certain aggregate to tamp down on top to make it even smoother? Thanks
Yes, you should not wait. Ideally, you want vehicles to be able to drive as smoothly as possible over driveways, as uneven movement can magnify a pothole or lead to more. Inspect your driveway regularly for signs of damage, and repair any potholes or rutting as soon as possible.
I watched a ton of videos on how to fix a gravel driveway with a tractor and a box blade or land plane. I couldn’t grasp the concept of what was being done. This simple video, showing how it’s done by hand, immediately caused a light bulb to off on in my head, instantly driving the concept home. All the machines are doing is what he’s doing by hand: that is, breaking up the gravel in and around the pothole and adding in gravel so that it becomes apart of the material instead of dumping rocks into what is basically a bowl, which the tires of a vehicle will spit out in a week. The tractors simply do what he did, but on a larger level, fixing many holes in longer driveways. Thanks for driving the point home for me. This is how things should be explained.
I gotta try this. Your road and potholes look just like mine. Looks like you are in Nova Scotia and I am in western Washington state with lots of rain forest vegetation.
I can admire this quick fix. But it is definitely temporary. Once you start driving vehicles over it, it won't take long for it to sink back in. The best fix for sink holes in gravel is more gravel.
I recommend gravel sized around ¼”-1” with crusher dust for building and maintaining a gravel driveway. You still need to break up potholes before adding new gravel.
I’m no expert, but I think you’d have to do both for big and deep potholes. I’d think that the lose gravel has moved far enough away that you wouldn’t be able to level it with the rest of the driveway properly without adding gravel, that otherwise you’d have a dip in the driveway where the pothole used to be
Still smooth, more than 2 years. There are 2 tiny ones at first of my driveway that I should take care of before they get bigger or cause more. The smoother the better!
@2pls how soon can this be driven on? The potholes on a shared side road are horrific and as there is a dispute with who owns it no one will fix it. I have a mind to borrow a pickaxe and do it myself. However, I can't control when people start to use the road after I try this out.
Sorry you created a bigger hole you loosen up the hole bigger you're supposed to fill the hole and compacted down with a stomper think🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 Brother
Finally a video that shows you how to do it without $50k of equipment. Thank you!
As potholes are driven over a cement-like wall forms around the sides and at the bottom of the pothole. If this “wall” isn’t broken down then any gravel put in the pothole either by grading , by hand or whatever is pretty much like cereal in a bowl; it doesn’t bind properly to the material around and can actually make it worse.
That’s a bad example. Cereal sticks like the proverbial to my bowls 😉
@@t-rex4211yea and then all that’s left is milk in the middle.
after watching numerus pothole videos of greater editing quality. I had learned absolutely nothing. Your video was straight to the point and i learned something. Kudos to you sir
Well done sir. No, fancy editing? No, fancy camera tricks, no narration, straight to the point and all it took you was three minutes
Most definitely and appreciated!
And at the end, you dance on the pot-hole's grave.
Do the Happy Dance
For visually impaired or just impatient folks:
1. With pickaxe, loosen gravel 6" around outside of pothole, making motions towards hole
2. With rigid rake, smooth lose gravel over hole and roughed-up area
3. Use back side of rake to smooth it out.
4. Stomp down on smoothed area, use back-side of rake again.
Thank you for the video, sir. I was about to order 28 tons of gravel with the idea that filling in the potholes with gravel would solve it. You saved me and my family $1000. God bless you and yours.
Great! Happy the fix is helping so many folks.
Thank you for not having a 45 minute preface about the history of pot holes
Love it. Quick, simple, and I already have the tools. 👍
Update: got a couple small ones left to get done but this process works like a charm
Nice, I'll get at it then!
This worked for me thanks. Spent years filling potholes with type one aggregate that just washed out in the rain, this method appears to be longer lasting fix
This greybeard has plenty of experience. Knows the right way to swing a pick. Doesn't waste his effort or time. I would take his advice
I've done this a thousand times. Brush out any water first. Dry (ish) gravel sets far more reliably than saturated gravel.
Thank you. Just purchased a home with a 1/4 mike long gravel driveway with multiple potholes. I was looking into new gravel, no longer
Even though it looks like actual work, I'm going to try it.
From France, many thanks ! Simple, fast and free ! My next task tomorrow :)
Ça a donné quoi du coup ? Ça tient toujours ?
Didn't have sitting on the toilet watching a dude fill a pothole on my 2024 bingo card...
And it’s little things like this we Appreciate the most , there’s a pothole on my street that’s been there since I was 11 years old maybe longer , I’m 21 now and let me tell you something, How the hell isn’t anybody irritated to the point NOW THEY WANT TO FIX IT THEMSELVES 🥴
same reason you dont fix it
There's a cheat to get the council contractors to fix it quick... buy a road marking spray.. a RED one.. and put a ring around the pothole in red marker... just one smooth motion... when the contractors drive around and they see a red ring, they are obliged to fix it within 2 weeks, so many fix them on sight and sort the paperwork out after.
I wish I could give you money for this I was almost ready to buy a box blade for my Ford Jubilee to fix my potholes LOL
That pot hole will quickly return! It's the compacted dirt in the centre of the hole that's the issue. Every time it rains and the hole fills with water. Driving over it causes any remaining loose material to be ejected from the hole and further compacts the center making the problem worse. Fix a pot hole permanently by digging out the compacted center along with the surrounding area refilling the hole with new gravel or a least gravel that hasn't been worn down and where the individual stones are still rough so they interlock and stay in place.
Video is not 3d so does not show high spots well. Sides of Pot hole became higher than the driveway magnifying the bump and adding to compacting. By breaking up the high compacted sides and using that material as fill made it smooth. Almost a year now with heavy traffic still smooth. Lager Pot holes would require more excavation.
@@2pls what was demonstrated by your efforts here is good, breaking up all around the edges and raking in the broken up aggregate is an important part of the process. That said, what will almost certainly result in a premature failure of the repair at this location is the fact that It appears like you left the “hard pan” undisturbed at the bottom of the hole. Unless you break through that portion of the pothole as well, any material placed in the the hole to fill it up will fail to bond effectively. When the surface gets really wet and tires passing over it will once again that action will begin to pull material from the hole and the cycle will start all over again…..I’m sorry to have to say it but as long as the compacted surface remains the fix won’t last.
That’s exactly what I’m looking for. I put new gravel two layer into the hole and the hole come out again in one week. I will try your method now. Thanks
YOU ARE A POT HOLE GOD!
I've got a 1/3 mile gravel driveway I share with 2 other people. One guy, the one with the most money, always has some expensive fix he wants to do to it and myself and the other guy don't go along with it. Once it warms up a bit, I'll try this and see if it helps the problem. We've probably got 10-15 holes to fill, but based on this video, I'm guessing I could knock them out in an hour or 2.
You got this!
I like to add some new gravel. But yep, that'll do it
Pot hole's in the road,i'll watch and learn somthing do in 2024 thank you.😎🧐😳🙃🙂
That doesn't look free at all, my friend. That looks like a sore back and having to do it offten because it is not repaired correctly.
It's something about the sound of the pitchfork hitting the gravel that I thoroughly enjoy! Best sound on youtube!
Pickaxe, not Pitchfork
@@FarmerJulian Thank for you for the correction! This is not my expertise so I appreciate the correction.
Unfortunately, this pot hole will reappear within less than a month. The reason being he never went down to the bottom of the pothole. With gravel pothole you have to dig up the entire pothole. If you don’t they will come back within a matter of months. You can add gravel and fill in the potholes and they will reappear within months. All he did was loosen the gravel around the pothole and fill it in with the surrounding gravel. So pothole not fixed, just filled in temporarily.
in another comment he said its been fine for a year and he even left a comment explaining what you wrote. Always good to check the comments before you write
My driveway is asphalt and I’ve gotten a pretty good sized hole in it.. don’t have much money but do have a cat and then I had the thought what if I just buy extra cat litter and dump it in the hole.. it’s definitely helped.. maybe not a perfect solution but it’s what I got right now and it was super cheap lol cost me less than $5 for 2 bags
Would love to know how long the repair lasted.
Very good video, my wife and I laughed at the end when you dropped your rake 😂😂😂
What did it look like after one month? It seems like that just made the hole bigger the next time it washes out. I keep filling mine in and they just keep getting deeper every round.
Been a week so far , had some rain days and still okay.
Have tried just filling in Pot Holes. Fill seems to work its way out and make Pot Holes deeper. Have had lot better success when using pick to take material off high spots and using that to fill in Pot Holes.
I tried it and so far so good. Thanks
Guaranteed bigger hole!!
After one month of heavy traffic, still really smooth.
Minecraft looks so realistic now
First of all, get rid of the water. This is how potholes are created...water. Secondly, the pothole's walls and bottom needs to be scarified, just as the surrounding 6 inches, or more, should be. Are when placing gravel back into the scarified pothole, be sure to compact the new materials into the base and walls of the pothole, compacting everything until it is level to the road. A repair like this will last much longer than what he just did. But doing something is better than doing nothing at all.
Close, that's not a pothole. You got the technique down it's just not a lasting fix. It's a low spot and eventually it will become worse. Mix a $1.30 bucket of shale. As low spots appear in other areas of the driveway, just keep applying shale. Shale is a base staple for building roads.
We just moved to the country and there damn pot holes frustrate me daily. Great straight forward video that makes sense. Even I can do this. Pick axe and rack. Done
This is known as low tech hands and feet..it works..
Am I the only one with, "I've been workin' on the railroad" running in my head to the beat of the the pick?
Love the sound of the gravel being scraped!
He did it right. You can’t just dump new gravel in. The new rock doesn’t mix and compact with the old. That’s like pouring popcorn in a plastic bowl, it pops out.
When you break the crust around the hole, when you rake it back in, all the loose rock mixes and compacts together when driven on. That combines with the existing stone and hardens up, especially with rain.
Budget Friendly it’s “Free”💯🌟💜🌟💯
what do you do if the pothole is 2" deep and wider like 3' x 3'? Is there some sort of mix I can use?
Fine Gravel (Chrusher Dust) is best for filling Pot Holes, Packs better than course Gravel. Hole you described could be done as in the video may take a few more minutes. Also comment above is worth reading.
Solid video! Thanks for sharing
So I did it. It took me 3 weeks but I finally accomplished my goal. I had to level out the dirt road in front of my driveway & my mailbox and up to the end of the street. I live on the corner… I ended up using a flat edge shovel to scrap of the top of the sand & move it to my side of the street. The county comes down my street & lays down sand just in the middle of the street.
Genius! Best video I’ve watched in a while 🙌
Its coming right back.
So glad I found this video... been fixing a bunch of pot holes in gravel driveway last two days. Shocking how much smoother it already is to drive on. I need to be more proactive and treat the repair before they get this big. Question: Do you recommend a certain aggregate to tamp down on top to make it even smoother? Thanks
I like crushed stone #411. It is 3/4″-1″ in size and it has the crusher dust for easy packing.
My dad Can you use this video He doesn't like to spend a lot of money on his driveway. I guess this is a freebie For him
Share video, it's a Win Win.
Yeah, make sure to not wait too long to do this. My potholes are more like pot-valleys by now
Yes, you should not wait. Ideally, you want vehicles to be able to drive as smoothly as possible over driveways, as uneven movement can magnify a pothole or lead to more. Inspect your driveway regularly for signs of damage, and repair any potholes or rutting as soon as possible.
I watched a ton of videos on how to fix a gravel driveway with a tractor and a box blade or land plane. I couldn’t grasp the concept of what was being done. This simple video, showing how it’s done by hand, immediately caused a light bulb to off on in my head, instantly driving the concept home. All the machines are doing is what he’s doing by hand: that is, breaking up the gravel in and around the pothole and adding in gravel so that it becomes apart of the material instead of dumping rocks into what is basically a bowl, which the tires of a vehicle will spit out in a week. The tractors simply do what he did, but on a larger level, fixing many holes in longer driveways. Thanks for driving the point home for me. This is how things should be explained.
Lol😅 wth
genius
I gotta try this. Your road and potholes look just like mine. Looks like you are in Nova Scotia and I am in western Washington state with lots of rain forest vegetation.
We can get lots of rain here in the Maritimes. Did fix after a heavy rain, made it easier to break up the pot hole.
I wouldn’t think it lasted very long?
Worked for me, over 2 years, smooth! If I notice any pothole starting, I have to nip it in the bud.
This is really smart
I can admire this quick fix. But it is definitely temporary. Once you start driving vehicles over it, it won't take long for it to sink back in. The best fix for sink holes in gravel is more gravel.
Ии🎉😊
Can we start a go fund me to get this guy a new rake? 😂
Love my Rake, a lot of Hours on it LOL. She's ergonomic, maybe hard to replace.
I've done this is lasted about a day
Has been to overfill the pothole 20% that allows it to pack down
😂😂😂
What gravel?
I blow the water out first but ya I do it the same way. Good video 🎉
Do you think adding like a concrete like quickcrete would be beneficial?
I recommend gravel sized around ¼”-1” with crusher dust for building and maintaining a gravel driveway. You still need to break up potholes before adding new gravel.
NO!... it's fine in the short term, but then new potholes form around the edge and grow.
Good video, really helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
Who knew ? Lol
Pothole to the man " same time next year good for you?"
Still holding up well without having to grade it or add gravel?
Simple, thank you
That tamper you used works well.
Oh wow. Does it work with really big and deep potholes too? Or does one best order some extra gravel for those?
I’m no expert, but I think you’d have to do both for big and deep potholes. I’d think that the lose gravel has moved far enough away that you wouldn’t be able to level it with the rest of the driveway properly without adding gravel, that otherwise you’d have a dip in the driveway where the pothole used to be
Excellent
👍✌️
Spot on. Maybe get rid of most of the water first though.👍👍👍
The water helps with binding it together, like if you threw water on sand, it will get harder and compacted.
It will come back it you don't leave a mound on top of it
Is that rake custom?
Astute observation. Rake was purchased at a hardware store 25 years ago. Has curved fiberglass handle, great option if avalible.
How has this fix held up?
Still smooth and we have a lot of traffic. Had a small one in a different spot. Fixed it right away. The smoother the better!
@2pls Did you pour any new gravel on the ones you fixed afterwards?
So how long did this last?
Still smooth, more than 2 years. There are 2 tiny ones at first of my driveway that I should take care of before they get bigger or cause more. The smoother the better!
@2pls how soon can this be driven on? The potholes on a shared side road are horrific and as there is a dispute with who owns it no one will fix it. I have a mind to borrow a pickaxe and do it myself. However, I can't control when people start to use the road after I try this out.
Test it right away, no need to wait for a gravel driveway. Ideally, you should fix all potholes before driving so the vehicle is driving smoothly.
Sacale el agua primero zoquete
Fix with mortor and cement on a hot day!!
Is that communism?
No it's a pothole
now you just completely compromised the hydrophobic surface, congrats
Better to add dirt and pack it down
Best video on youtube
Sorry you created a bigger hole you loosen up the hole bigger you're supposed to fill the hole and compacted down with a stomper think🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 Brother