Do it yourself driveway repair
Day 2 of our new driveway
repair project went smoother than day 1.
I think I'm getting the hang
of it.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Cinderblocks aren't cheaper in the short term, but they are in the long term. Our driveway runs through a floodplain and is very wet, so normal gravel sinks in and disappears after you drive over it once or twice. For the last few years, we've been using rip-rap, which has more longevity and does start to build up a stable base after a few years. But we've also used cinderblocks in the worst spots and it seems to give the best results --- all of the spots we've treated that way have lasted five years with no repairs.
I wouldn't recommend this method to someone with an ordinary driveway because it would be too much time and money for the return, but if you're working on wet ground, I highly recommend it.