Clearing land can be a huge effort that requires all sorts of tools and even large machinery like excavators and bulldozers. However, there are a few things you can do on your own, with just a shovel and one of them is clear and grubbing and grading for a driveway, concrete deck or even an in-ground hot tub. As long as there isn’t too much stuff in the way, like a tree that needs to be cut down there is a good chance you can do the entire process with a shovel and a space. Make sure to remove the grass and all of its roots as a driveway is not as thick as a foundation and is susceptible to plant-like growing out from under it. This can cause your driveway to break up and chip and can ruin the carefully laid out drainage plan you worked so hard on. So make sure to dig nice and deep, at least a foot down to make sure there are no roots. Then you will need to use the backside of a rake to smooth the area out. Take a level and place it along every square foot of the driveway and make sure the slant of the driveway is not too steep or too shallow. The recommended slope for a flat grade property, not one with a large hill where the driveway general must be heavily sloped, is a 2% degradation in slope or a two-foot rise extended over one hundred feet. If you don’t have room for a hundred-foot driveway you can do the math yourself to figure out the proper grading or just look it up with an online driveway grading calculator.
Once the rive way has been properly graded at a 2% rise with lifted soil at the edges of the driveway to prevent water from gathering on the driveway. This grading must be similar to the slope of the driveway so two feet over a hundred-foot span of one inch per foot. Make sure to use a level to gauge the exact drop. Making it too shallow, especially if you live somewhere with a high level of yearly precipitation will certainly ruin the driveway by soaking the ground underneath. The drainage of a driveway is very important which is why the base of the driveway must be gravel. The next layer for a paved road is concrete but if you want a driveway made with paving stones you will need to add a stone screening layer underneath that flattens the surface and allows for the paving stones to lay flat and never sink. Making a walkway out of just paving stones and gravel is fine but not for a driveway. The stones will sink into