If weed growth is the concern, use Porous Asphalt or Concrete.

Youtube! Even lowes has youtube videos on it. You put gravel down then 1" of sand NOT PLAY SAND then lay pavers. Youtube YouTube YouTube :-)

Nope. That is not how you do a driveway. It’s not even really how someone does a walkway that they don’t want to keep redoing.

Yes Elizabeth, see how easy that is and all you need is a little sand *Cough...Cough...*

Here is a youtube video shows exactly how simple that is for DIY

We are considering a permeable paver walkway for the side of our house - this video was super helpful for understanding what needs to be put in place. (for the record, we are not attempting to DIY this). Thanks GN Builders for posting!

Thanks for all of the above. Sophie, I don't doubt the described requirements generally, but--per my post--I think our job is a lot smaller than that described in the posted video (for example). I realize I don't have a good photo to share (it's dark now, I'll see if I can do something about that tomorrow).

Let me see if I can come at this a different way...

This is a remedial project. I could leave things as they are and have a half mud/half stone/half weed (yes, I know) driveway, and keep spraying things left and right.

There's adequate manual labor locally to excavate the area in question to a certain depth at a modest cost. Removal of excavated material is a different issue, but I'd deal with it. This is a section of driveway that almost never gets "driven on"; cars occasionally park on it, but almost always briefly, when guests come and we want to clear the 'upper semicircle'. My plan would be to excavate as much as minimally necessary to lay a reasonable foundation (stone and sand with vibration, which I can rent), lay a weed barrier (Costco?), then lay the pavers (per the original post), and fill with stones. This would all be better than what I have now.

Is it pro? no. Is it perfect? no. Is it better than what I have now? Maybe. Could it be closer with your suggestions on squaring the circle? That's up to the assembled masses!

Thanks for your help!

What is your frost depth in your location? If you don’t get below frost depth, you are completely wasting all of your effort.

Sophie - hogwash. Frost depth in my particular location is 4 feet. Footings for decks, foundation footings etc definitely need to go to this depth as a bare minimum. Surfaces such as asphalt or interlock do not usually get excavated more than 18”, and even then it depends heavily on your substrate condition.

Ftwilson - regarding the disposal of the material you excavate you might want to try contacting local bin disposal companies to see if they have low sided bins for fill / yard waste. I know our local company has them. Depending on how much material you remove and what your other disposal options are it might be worth the cost.

If it's a small project, you can DIY it. My two sons (10 & 8 at the time) and I created a small permeable walkway (about 9' wide x 5' long.) It's held up the last 10 years. We're in zone 8, so we don't get many hard freezes.

It's labor intensive, sweaty, dirty work; however, it can be done. It took longer than the two weekends I had planned, about 4 full weekends if I remember correctly. While it's not a pro job, it continues to meet all our HOA requirements, and even though we made a few rookie mistakes, it has held up well. On the plus side, it taught my boys a good work ethic, and built up some muscles none of us knew we had. Good luck with your project!

Getting rid of the dirt shouldn't be an issue...Anyone with a truck can get rid of dirt for you, dirt can be a hot commodity at times.

There are so many ways you can get rid off excess dirt, especially in your case you will have about a mid-size truckload of dirt, most landscapers can get rid of that for you for $100 give or take and if you know someone, they will do it for free.

First, I want to say thanks to everyone who's taken such a constructive approach to helping me figure out whether this is something I can do and how I might go about doing it!

To help anyone who might have ideas, but who might have struggled to visualize our project, I'm including a picture; I welcome your thoughts.

The one question that I have for those who are emphasizing frost depth (which in our area is apparently between 20" and 30") is: how do people address the frost depth issue when building a walkway? Nobody around here is digging almost 3 feet before building a paver walkway, so why would I need to do so for a driveway (which, FWIW, is not getting driven on all that often)?

With much appreciation!

(PS, for the photo, we're talking ONLY about the down-driveway part that is NOT/NOT paved with asphalt.)

You don't need to dig down 3', all you have to do is dig down to the undisturbed and stable soil and provide a good sub-base for your pavers or anything else you like to use.

If you have clay, etc during rainy season soils expand (swell). Because of the contraction and expansion, you get differential movement which is the main cause for cracking and settlement of driveways and everything else. So you need to provide good sub-base which is stable and at the same time can provide good drainage.

Good luck

Permeable is a great idea for that area

So how did it go?