I live in a more rural than suburban area and long driveways are pretty commonplace (large properties as well). What is proposed is also very common here as there is typically an area left very natural/native between the road and the house. Usually there is a generously sized area of concrete and/or drive adjacent to the house and garage but a very narrow apron adjoining the street. Really little more than a transition from the road to the drive.

These are called ribbon driveways so if you use that term you will find pictures of these with grass, stone or gravel in the middle.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5712299/driveway-ribbon-brick-grass-something-else

"These are called ribbon driveways"

I don't believe this is what the OP meant. A "ribbon" drive is concrete or asphalt from street to entry in 2 strips (for car tires) with grass or gravel in between. I believe the OP is asking about a single section of concrete or asphalt at the street edge and another at the house with nothing but gravel in between. So a segmented drive, not a ribbon.

OP, please clarify if this is incorrect.

Yes I guess I read middle as center.

Thanks for the info thus far!

No, I am not interested in the "ribbon" driveway but appreciate the input.

I've read up numerous articles on the process of the gravel drive and while I realize I will get the occasional weed, I understand it to be low maintenance if done properly with compacting and a weed barrier sheet.

This will also be snow free area that we're building.

So the location of this 'snow free' area is a secret? Because where it is, and the topography of the lot are going to have a lot of say about how well this is going to work, and what particular issues are going to be involved.

Gravel drives are easily attended to for any weed concerns with a weed torch. It's easy and it's fun and involves no environmentally offensive herbicides. Skip the weed barrier - they don't really work - and invest that cost in the torch.

IMO as a practicing landscape designer, the specific location is immaterial for this application. Gravel can be laid and utilized as a surface on a drive as steep as one could typically encounter and concrete or asphalt can go anywhere. If the drive can be laid in just the one of either material from start to finish then it can just as easily be split with the second material in the middle. It's not rocket science!

Well, there was a property in our family from 1938 until a year or so ago, a half mile long, that was dirt or gravel. It was able to be plowed, it need to be graded occasionally. The bottom of it would wash out rarely in very bad weather. It was a functional driveway. I am not sure it would meet the esthetic requirements of a HOA. In the summer it looked like a weedy driveway.

The property is not a secret, South Carolina. It is a level lot with clay soil. The natural grade is for the water from rains to run off to the sides of the driveway in the planned location. The area that would have gravel is nicely shaded with oaks and a couple pine trees.

Sounds like the torch would be a chore for my husband that he might enjoy!

I had a long, gravel driveway when I lived on acreage in the PNW. Since it was in a rural area gravel driveways were typical. What I didn't love about it was the dust during our dry summers -- every time a car drove up or down the driveway a big plume of dust rose up and settled on plants, fences, structures, everthing. Our cars were constantly filthy June through October.

Beyone that it wasn't a big deal. I don't recall worrying about the weeds, probably because there are weeds everywhere in an uncultivated area. Gravel roads eventually become washboarded, especially on slopes, and low spots inevitably develop over time. Be prepared to grade and rock the driveway every so often, ideally when the ground has some moisture content. Like everything else, consider the trade-offs.

We have a similar situation… even more challenging because our driveway slopes upward … gravel could not work as it all would end up at the bottom… and there is the added pain that loose gravel allows the wheels to spin …so we use a material called road base.. a sort of a sticky gravel that compacts to a pretty solid surface if you use enough… while still looking like gravel….which was our preference as we live in a country setting …

Also .. no dust

And very few weeds

I had a client with a half mile driveway with a 30' apron. Part of the project was to extend the apron to 120' to allow more distance for the dirt to fall off the tires and car before entering the garage.

We live on a chunk of granite in the middle of a marsh and have a tenth of a mile shared gravel driveway between the road and our personal driveway asphalt …over 20 years, it has been much cheaper to maintain than asphalt. But it does require constant vigilance.

I would suggest some kind of pavement near the house, as Mark mentioned…less chum enters the house that way.

remember…. ”any feedback”….we live in an unbeleivably restrictive neigheborhood (actually 14 indidividual neighborhoods under one 5.5 mile umbrella) ….ive never seen this done before. its notnecessarily a bad idea but i see challenges/ problems ahead. some can be mitigated. others are a function of the design…. weed control, barrier control (meaning metal edging on both sides needs to be done), gravel needs to be compact…a water permeable weed barrier underneath the gravel is likely needed.. then theres water run off. it needs to have some sloping. it ALMOST needs to be CAD DESIGNED (again ALMOST) even then its going to deteriorate over time and if the HOA sees it theyre gonna latch on my guess is EVEN if you do it right, because of the run, in the end its gonna cost more and be more of a pain to maintain than concrete or asphault.. AND finally, let me suggest a HIGH QUALITY LONG LASTING asphault or concrete sealer for your driway AND (and you look it up yourself!) NEW POURED CONCRETE NEEDS A BATH (water) every day for about a month… IT MAKES IT TEN TIMES STRONGER IF YOUKEEP IT DAMP!

I love my 250 foot gravel driveway. I have concrete in front of the garage but none at street. I wish I did have a patch at the street as that is the only place the gravel gets pushed around where you turn into and out of it. Yes the gravel needs to be refreshed with new gravel every few years and gets weedy/ grassy in spots especially down the center where tires don't travel but I LOVE my propane torch and burning those little suckers is so fun! If I lived in a more cultivated area I would put in curbs to contain the gravel but it is pretty rural & natural here so no big deal.

I get 3/8ths inch minus with fines and it packs down nicely. If you have a diorite mine nearby they have the best greenish gravel color. I looked around at several gravel mines in SC and it looks like mostly bluish gray granite. Make sure you look around at local places and see what you like best. Have fun, gravel rocks!

Gravel IS FINE ITS A DRIVEWAY IT WILL BE GOOD' BUILD NEW IN NC & NEXTDOOR HOUSE USED

I know a few such driveways, and notice that the ones that stay looking nice have Ryerson edging. It keeps the gravel out of whatever is growing on the sides, and helps keep runner-type weeds at bay. And it looks tidy.

"250’ is not a long enough driveway to have a middle gravel section. It just isn’t. That’s too choppy and informal."

That is purely a matter of personal opinion. There is NO specified length of driveway that can be handled in this manner. And I would assume that OP is smart enough to have received HOA approval, if necessary, before attempting this method.

"even more challenging because our driveway slopes upward … gravel could not work as it all would end up at the bottom…"

Gravel is used on sloped drives all the time without any major concerns. When laid at an appropriate depth and compacted, it doesn't go anywhere and certainly does not all "end up at the bottom"!!

It would seem that many of the commenters have no first hand knowledge of applying or using this methodology as their comments have little basis in realty. These sorts of segmented drives are extremely common in my area and they work perfectly well.

Again, many thanks to all the above comments. I find the pros and cons both very helpful.

I do feel that 250' is long enough for the middle section to be gravel.

Yes, we will have a side barrier to contain the stone.

The HOA does not allow asphalt and my research here is to help facilitate approval. I'd prefer the stone over concrete for several reasons. It is conducive to drainage on our lot and the look among my top reasons.

Through my research I have found some stone to be more optimal than others. It appears the sharp edge stone settle and compact for a better hold in place.

We will be going to local landscape businesses to look at the different types. I love slate and saw chipped slate as a possible option.

Our overall look leans toward the modern/contemporary look and feel the slate will compliment it.

Does anyone have chipped slate?

Thanks for the great discussion!!

Gardengal…i have a great respect of your general knowledge but always find it disappointing when you denigrate other people and their opinions…in our case we experienced all the things i warned about before we had to redo our driveway …tho our driveway is not extremely steep…using roadbase was the only thing that compacted and did not end up at the bottom…over time we have used the deep pea gravel at the bottom in garden paths,etc.so it wasnt a complete loss…

I assume you know road base is a form of pea gravel…and in place looks just like a regular gravel drive

There was no denigration involved. You made a statement based on your single experience that I have found from multiple forays into this process to be atypical. I merely stated that. And please note that I also stressed the importance of a correct installation to get the correct result.

We built a custom home on 5 acres with a meandering driveway, which was a tinted concerete. Don't recall the color name, but it was a light buff color. Went well with the surrounding woods.

We moved to FL, so we have pavers at house by garage and carport/guest parking. On the street side we have a circle entrance with gravel. It is the large size, chunky gravel and while it mostly stays put, it occasionally needs refreshing with a flat metal rack. Weeds are not a problem here, but would have been in our previous AL home.

Look at driveway photos using crushed stone or granite. They look nice and have a great sound.

250, is more of a big suburb driveway than a country lane to a house in the woods. What does everyone else have in the neighborhood? If they all have concrete or pavers, you probably should not be the one that stands out with something really different.

I don't see a problem with concrete aprons next to the house and street, with gravel in between. It is done quite often, especially with pavers. I would use a gravel with fines like decomposed granite before I went with a washed gravel though, as there would be too much movement with washed (compaction is great with chipped stones, however, the tires turning and "peeling out" will displace the well compacted washed gravel before the "rock hard" DG). Either way there will be recurring maintenance (topping, smoothing, compacting) just as you would have to deal with for asphalt.

The problem is your HOA buying into it if it is not present anywhere else. Just a quick image search for examples, here is one (just squint to visualize the garage apron being bigger):

Here is a street paver apron view:

And a courtyard version with wide curbing/edging:

Here's one with a rhythm design:

I chose these examples to show what can be done to tie the competing materials together - using the same edging material as the aprons; having a wider edging; breaking up a longer drive with design elements. This may be more palatable to the HOA, and ultimately, preferable to you.

All valid comments. Many thanks.

Just wondering if you considered some sort of grass driveway.

Love the grass driveways but its probably too shaded for that to work for us.

An argument that you may use to convince the HOA is that you are environmentally conscious and are concerned with the rainwater runoff from a long driveway.

Gavel and grass are both more environmentally friendly.

This is very common where I live. Here are some images of ours. We have concrete pad at detached garage but not at the street. I wish we would have put concrete out at the street to help prevent rocks from going into the street every now and then. Each side of driveway is lined with rocks for water control because we are in a mountainous region. Yes weeds grow but I go around and use weed killer to control them.

Totally agree on it being environmentally friendly. It's disappointing that gravel is considered lower end and concrete with little to no curb appeal is an upgrade.

@vinmarks, very pretty driveway. I like the stone border.