How to Pack Dirt for a Driveway

Compacting Clay-Based Soil

• 1

  Use a ram-type soil compactor on clay-based soils and soils that stick together easily. If you can grab a handful of soil, squeeze it in your hand and it retains its shape, a ram-type compactor is the best choice. Also called a whacker, tamper or jumping jack, operating this type of compactor requires physical strength.

• 2

  Rake and shovel the soil in the bottom of the excavated forms to distribute the soil relatively evenly. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but fill in holes with additional soil and level off high spots. Typically, the standard excavation depth of a driveway pour is about 6 inches deep. That allows you to add a couple of inches of fill sand over the soil after compaction.

• 3

  Start in one corner of the driveway forms and start the gas-powered compactor. Hold on tight, balance and guide the compactor in a straight line down one side of the driveway forms. At the end of the driveway, turn around and guide the compactor back in the other direction, overlapping the first row of compacted soil by about an inch.

• 4

  Compact the soil by running the compactor back and forth in one direction and then do the same thing in a crosswise direction.

Compacting Sand

• 5

  Add fill sand to a depth of 3 1/2 inches below the desired level of the driveway. Use a rake and a shovel to level and smooth the sand base.

• 6

  Compact the sand layer with a vibrating plate compactor, following the same path you did with the ram-type compactor. A plate compactor is less strenuous to operate, and it features a large steel plate that vibrates at a rapid speed to “settle” grains of sand for increased compaction.

• 7

  Use a screed board to check the level of the compacted sand. A simple way to make a sand screed board is to measure the width of the driveway forms from the inside edge of one to the inside edge of the opposite side and cut a 2-by-4 board 1-inch shorter than the measurement.

• 8

  Place the board, on edge, between the forms and pull it over the compacted sand from one end of the driveway forms to the other end. This takes two people, one on each side of the board. As you pull, notice high spots or low spots in the sand. Rake off high spots and add a few shovels of sand to fill depressions. Compact those areas again with the plate compactor before pouring the driveway.