Use A Chain Link Fence To Smooth And Level Gravel Driveways With A Useful DIY

A brand-new gravel driveway may be the stuff of cottagecore dreams, but over time, it can turn into a lumpy, bumpy mess. Gravel is made from little rock fragments and pebbles that don't fit together perfectly like pavers. That loose quality gives a gravel driveway its satisfying look and crunch, but it also means it's easily shifted by heavy foot or vehicle traffic, plow trucks, and heavy rain or heaving snowdrifts. While you can quickly rake uneven spots as they appear, it's impractical for longer driveways. A farmer came up with a much better way to tackle smoothing and leveling gravel driveways with a useful DIY by combining a small garden tractor, a piece of chain link fence, and a few cinder blocks.

In a YouTube video posted earlier this year, Dax Weaver demonstrated his new method on a long gravel driveway leading up to his family farm. Although you'll need a tractor or an ATV to pull this simple contraption, making one for yourself will allow you to skip pricey compactors and smooth gravel driveways with materials you may already have on hand. Constructing it involves using metal zip ties to attach basic cinder blocks on top of a piece chain link fence before using a heavy-duty chain to pull it along. If you don't already have these supplies lying around your garage, shed, or barn, you can easily find them for next to nothing on Facebook Marketplace or through the Buy Nothing Project, a global program that connects neighbors with free stuff to reduce waste.

Upcycling materials for this project can save you a fortune compared to spending hundreds on a box blade for leveling your gravel driveway. Along with being more affordable, this useful DIY breaks down when you're done, making it easier to store. Plus, there's less of a learning curve and less risk of damaging expensive equipment as you drag it over your gravel driveway.

Instead of relying on locked scarifiers and sweeping blades, the chain link fence provides enough resistance against gravel aggregates to shift and move those small rocks and pebbles around without disturbing the compacted layers underneath. Weaver used two cinder blocks to weigh his fencing down, attaching them with a single metal zip tie through the center opening. The right number of blocks will depend on the width of your fencing, and you may want to secure each block through both openings to keep them parallel with the back of your mower. This helps prevent them from shifting as you run your DIY gravel-smoothing and leveling tool over uneven spots.

While you can make similar low-cost solutions out of other materials you have lying around, like using wood pallets to smooth gravel driveways, chain link is particularly well suited for this task. Instead of pulling a straight line of gravel along your driveway (whether that much needs to be moved or not), the honeycomb structure will capture loose gravel aggregate to fill in holes as you drive along. For the best results, make several passes to ensure a totally smooth surface.