New gravel driveways built with a real base, and tired ones regraded, crowned, and drained — so a Tilton driveway survives mud season and the next big storm instead of washing down the hill.
Commercial dirt work along the Exit 20 corridor plays by different rules than a camp driveway, and we treat it that way. Building pads go in with engineered fill placed in lifts and compaction-tested; parking areas get real stormwater design because impervious surface at this scale needs somewhere lawful to send its water; and everything starts with Dig Safe 811 plus a careful read of the utility plans, since the corridor’s underground is busy. The Winnipesaukee River defines the low side of town — sites near it can involve floodplain considerations and soils that have been filled and refilled since the mill era, so we test-pit before trusting any of it. Residential work continues alongside: foundation digs and drainage in the village and toward the Sanbornton line. Access is Tilton’s quiet advantage — highway proximity keeps material trucking cheaper than nearly anywhere else in the region.
Planning commercial work in Tilton’s corridor? Involve your excavation contractor while the civil plans are still in draft. Small changes to pad elevation or stormwater routing at the drawing stage — things an operator spots quickly — regularly save five figures in imported fill and rework once the design is stamped and the numbers are locked.
A driveway that lasts is a structure: geotextile where soils are soft, a compacted bank-run gravel base, and a crushed-gravel or stone surface crowned so water runs off the sides instead of down the middle. Culverts go where water crosses, ditches where it runs alongside. Skip any of those and you buy the same driveway again every few years — that’s the washboard, potholed, washed-out driveway we get called to fix.
We build new driveways, rebuild failing ones, and do the annual regrade-and-crown that keeps a camp road drivable through mud season.
New gravel driveways typically run $15–$30 per linear foot built right (base + surface + crowning); regrading and topping an existing driveway costs a fraction of that. Culverts and ditching quoted per site. Flat quote after a quick look.
Built properly — compacted bank-run base, crushed gravel surface, crowned — figure $15 to $30 per linear foot for a standard 12-foot-wide driveway, more on steep or soft ground. A cheap spread-and-go driveway costs less up front and every year after.
Water is running down it instead of off it. The fix is shape and drainage: crown the surface, ditch the uphill side, and put a culvert where water crosses. Once water has somewhere to go, the gravel stays where you paid for it.
Yes — washboard and potholes are symptoms of a thin or uncrowned surface. We regrade to pull material back where it belongs, re-crown, and compact. If the base has failed we'll tell you honestly and price a rebuild of just the failed section.
Free site walks, test pits before quotes, flat pricing, and a crew that knows Lakes Region ground.
Tell us where the property is and what you’re trying to do. We’ll walk the site, talk it through, and give you a straight, flat quote.
