On Sunday, 30 June 2013 21:03:57 UTC+1, Andrew Mawson wrote:
wrote in message ...

A relative has about 80m² of gravelled areas around their house. Over the
years, the gravel has become very muddy, and is now coverered with weeds..

Is there a cost effective way of washing gravel? I've tried putting it in a
handheld steel sieve sloshing it around in wheelbarrow of water, but that
was very slow, and generated large quantities of muddy water.

I suppose I could just put a membrane on top of it, followed by more
gravel, but I'd like to re-use the existing stuff.

Just been through this thought process myself. We have 750 sq metres of pea
shingle that was very mucky - I decided that although theoretically washing
it was possible, the labour involved wasn't worth it. We stripped it all off
and piled it up in the field - a big heap . So we've used as much as we
could in bedding for new drains etc (total house refurbishment 98%
finished) - also put in a land drain in the farm yard and another scheduled
o go into the field in a boggy bit. Then currently I've a 20 ton pile of new
pea shingle waiting to be spread tomorrow, and no doubt we'll need another
10 or 20 tons to finish the job. At least it means that the land drains are
very adequately surrounded by shingle!

AWEM

Pea gravel is totally unsuited to driveways.
Never consolidates.