Crushed shell driveways in Harwich

Outwash sand almost everywhere, cranberry bogs inland, and a water table sitting closer to the surface than you would think.

Virtually the whole of Harwich sits on the Harwich outwash plain, which makes it one of the more consistent towns on the Cape to work in. The soils here are medium to very fine sands with pebbles and cobbles scattered through them, and they drain about as freely as ground can.

Consistent does not mean simple. Free draining sand is easy to dig and gives you almost nothing to build on. Everything a Harwich driveway does well or badly comes down to whether somebody built a compacted base into that sand or just tipped material onto it.

Local history

Where the cranberry industry started

In 1846 a former sea captain named Albert Cahoon planted a bog near Pleasant Lake in Harwich. Within a year his cousin Cyrus was planting bogs of his own. That is generally taken as the start of commercial cranberry growing, and it started here.

The bogs are not just history. They are why parts of this town sit wetter than the free draining sand around them would suggest. Bog land and the ground beside it holds water close to the surface, and a driveway built on or next to it behaves differently from one two hundred yards away.

If your property backs onto a bog, or onto one of the many ponds inland, say so when you call. It is the single most useful thing you can tell us about a Harwich driveway.

Worth checking before you call

Does water sit anywhere after rain?
If yes, where exactly. That spot tells us more than the rest of the driveway put together.
Is there a pond or bog behind you?
It changes how close the water table is, and therefore how much depth we have to work with.
Has it been topped off before?
If material has been added over the years without regrading, the surface may now be higher than the ground it drains onto.
Is it a summer rental?
Harwich Port and the harbor side turn over hard in season. Tell us when it is empty and we will plan around it.

We cover Harwich Port, West Harwich, East Harwich, South Harwich, Pleasant Lake and the roads inland toward the bogs.

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Bordering towns we also cover Chatham, Brewster and Dennis.

Crushed stone driveways in Harwich

Cranberry country, and what that means underfoot

Harwich has been growing cranberries commercially since 1846, and bog land means a high water table in places. Where groundwater sits close to the surface, drainage stops being a detail and becomes the whole job.

On that ground we look hard at the pitch and where water is going before talking about surfaces at all. Once that is right, either material will work. Crushed stone copes slightly better with ground that stays damp, because it does not soften; shell drains beautifully but wants somewhere for the water to actually go.