Sandy Drive project

[tatra805]

just a warning and a thought

if you mix the cement with the sand be sure to do it in a dry period. If it rains the cement will flow down leaving an almost non cemented top layer.

So in any case this is a dry period project.


If you are going the pour-on-top-then-till way i would soak the sand with water before putting the mix on top and then right away till it and leave it alone to dry. Add water to get a semi-wet mix, not a dry-mix and not as liquid as concrete.


Another possibility, but much more work, and what i would do:
take off a top layer, flatten the remaining path as you did in the pictures and then mix the taken off top layer material with your cement mix in a semi-wet mix using a concrete mixer and spread that one out and level it.

you'll need one **** of a mixer for that surface and basically a tractor with tiller can be seen as a mobile mixer driving over the ingredients.

 

[Redneck in training]

There is a stuff that is used to limit dust in construction sites, mines etc or military uses it to build temporary landing strips in the desert. It is a polymer based on soy oil so it doen't cause environnmental damage. They spray it on, disk it, compact it and you have prety good dust free road. I don't have personal experience with it though. I just read about that while researching a polymer to seal my pond.

 

[Redneck in training]

just a warning and a thought

if you mix the cement with the sand be sure to do it in a dry period. If it rains the cement will flow down leaving an almost non cemented top layer.

So in any case this is a dry period project.


If you are going the pour-on-top-then-till way i would soak the sand with water before putting the mix on top and then right away till it and leave it alone to dry. Add water to get a semi-wet mix, not a dry-mix and not as liquid as concrete.


Another possibility, but much more work, and what i would do:
take off a top layer, flatten the remaining path as you did in the pictures and then mix the taken off top layer material with your cement mix in a semi-wet mix using a concrete mixer and spread that one out and level it.

you'll need one **** of a mixer for that surface and basically a tractor with tiller can be seen as a mobile mixer driving over the ingredients.

If you do that then you should also pull behind the tiller some kind of finisher that would make nice flat (not vecessary smooth) surface. It could be a 4 by 8 plywood with an angled "lip" on front and some weight on it.

 

[woodlandfarms]

I don't know jack about road building, other than a couple of interesting conversations that I had with a guy who built roads for living. As he said, it is all about the base. I wonder if what you have is even firm enough to consider laying concrete over. The road may have to be built up to last.

Also, you said it is just for street vehicles. Well, that won't happen... It may be as simple as a bed delivery, or as complex as a Dozer or a steel building, but a heavy truck will go on your driveway and if the bed is not deep enough, I would think you would have problems...

I mean you could put the concrete down, and see how it does. I just would not want to be around if it fails and you have to pull it up.

 

[J_J]

I believe that I would do a small test strip first before committing to the larger project.

Not to deviate to much, but.

Another idea, but cost money. Two strips of cement with wire or rebar, 6 in deep, 2 ft wide, 1000 ft long, separated by the avg width of car tires.

One yard of cement at 6 in deep two ft wide, will give a cement strip of 27 ft , times the price of cement. Plus the cost of wire/rebar.

Cost per 1000 ft strip around $5000, for a total of $10,000.

Maybe have a road that last 20 or thirty years.

This could be done in small strips, as money and time permits.

 

[Charlesaf3]

Our road isn't as bad as yours, but that's pretty normal out here. Your idea of mixing in the sacrete (as I understand it, not to make a slab, but to "stiffen" will work). We use clay soil to do the same - its cheaper if you don't have access like you do, but I don't see why the sacrete won't work, we've done cement mixed with sand for potholes. And it adds some gravel which is nice.

You can spread e3verything with the FELs, though it might take a while. Landscape rake would help too.

But its a doable project - you are in pretty much the same situation as half the roads up here like I said.

Oh, one other thought though I've not seen it done is geotextiles

 

[Redneck in training]

Try this. Perhaps it is cost effective
Soilworks® Products

 

[Tread70]

Try this. Perhaps it is cost effective
Soilworksｮ Products

That seems to have some promise to it, I will give them a call and see how much will be needed to do my 900-1000 ft of drive. Have you or anyone ever used this product or anything similiar to it?

Thanks,
Tread

 

[KennyV]

Like was said... you need a base to place the surface on... do you not have limestone or any other cheap base rock in your area?
What dose the county or state use for their road work?
I use to build and maintain my road way around my business and all the neighbor hood for 20 years .. you must have a solid base to support any traffic, a thousand feet is not that much road way to build.
Trying to get the top layer to stick together with nothing under it is going to cause a lot of work correcting things in the future... that blow sand you have is only good for getting stuck in ...
Do you have access to blacktop millings or crushed concrete? Anything to place larger chunks under your roadway...KennyV.

 

[MikeD74T]

Tread, Google "soil cement", there's lots of data available. MikeD74T