DIRTY CEMENT.

[LBrown59]

Several years ago I heard about using dirt to mix concrete for driveways sidewalks etc.
Forget the mix ratios, etc., and the steps and procedures for doing it.
Anyone here herd of this or know anything about it?

 

[Henro]

I can't help much, but I remember reading about a construction technique for buildings called "rammed earth" or something like that.

A mix of cement and earth is used...

Never heard of doing that for a driveway, but I have in the past done some mixing of cement and dirt to repair my pond "dike" and it set quick and worked well...

 

[johnday]

LB; I think your talking about what's called soilcement. Mother earth News ran an article about it a few years ago. A friend of mine used it for a floor in his polebarn upnorth, he likes it, but I've never seen it. Did you try a search on the internet? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[em14]

That is soil cement or soil concrete. Dump and spread on the "clean" ground and mix with the soil well either water it or wait for rain. A tiller would do a nice job mixing it. I may have some notes on the mix but I won't be able to look until some time tomorrow. I've done a little but I cannot remember the ratio's. It was done in Combat zones a lot.
Leo

 

[Egon]

There may be information on this site. Covers a broad base of cement/concrete so a little digging may be required.

My son insisted I spend some time on this site after I said
" about this much cement and that much gravel"


http://www.cement.ca/cement.nsf

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Soundguy]

Soil cement.. good stabilizer.. or in some case.. roadway segments, or even retaining headwalls.

I'd have to look in my manual at work to get mix ratios. Obviously using it as stabilizer will be a leaner mix than using it as a finished surface.

We finished a job in Palatka florida a few months ago, and the ground there is so wet that we used soil cement for stabilization. Water sets in their ditches year round..

Soundguy

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Here is a link to a soil cement article in Mother Earth News:

Soil Cement building

The article includes mix ratios.

 

[Egon]

Lots of hits by typing in soil cement.

Seems the % of cement to soil varies according to the type of soil and the desrided end product. On the site below it appears range from 3% to 8% or more dry weight.

Link

Egon

MikePA: Cleaned up long URL. Simply insert a descriptive word or two between the {url=http://whatever}<font color="red">Enter words here</font>{/url} instead of the entire URL. Replace parentheses with brackets.

 

[edgaines]

Here's something I have been exploring lately, it might do what you're thinking about
www.polypavement.com

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Ed, thanks for that link!
Wow, I am intrigued with the Polypavement system! My mind is literally reeling with ways to use that product, especially in dressing up
the paths through the woods that currently look, well, like crummy paths! I had seriously considered bringing in an asphalt crew to make
paths but really didn't want to destroy the natural look of the woods with asphalt. It appears that running a tractor & tiller lightly down the
paths and compacting the soil is about all that would be needed to make very natural looking, but DURABLE, walking paths through the
woods. If a more distinctive look is desired, the paths could be dressed up with some nice crushed stones prior to spraying with
Polypavement's solution.

And weed control around the garden beds would be a breeze with poly pavement, simply spray the dirt and eliminate the growth of weeds in
the paths between the beds, and it would eliminate the paths becoming muddy too.

And a parking area . . . and . . .

 

[edgaines]

Glad you like that. I'm considering as I build my shop, house, tractor barn etc.. to use it in sealing the crawl space also. I also will use it to put a floor in the picnic shed.

 

[willywildes]

we have just started to sell some impervious concrete. rock and cement, for walk ways, and around heritage trees. and driveways it makes a solid surface and the water passes into the ground no run off no drains the enviros love it. and make a nice profit

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Is it something that is capable of being installed by a "do it yourselfer," is it available nationally, and what is the brand name? I'm very curious about these types of products!

 

[willywildes]

just rock and cement screed it like concrete and ram it down or use a vibrating plate not to much water or you will wash the cement off.you should find it at a concrete suppler in your area.

 

[SevenCorners]

Does anyone know how much the Polypavement costs. Has anyone used it? This seems like a really neat idea for my paths through the woods. I was thinking of gravel or mulch but this stuff looks so much easier to apply and hopefully cheaper.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Somewhere on their website I found pricing for polypavement, I can't remember the pricing but it was very very cost effective. I presume the pricing to be material cost only, but as a "do it yourselfer" can install it and as asphalt requires hiring a crew, it seems even more economical. Dig around on their website, they price it by the square foot based on how you use it.

 

[OkeeDon]

I found the pricing somewhere on the site -- I'm going to have about 9600 Square Feet of driveway, (800' x 12'), and I used their rules of thumb to come up with something around $2K for a surface an inch deep (16 cents to 22 cents per square foot; I used 20 cents as a guesstimate).

What I couldn't find was a rule of thumb about how many inches deep it needed to be for different types of uses The had a link to a design service on another site, but I couldn't get that site to load in FireFox, and it's easier to skip it than to load up a different browser or otherwise figure out the problem.

Without a guess as to how many inches I'd need, I don't have a clue how that $2K an inch translates to my usage.

 

[edgaines]

There are costs, on the "cost" tab of their site. It also tells how deep you need to have it, and for what applications.
It's $159.95 for a 5 gal trial sizy, and they sell by 55 gal drum for $895.
Lots of good info, but ya gotta look deep for it.

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Ed, thanks for that link!
Wow, I am intrigued with the Polypavement system! My mind is literally reeling with ways to use that product, especially in dressing up
the paths through the woods that currently look, well, like crummy paths! I had seriously considered bringing in an asphalt crew to make
paths but really didn't want to destroy the natural look of the woods with asphalt. It appears that running a tractor & tiller lightly down the
paths and compacting the soil is about all that would be needed to make very natural looking, but DURABLE, walking paths through the
woods. If a more distinctive look is desired, the paths could be dressed up with some nice crushed stones prior to spraying with
Polypavement's solution.

And weed control around the garden beds would be a breeze with poly pavement, simply spray the dirt and eliminate the growth of weeds in
the paths between the beds, and it would eliminate the paths becoming muddy too.

And a parking area . . . and . . .
)</font>

**********



And a parking area . . . and . . .
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1*Around the outside edge of my garage so I can just lap the MMM over the outer edge a little when I mow and wow no more weeds growing up against the walls and no more trimming along the building with the trimmer. Can't say I'd miss the green grass stains on the white vinyl siding When Ya get the weeds trimmed with the trimmer either.
2*Ground cover under mobile homes to keep it dry under there and save the frames from rusting up.
3*Ditch lining so no more weed eating along or in them.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

LBrown59 . . . unless that ditch is a dry ditch, you won't be able to use PolyPavement in there. Somewhere in my digging on their website it said that it is not suitable for areas that are used for runoff.