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I've done this with portland cement and crusher run stone, I can't recall how much portland to the stone I mixed, probably used less than in a typical mortar mix, but strong enough to make a bond. Held up well, but I was not running my crawler on it or anything real heavy. Make a small 1-2 yd pile of crusher run with the various size stone and stone dust, like is used for paving sub-base and or driveways, round stone aggregate may not perforem as well, add the portland, use front end loader to turn and mix it in, then place/grade off, either add water after or while mixing up, do not use a lot of water, just enough to make a dry paste, enough to moisten, not enough to squeeze out, then compact etc. If you ever set a fence post with dry concrete mix then just wet from above, the results are similar. You can do this in a variety of different ways, but I would think the more portland to crusher run ratio ( to a point ) the better the bond you will get. A key ratio in concrete is the water to cementitous material,( portland ) too much water, strength drops significantly. Have also done this on a driveway, just on the surface, after scarifying, to loosen up the surface and them mix in, to stiffen up the wear surface for a few inches. You have to use enough portland then mix it in uniformly. You should crunch some numbers to see how much material you need and what it will cost to make. Then compare it to the cost of concrete, obviously the concrete will perform much better under heavy equipment weight or similar loading. If you add too much water, don't have a way to mix it uniformly and or do this haphazardly, it's a waste of time and money, if a cold climate area, don't let it freeze, it can be an inefficient material to make at home, a concrete mix like sackrete is a ready mix concrete mixture with portland cement mixed in at a certain ratio to make it a certain strength, so it has much less portland cement per bag. Using 100% portland by the bag, to make this soil cement material, and using similar proportional quantities per volume of crushed stone as used to make concrete is going to make the soil cement much stronger than using a bagged conrete like sackrete. It's not to say you can't make a strong soil cement, but you'll need help to get the results you are looking for. See if you can get your hands on a typical 3000 P.S.I. concrete mix design from a local plant. The mix design sheet shows quantities of material per a certain volume, look for portland ( probably in pounds so convert ). Contractors are required to submit this design mix information for approval, for state and D.O.T. jobs, so a supplier should have something on hand, readily available for a state approved mix or standard mix, and should be happy to provide it to you. Also ask what their aggregate is, you may be using the same material. Figure out how much portland is used per cubic yard of concrete in their mix, then figure how many cubic yards of soil cement you need, then include the cost of the amount of portland you'll need to make a seemingly strong soil cement. You can use the amount of portland put into the actual concrete mix by the cubic yard, and then reduce it by say 25%-50% for your soil mix. Then compare the costs by cubic yard for each. You will need to purchase the crusher run or similar material, portland cement, have to mix it, add water, place, grade and compact. When doing the math, keep units of measure alike, remember 27 cubic feet = 1 cubic yard. Take square footage areas and multiply by the thickness, if under 1 foot, take the inches divide by 12 ( 12" = 1 foot ) that is you decimal equivalent and multiply by your square footage to get the volume. This is simple math and an interesting exercise, do the math and let us know, how it compares price wise, if not a substantial savings, I'd save up for some concrete. Hopefully I have not confused you, (I'm notorious for 1 long post per day lately ! ) the idea is good, but the bottom line, is how much will you save and how much service life will you get for what you spend, if it's not a substantial savings, it may not be worth it. If it is a large area this is especially true due to quantities involved, but something smaller like a 2 car garage size area may be more feasible to do this, say until you can afford what you really want, something is better than nothing, but at what expense. Also, you can do a "mock-up" make a small mix quantity, place it, then test to see how it perfroms, doing a small area and monitoring how it works will provide a lot of answers up front, before you spend a lot of money. You can make adjustments in your mix until you get the results you want or prove it to be a waste of time, just on a smaller scale. Ok enough, out of me.... LOL !
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