What should a guy use

to keep the dust down on your gravel driveway? The county wants me to do something with my one acre gravel lot that I use to park semi tractors and trailers on. They would also like it to hold the gravel in place during a big rain. Blacktop or concrete is not an option. Thanks.

around here the county uses a product we called "Mag Water"or Dust Control you worked it in the gravel/dirt base whith water then when she sets up it sets up so to speak and no dust, only thing is the only time you regrade or blade it is when it is wet or you will lose the dust control not cheap but was much cheaper than concrete or asphalt, we got it from some where in Utah cnt

Once upon a time they used drain oil but I bet the county would like that less than the dust. Calcium chloride works for dust control but it promotes rust.

Soybean oil. Some counties use it on roads for dust control- no pollution, and is biodegradable.

I thought that chloride was used for gravel roads now. If you use petroleum waste oil you could be mega screwed. The greenie weenies will find you and throw you in prison without a trial.

Calcium chloride is what they use on gravel roads now.

whatever you put down the trucks turning around in there will tear up it some quicker than other the other thing is the air drier blowing on the ground i would try to split the cost since they want something done

The county comes out and oils the gravel road in front of your house if you pay two bucks a linear foot (NE Kansas). It looks like old used motor oil but must be soybean or something. Ask the county if they do something similar and what they use.

Ask the township or county what they use on gravel roads. Next time you need gravel get asphalt grindings, the suns heat will fuse them together. No dust.

Tell the county that if they're so concerned, they can just come on out and treat it with whatever they want, to keep the dust down.

De-hydrated lime

Yeah, sad to say, but calcium chloride slop is what is used on the gravel (mostly, but a lotta clay in our "Michigan mud" too) roads here in my county for dust control. I guess it isn't enough to use "salt" and sand on the roads for ice and snow melt, we get the "treatment" in the summer too.

Hoofer B ,
Make sure what ever you put on it it wont cost an arm and leg to clean up on down the road, when all properties will need a health certificate before you can sell it or someone can get a mortgage. Tax and money to be made here.

If the town suggests something, try to get it in writing or at least a fax so you are not stuck with a clean-up, Rules and regulations change with out warning or notice.

I'm sure you know, not to put down used oil -PCBs.

Tree sap.

It is widly used here in Iowa for dust control on gravel roads. It also binds the gravel together if put on heavy enough.

Non corosive and cheaper the calcium cloride.

Gary

Drain oil from your equipment would probably work!

I suppose you could sprinkle portland cement on it and they spray it lightly with water and let it set.

I agree, they have enough money to blow, let them do it. Around here they plow and salt when we have a dusting of snow, 4 guys drive around in a club cab truck doing nothing all day, oh wait, they had a 2 foot limb in the back of the truck! Took 4 guys to take care of that job.!! Lol

Probably magnesium chloride.

When I lived in Wi, The cheese factories would spread whey on the roads to keep dust down

Get a copy of the county and state laws, (code). I doubt there is a dust regulation.
No way you are making 1 1/1000th as much dust on your driveway as trucks on the road.
Ask what county regulation you are violating on your lot.
It sounds like they are harrassing you you without specificity. You need to pin them down and ask what ordinace exactly you are violating.

Buckshot....coarse sand and pea gravel.. check the search engine,
my cut and paste gone awry.
Tony from Mass could be responsible.

Don"t know where you live, but if my "county" asked me to do something to cut down on dust on my gravel driveway, I would be asking where in the law they got their authority to tell me that. And then I would probably tell them to mind their own business.

Of course I should mention that my driveway goes out to a straight gravel road where cars and trucks pass my place at more than 50mph sometimes, even though the posted speed limit is 35. The tiny bit of dust that comes from my driveway is nothing compared to the cloud of dust from the gravel road most of the dry part of the year.

Years ago, a neighbor and I used to pay to have the road oiled between his place and the paved highway. Unfortunately some of the other neighbors complained that the oil (legally applied by a commercial vendor approved by the county) made their cars messy. As the cost of the oil got higher, my neighbor and I decided that it really was not worth paying the bill without help from the others on the road. And then there were the complaints. So we quit oiling the road and just put up with the dust.

Some of the same neighbors tried to promote a local improvement district to get the gravel road paved. I have opposed such a project, since I believe that MY PORTION of the costs of paving would end up being more than $100K, since the taxes would be determined by how much road frontage the property owner has.

I have tried several different things for dust control. Oil worked the best, but it is now awfully expensive. Calcium chloride granules worked OK, if I sprinkled the road every few days. I don"t think magnesium chloride did much at all.

I have thought about putting some sprinklers near the road, but I suppose someone would just steal the heads or break up the piping. And my well doesn"t have nearly as much capacity as it once did--too many other people drawing from the aquifer in this area that is rapidly becoming suburbia. So I guess I will just put up with the dust.

If people are driving fast on your driveway and making dust that way, you could sure slow them down with speed dips. I would LOVE to dig some speed dips into the gravel county road, but I suppose that might cost me a lot of money or even some jail time.

I have a good friend that is in the trucking business big time. Has about 150 trucks. He has been using a tree sap product for the last 5-7 years. It really seems to work well and it will hold the gravel together after several applications.

Here is a link to a good PDF file about the different types of dust control products.
Dust control products.

What's orange, and sleeps 3?

A county pickup.

I knew a man who contacted a shingle manufacturer, TAMCO, and bought a truck load of damaged shingles and cut-off ends, and had that spread across his motel parking lot. I believe it really worked well.

Where I live the county uses something like roof coating tar covered with pea gravel.

(quoted from post at 20:09:08 11/28/12) Get a copy of the county and state laws, (code). I doubt there is a dust regulation.
No way you are making 1 1/1000th as much dust on your driveway as trucks on the road.
Ask what county regulation you are violating on your lot.
It sounds like they are harrassing you you without specificity. You need to pin them down and ask what ordinace exactly you are violating.

Click to expand...

My thoughts too. Before you put your hard earned money into something unnecessary, make sure there is a law requiring it. IF the county is just trying to get you to do it to satisfy a complaint from a neighbor then ask them to pay for it.

I don't mind obeying the law but often gov't tries to make one up out of thin air.

Hoofer, Look around where the local Road Contractors are grinding off old asphalt roadways
I bought 35 Semi s to work over my 1/2 drive way to my house, Back in March. The loads were over full for the longest haul to my front gate was at most 1/2 mile. Could have used one more load but my blade man made it work. Pd.. $50/Load. Cost me $800 to get it spread and laid, I rolled it with my 2 Ton road roller. IMO road grindings would be a good option if you can find some, Even if you have to haul it your self. I think 10 to 15 loads should do what you need. Hope this helps.
Later,
John A.

go get a couple big boxs of tide soap. sprinkle it around before rain no more dust.

sounds more like one of your neighbors has complained to a county ear.....

I'd also highly recommend blacktop or asphalt millings. They make a great sealed coat that's flexible as well as easy to maintain. From the sound of your post I'll assume there's some grade and runoff problems. This has done well for us in both cases as well as nearly eliminating the dust situation.

Here in PA the state looks for places to dump them in the summer when they're milling and resurfacing roads.

Now to hijack this a bit, to the responses that think Hoofer should flip off the county and tell THEM to fix it if they don't like it.

With what? The county has no money, they must confiscate money from it's citizens to do anything. Those confiscations are called taxes. So are you saying in essence that his neighbors should make the repairs to Hoofers private property?

Sometimes I'm glad I don't have neighbors that think like that.

you got me thinking -

when I was a kid they used to srpay the dirt roads with some kind of oil.

I don't think it WAS oil - it seemed to hardern the dirt.

I'm sure whatever it was is probably no long acceptable to the environmentalists - but - anybody konw what it was? IS it still used today?

I think it'd do the trick for the lot - just have no idea what it was.

Slightly off topic, I used to live in a community in the quickly becoming burbs west of Portland. The streets were terrible, and the county told us it was our problem. Some of the pot holes were so deep, you didn't want to try to go thru with a car ( saw a UPS truck go thru fast one time and he got real air time ). One neighbor got tired of all the potholes. He patched the ones on his street and put a speed bump in to keep the idiots slowed down. The county told him he had to remove the speed bump. He removed the bump and the fill he had put in the previous pot holes.
Tim in OR

I wouldn't recommend the asphalt millings, unless you can afford to do the entire road 3" thick. Reason is, in hot weather, they clump, try to re-grade, and you get nothing but lumps, and pot-holes. Sometimes free millings is a much more expensive option!