I'm looking for a dust control product that I can afford. I live close to a gravel road, and the county is sometimes slow to get at it. Normally they apply some sort of calcium, or "brine solution" to keep the dust down. That lasts for several months. Trouble is it's so expensive i can't hardly justify doing it myself. I bought a product called pave-cryl, a dow product. It was $1000 for a 210 liter drum. Mixed it with about 350 gal water, and applied it to my driveway. It is basically white glue, and caused the dust to form a crust. Heavy driveway use pounded it back to powder in minutes, and the dust returned, so that was a total waste. Calcium works well because it draws moisture and lasts a long time. Can't find anyone to sell it to me though. Dust control contractors charge $1500 and up to do a driveway. Seems a bit steep, better to ask around before we spend that kind of money. Thanks, Ken
So are you doing your driveway, or the county road? Also how much road are you trying to do?
Well, when we spread manure we run a large spreader up and down gravel roads to and from the field. Over a hundred or so trips, the neighbours get dusted out pretty good. The dust is worse than the smell to be honest. So what i plan on doing is my driveway, plus maybe a kilometer of road. I haven't asked, but i don't imagine a contractor would be willing to do the county road.
I'm going to assume that your using a rather large farm tractor pulling the spreader, so here is my idea. Water, good old water. Put a 300 gallon on so tank up front on the tractor, and attach a spray bar just wide enough to cover the tracks of everything. Have a electric solenoid or an electric pump, maybe your hightech enough to have a front pto on that tractor and wash the road as you go. When you hit field, shut it down... Other option is simular with system mounted in a pickup and soak the road good every third load or so.
Would the calcium they use to speed up concrete hydration be the same you use on the road? If so you may want to check with your local concrete supplier. The last I used came in bags and is granular.
I see you live in Ontario, there must be a source for winter time road salt. Spread the salt on it, its basically the same. The salt will draw the moisture for you. Gramps.
both good ideas. I will check them out. thanks
calcium works good for dust and making snow hard at ski hills for a short time, its also very hard on vehicle metal parts especially aluminum, makes them rust out fast.
It's sold more for waterproofing and sealing leaky dams, but bentonite is supposed to have long lasting dust control results. It's a natural clay that comes from Wyoming. I don't know where you can buy it or what it costs. I forgot to add, if it's a county road that you're driving on, both you and your neighbors can call the county to complain about the dusty conditions and ask them to come out and spread the dust control agent on the road. You shouldn't foot the bill for maintaining a road that is not yours.
I haven't lived on a dirt road since I was a young child. The road was made of Chert which is a very sharp, granular type material that made learning to ride a bicycle a fast and terrifying experience - with scars still on my knees to this day to prove it. Anyway we never had any dust control, in the dry summer months it was dusty and in the wet winter months it was slightly muddy, the chert held up well to water. So I am new to dust control measures used in other places, the only dust control I have used is a water truck on a job site which is relatively useless on a traveled country road. Interested to know the procedures and materials used, interesting thread.
I have used bags of chloride flakes mixed with tanks of water on a few job sites. It works well. As for having a contractor bring brine, its hard to believe that price. We have about 6 acres of millings as a lay down area at the office, and it cost about $400 to have that sprayed in early june. Still holding up well, and keeping the dust down.
I am an engineer for the local county highway authority. I'm the lucky guy that gets the dust-layer product lab analysis and figures out the best bang for the buck. Your best dust layer agent is calcium chloride followed by magnesium chloride which is about 80% effective as the calcium. Sodium chloride has negligible value as a dust-layer. It's effectiveness comes from binding the clay particles into "bigger" pieces which are not as dusty. You need about 30% clay for it to really work, your road gravel may have as high as 10-12 percent clay. 30% would get pretty slimy when it's wet. It usually applied in liquid form, ranging from about 26% for mineral well brine to as high as 42% for manufactured product. Here in MI we can get manufactured product from Dow, now OxyChem in Ludington or mineral well brine pumped from several well fields around the state. You can achieve the same dust control by spreading bagged flaked dry chloride on the gravel and just leave it lying on the road or you can scrape the road first roughing it up , spread the flakes, and then grading it into the gravel. It is the same stuff used to speed up the set with concrete. This is their list of distributors in Canada. ANCO CHEMICALS 85 Malmo Ct. Maple ON L6A 1R4 (905) 832-2276 BRENNTAG CANADA INC. See website for details DA-LEE DUST CONTROL 350 Jones Rd. Stoney Creek ON L8E 5N2 (905) 643-1135 INNOVATIVE SURFACE SOLUTIONS 78 Orchard Road Ajax ON L1S 6L1 (800) 387-5777 JACK THOM DISTRIBUTORS LTD P.O.Box 502 Goderich ON N7A 4C7 (519) 524-7494 MORRIS CHEMICALS, INC. 38 Concession Street Lakefield ON K0L 2H0 (705) 652-3391 TORONTO SALT & CHEMICALS LIMITED 275 Glidden Road Brampton ON L6W 1H9 (905)459.9647
according to my knowledge calcium is good absorber for dust. but get ideas from others also so that you would use best idea for dust control.
I would suggest misting systems as the best option to control dust. Check out http://mistingsystems.net/products/misting-systems/ to get a list of misting products for dust control all at an affordable price.
Use calcium. Blade the road first and then put the calcium down. It'll last several months. Also don't blade the road after because you'll loose your calcium' Did bunches of time on state projects and it works. Get the flake calcium and mix with water. Be careful handling because it will get very hot when mixing. Its probably the best and cheapest product you can use. There is formulas for the correct mixtures but I don't have the charts anymore. If you have a ice cream plant near you, try and get the off-fall. The have a waste product that works very well. Hope this helps you. Hope this will help.
We (municipality) have used sugar beet molasses with very favorable results. A road with heavy haul traffic gets done twice a season.