Calcium Chloride for my driveway

[Zephyr]

Hey folks,

My driveway is fairly long and dusty. I'd like to put down some calcium chloride to help hold the fines together and keep the driveway in better shape, as they do with the local ( SE MI) roads here.

I can buy the stuff in chip form in50 lb bags. the county puts down the stuff on the roads in liquid form though. I was thinking I'd buy a bag or 2 and mix it with water and then put it in a sprayer or pour it out on the driveway.

anyone done something like this before? I've read that the liquid is often a 35% solution, how can I come close to that same percentage when mixing my own? any idea's on how to apply it? I've got a dinky weed sprayer, but that would take forever....

thanks for you ideas

Dave

[Clark]

"Zephyr" wrote in news:cOKdnfmR5v6UJgbbnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Why not spread the chips fairly evenly and water'em in? It'll get you to the same point the county gets to.

[dpb]

Certainly won't ever get chipped form to dissolve sufficiently to spray w/ anything other than a big nozzle...

If the driveway is of any size at all, would think going to need a lot more than just a couple of 50-lb bags to make any real difference, though.

No experience, though, that would be _far_ too much expense for county road here! :)

We use it (the solution) _in_ the tires w/ the water for anti-freeze and ballast, not on the roads, though! :)

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[Zephyr]

see, now this is why God invented news groups. to give obvious answers to clueless people,

I will give that a shot, thanks

Dave

[Stormin Mormon]

News groups were invented so that rude people could flame others from the privacy of thier own home.

I was going to suggest mixing in a bucket, and use a flower waterer for application.

The chemical will likely react with the zinc coating, so rinse it out immediately and leave the watering can upside down to dry.

[barry]

In fact, calcium chloride is extremely hygroscopic (attractive to water molecules). That's _why_ it's so often used to keep down dust- it attracts atmospheric moisture, thus dampening surface.

Around here, highway crews have used plain flakes for many years, to keep down project dust. In short oder, it's wet.

You'll find that it's hard to keep calcium chloride _dry_.

HTH, J

[Clark]

"Zephyr" wrote in news:PI2dnVthqPpgXwbbnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

At least ya didn't want me to tell ya how to spread'em sort of evenly or how to apply the water. Ya get points for that.

[Joe]

And that's why you have so many rust rotted cars in your area. Calcium chloride is quite corrosive but if your rolling stock is already pretty rough, than go ahead and just sprinkle the chips down the drive. The compound tries to suck up all the moisture from the environment around it so it will turn lquid all by itself in no time.

Saves on manpower, sprayers don't clog up like spreaders do. Maybe they add a rust inhibitor to it?

Don't bother...see above.

Joe

[Clark]

Joe wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Let's see here now. The local roads have CaCl but he shouldn't use it on his drive. Hmmm.

[Andy Asberry]

I'm in Texas where we only use it in tires for ballast. My recommendation is to water your drive and THEN spread the calcium chloride. If you add water to a bucket of calcium chloride, it will get extremely hot; possibly boil over. Always add the calcium chloride to the water.

--Andy Asberry--

------Texas-----