Saw a number of pea gravel paths where the pea gravel seems to be bound together with clear epoxy in a freeze environment. Anyone have experience with this in a freeze environment? Thickness? Type of epoxy used? How applied?
around here they sometimes lay a asphalt path or even driveway, let it harden a week, then spread a layer of heated asphalt on the hardened asphalt cover with gravel, and roll.....
it does a nice job, and is taxed at the gravel unpaved driveway price, rather than the driveway price
pittsburgh pa has different tax rates for gravel, asphalt, and the highest is concrete, they actually had someone come around and measure all surfaces as part of a reassement.....
a buddy of mine layed paving stones to replace a concrete walk to save tax money after he found pavers are considered temporary and as such non taxable.
a home worth a hundred grand pays over 3 grand in property taxes yearly....
our old govenor rendell pushed for casino gambling claiming it would end property taxes, all that got us were gambling troubles and a couple hudred bucks less in property taxes a year
many people are letting their homes rot with little maintence, either they cant afford to maintain them, or do it to decrease property taxes.....
It's called "exposed aggregate concrete" - normal concrete base with pea gravel in a grout layer on top. When the grout is almost cured it is broomed, and then it is pressure washed and (usually) acid cleaned before being sealed.. Makes a real nice driveway that stands up well to freeze-thaw cycles.
Kinda stupid to run down the value of your property just to save taxes - but then again if you can buy a house for $100G I guess you can't reduce the property value much. A friend just bought a house on a nice sized lot in Zephyr Hills Florida for 14 thousand. Nothing much liveable up here for under $200G.
Any epoxy will work. There are very few manufacturer's of epoxy, many that buy it in bulk and package it with their own label.
What you are talking about is called epoxy gravel, sometimes Chattahoochee rock. It used to be popular for decks and around swimming pools. I don't think it is (popular) any more.
I've seen it in thin (1/2" layers) over concrete and thick (2-3") over the same. Generally in thin layers due to the high cost of epoxy. Regardless of thickness, it is very porous.
It looks good for a while but then pebbles get loose and you soon have bare spots. You would be better off embedding gravel in concrete.
Friend bought a new home in Chester County, PA a couple of years ago and said tax assessment was much higher than it should be. His settlement attorney, without prompting sent him a letter saying he knew about the high taxes and would have it adjusted to where it should be for the extra cost of one years tax assessment. If this does not sound like a scam between the local government and lawyers, I don't know what is.
Friend did the paperwork himself and saved lawyer fee.
No, just the lawyers capitalizing on government bureaucracy.
Our house was a foreclosure so the purchase price was really low. State law says the value is what was paid, so the county had to reduce the assessment to the purchase price. Unfortunately, they can raise it the second year to its "market" value. All we had to do is show up at the assessors office and make an application (they looked up all the necessary information). We were there getting license tags anyway (next office in the same building) so it took all of five minutes. It was a pretty significant drop (assessment went from $360K to $210K and will probably go to $250-260K next year).
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