Cross Posting in Home Improvement, but the all-knowing OB has a lot more traffic. To the question...

Building a house. Have a good road base coming in to the location(dirt road, mainly clay). I am located near Victoria. I am looking at limestone, coal ash, and there was another by product someone mentioned out of Point Comfort I can't remember the name of the stuff.

Basically want to know recommendations based on holding up long term and cost. I have to cover about 700 ft of road.

TIA

Justin '03

I have slag for my road...little rough on the tires, but makes a great road, holds up really well

Crushed limestone works great

Oyster shell?

Concrete washout has worked well for us.. You just need to ask to make sure there aren't huge pieces..

My job site has a temporary road of milled asphalt that has been pretty great. It needs a good base, but so far it has been holding up really well for heavy traffic.

I'll second the asphalt millings/regrind, if the base is already good. It provides a low dust, easily graded surface. I used it over a modest limestone base.

We've got milled asphalt at our shop/eqpt yard and it works very well. No dust, doesn't wash out, and if you get some hot temps relatively soon after you put it down it will bind somewhat.

flexbase or asphalt millings

If you use asphalt millings, and there is some relatively new asphalt in it, make sure the weather is hot when you put it down and make sure it gets graded quickly. It will set up. My Dad and brother made that mistake last year. I was out of town and they got a deal on some but could not get it all graded out before dark. Left it overnight and now it will take a road grader to get it smoothed out. They were using a Kubota tractor and box blade and that will not make a dent in it now.

Iron slag is the way to go. I've worked in the road materials awhile and iron slag is hard to beat.

Where does one typically find asphalt millings or slag?

I've never heard of anyone around me (East TX) doing that?

With asphalt millings, if you can find a contractor local that is repaving roads, often they will give them to you because it is a savings from hauloff and disposal.

Your local asphalt paving plant should have some leads (especially since I think a lot of that is recycled).

Not sure on iron slag, never used it.

Asphalt, asphalt millings, crushed recycled concrete (probably cheapest), crushed limestone, caliche or oyster shells all make good temporary roads.

The key to any road (temporary or permanent) is making sure you have a good base. If your base is not good, your road will fail in short order no matter what surfacing material you use.

Iron slag is generally available everywhere because people can't just order it from anywhere. The biggest of it comes from a place in Jewett. A few places near B/Cs carry it. If you ever try it even for just a few small holes or washouts in a driveway, you'll never go back to caliche or any type of asphalt. It can also be used as a base and be just as great.

[This message has been edited by tlh3842 (edited 4/24/2013 4:10p).]

I've never even heard of iron slag. It's actually iron? I'm assuming it isn't sharp since you're recommending it for roads. Where does iron slag come from? A byproduct of some manufacturing?

As Schmelba said, you can oftentimes get asphalt millings for free if you find a paving contractor. If they can give it away instead of paying to haul it off then they will.