[AT] Shale or gravel?

[Mike Sloane]

I don't know what you are calling "run of bank" gravel, but if it is 
like the stuff around here in the "gravel pits", there is a fair amount 
of fine material that tends to pack down after a while. Regular washed 
3/4" or 1" cut gravel quarry will be your best bet for drainage, but it 
isn't much good for walking on and is probably the most expensive. But 
any kind of material is going to get plugged up with manure, hair, 
grass/hay, and dirt after a while. I have no experience with shale, but 
my gut feeling is that it will be about the worst choice for drainage.

My two cents and worth exactly what you paid for it. :-)

Mike

carl gogol wrote:
> I am in the process of leveling an area for an eventual animal shelter 
> (or barn) and am wondering about the suitability of shale as the base 
> for the barn and section of the barnyard nearest the barn.  Does well 
> compacted shale drain as well as gravel or "run-of-crusher", or is it 
> more or less impervious to water when packed?
> 
> "Run of bank" gravel would cost about $5.50/cubic yard delivered.  The 
> shale would be loaded free and deliverery is about half the distance, 
> costing me about $1 a cubic yard delivered.  The contractor that just 
> excavated our pond would be the supplier in either case.  He has a 
> gravel bed about 7 miles down the road and will soon be excavating for a 
> detention pond that will require moving the removed material (much of it 
> shale) off site.  Since he also has the road contract, he will be 
> hauling gravel past our place and returning empty.  This way he can 
> return with a load of shale and dump it here on the way back to the gravel.
> 
> Is shale a good choice, or should I just use the gravel the way I had 
> planned.  Your thoughts would be appreciated.  For example, would shale 
> be likely to cut animal's hoofs?  Does it drain, or does water tend to 
> run off instead of pass through?
> Carl Gogol
> Manlius, NY
> AC One Seventy diesel
> (2) AC D-14, AC 914H
> Simplicity 3112 & 7116
> Kubota F-2400
> 

-- 
Mike Sloane
Allamuchy NJ
<mikesloane at verizon.net>
Website: <www.geocities.com/mikesloane>
Images: <www.fotki.com/mikesloane>

We shall succeed only so far as we continue that most distasteful of all
activity, the intolerable labor of thought. -Learned Hand, jurist
(1872-1961)


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