Dust Control

Shaklee makes a surfactant called "Basic H." You might find a distributor in your area and try some on a test patch.

If you plan to sod the yard eventually, you may wish to look into blow-on seed mix or pre-seeded mats to retain your topsoil.

I know exactly what sort of fine dust you're dealing with. I lived near Houston for nearly ten years. The soil under my lawn was fine silt which turned into pudding when it rained. Below that was gumbo clay mix about as sticky as Gorilla Glue.

Placing some barriers for air flow helps is stopping dust in air. Perhaps, the boundary wall if made of wood or leafy plants like Jatropha will help. It can not stop top flying dust and that can be stopped by large deciduous trees. Grass on the ground helps in stopping your own soil erosion. Jatropha gives nice look and also biodiesel.

Whats wrong with seeding a good strong grass and some other plants, it will also look better.

If you need to drive over it, there are some ornate open type of pavement stones (concrete) that allow grass to grow through, but allowing cars also.......

I think he is looking for immediate cure. Hardening the top soil by spray may work. Water spray works only till soil becomes dry. If you have enough water then keep the soil wet else use chemical transformation of top layer with something that will not damage the soil forever. If it is an open ground and you want no grass ever there then spray some cement solution and it will harden. This layer you can break whenever you like to reuse the soil.

A quick one is to mix cement with the top few inches of soil, water once........pack well down, very little dust after that!!

But not exactly environmentally sound.....

Mixing composted agro waste or crop hush in small fragments helps in retaining water, prevents soil erosion and also makes soil good for planting grass. However, one has to find all those things to add to the soil. It is not expensive process but requires some labor and bio raw material. In India, I can easily get it every where. I am not sure how your country manages such resources. I think you must have a supplier for such things for gardens etc. Look for those stores who help gardens or do gardening work.

Humus absorbs water easily and keeps for very long period. Green grass will automatically grow in the zone if you mix bio-fertilizer of compost cow dung type. In India cows eat grass and give that dung as useful fertilizer resource known as cow dung.

There is a company called Envirotac that sells a polymer product. They have a website. EnvirotacII.com? It makes the grond hard and water will run off. It is usually used on equipment roads etc.

Hello Houston,

Here is a solution: http://www.h2ocontrol.com/productsDustControl.php

I am sure you are aware of the cost/quantity, but minced tires come cheap and will mix with the existing soil. I know of other yards in houston that have utilized this method to lessen the dust.

Thanks to all who responded. I am checking up on a couple of links on water additives and learning a lot about being concise & specific in my queries on CR4. The "yard" I am trying to stabilize has constant forklift & truck traffic daily and I don't think grass will grow there. The dust isn't my current problem anyway because nature has blessed Houston with an abundance of H20 and now my dust is mud!

Thanx again to all!

Perhaps if you have some river nearby and can get few truck loads of pebbles then put them on the ground where trucks move on. This will cover the soft soil and will also make trucks to pass on it easily. Once you put that thing, it is also look nice.

Other alternative is to import sand stone from India few container loads and place it ground as sheets and it will make the ground harder than a cement road. We have so much of this stone here that exporting few hundred containers is easily possible per day.

Nice concept Shyam but, tonnages exerted & friction turns any stone into powder. We operate a steel processing plant and our forklifts regularly transport 30K lbs plus. Concrete would be ideal but very costly to cover the acreage and the slab would need to be reinforced and from 8 to 10 inches thick.

Sincere thanks for the advice.

It is the stone that is placed on our rail track and 100s of trains pass each day carrying more than 50 containers per train load. It all depends on how you use the stones. Stone or concrete with cement works much better. You can never use cement alone. It is to bond some hard material to make a bigger rock.