Large Scale Central

Joint Lock Sand

I saw this on one of the gardening shows this morning. It appears to be about 1/4 inch minus, or perhaps a bit bigger, which makes it useful as ballast. The neat thing about it is that you spray it down with water a few times and it becomes “firm but flexible.” I wish that is all it took for me, but I digress.

Apply it like any other ballast, use a fine mist to wet it down, and bada-bing, bada-boom, you are golden. Ballast that will give a bit, but will withstand Fido’s of even Bambi’s transgressions into the railroad If you decide to change your track plan, give it a good soaking and you can easily remove it. It will withstand even a gullywhomper, so they say. I have no idea how much it costs, but I am going to check it out.

It is made is several parts of the country, I chose this product because it is made in Seattle. I found it by Googling “ploymeric sand.”

Good point, those *&^$%^ weeds in the joints drive me nuts!

Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Good point, those *&^$%^ weeds in the joints drive me nuts!
I wouldn't touch that line with a ten foot pole!

Hi Steve,

I use this stuff all the time for patio installs. Its a semi coarse sand, not as coarse as concrete sand but not as fine as masonry sand. It probably wont work well for ballast alone but might work well mixed in with coarser material for ballast. I put some down this spring mixed about 50/50 with stone dust very fines (I screened some stone dust and used the coarser half for ballast) for parking lots and roads (which double as foot paths). It does a good job of keeping dirt splash down on buildings during heavy rains. It handles foot traffic pretty well but the kids can scuff it up running on it. It is also fairly self healing with the next good rain. It runs $15 / 40# bag, $10 when on “Special”.

-Brian

What retailers handle this stuff? Lowes? HD? Garden Centers?..

Ken Brunt said:
What retailers handle this stuff? Lowes? HD? Garden Centers?.............
I have not seen this stuff yet at the box stores around here. I would try your local stone suppliers that also carry pavers. I get mine from them or my local whole nursery/landscape supplier.

-Brian

I’ll just stay with the good old 89 rock we use in good old Ga. Works great and cheap. Later RJD

brian donovan said:
Ken Brunt said:
What retailers handle this stuff? Lowes? HD? Garden Centers?.............
I have not seen this stuff yet at the box stores around here. I would try your local stone suppliers that also carry pavers. I get mine from them or my local whole nursery/landscape supplier.

-Brian


shoulda asked my son about that stuff…he owns a wholesale garden center…