Tips to Choose and Install the Right Rock Product for Your Property
Rock and gravel products are useful in many capacities around your property and its landscaping and can improve soil function, vegetation health, soil drainage, and erosion control. With all the types of rock products available, be sure you select the right one to get the best benefit. Here are some recommendations to help you install and use the right type of crushed rock for your outdoor projects.
Install a Drainage System
One of the reasons you may need some rock or gravel is to install an outdoor drainage system around your home or in your landscaping. Crushed rock provides the perfect medium for allowing water percolation down through areas and into a drainage system. When you have moisture problems in your basement, crushed gravel is a good choice as drainage material below and around the perforated drain pipe where water can seep into and collect to divert it away from your home foundation. Crushed gravel is angular, which makes it easily impacted to create a strong stable form.
Drainage is also essential in low lying areas of your landscaping that may collect a large amount of water after heavy rains. At the end of your roof gutter downspouts or in a natural swale in your yard, you can install a layer of crushed or pea gravel. This type of rock will allow moisture to slowly seep into the surrounding soil but will prevent soil erosion to the area. When your property is hit with a deluge of water runoff after a heavy winter storm, the runoff needs a stable drainage area that is going to handle the excess.
Use a Mulch Replacement
When you live in an area prone to pests, such as mice, termites, and rats, decomposing mulch materials can attract more unwanted pests to your property. So instead of using mulch as a ground covering for your landscaping, look at a pea gravel or crushed stone option. Rock can keep your soil protected against weeds and provide an attractive covering, but it is not going to decompose over time. This results in you not having to replace it each season with new mulch.
Be sure you choose the right type of rock for the area, whether you want to use rounded river rock in a large or small size, colourful pea gravel, or a decomposed granite or crushed rock that is going to give your yard texture and beauty in the sunlight. Just be sure you add in a supportive edging material with pea gravel mulch covering, because the small rounded size of pea gravel can allow it to easily get moved off its installation site.
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