Even though we are basically on an extended camping trip because we live in a travel trailer while we build our home, we are not fans of dust and filth. We despise it. That said, we want to do everything we can do to keep our temporary home clean and tidy. One of the ways to do this is to stop dirt long before the door.
When we first checked out our land it seemed that the ground was packed fairly well. However, as soon as we were living on our land we realized that dust was everywhere! We first tried to lessen the problem by building a deck for our RV. By building the deck, we were able to not only keep things off of the ground that we were storing outside such as cat food on occasion, a trash can and our shoes, but we were also able to dust off our shoes somewhat before coming into the trailer.
While this helped to lessen the problem of filth, we still weren’t content. Every time we would move the car or the truck we would create a dust storm. Every time we would walk from the car to the trailer, especially after paying $5 for a GOOD, LONG shower, we would get our feet all dusty before walking into the trailer.
And don’t even get me started on wearing flip flops or flats…. nope! Not unless you want your feet to feel gritty all of the time! We also had many dust piles that Malek would roll in and then trot into the trailer.
We decided that it was time to stop the dirt long before it even came to the door of the trailer by “paving” the driveway with 3/4″ minus rock.
What is 3/4 minus rock?
This is rock, or gravel, that is roughly 3/4″ in size or smaller. The minus means that it is “uwashed” so a lot of the grit is left in with the rock or gravel, but don’t confuse this with dust! As you will see in the video, when you jump on the 3/4” minus there is no dust cloud.
3/4″ minus is the most common paving material. It compacts well and is most commonly used under concrete, asphalt, etc. Here is a site that shows 3/4″ minus rock in comparison to other types of rock.
Jesse gives a much better and much more thorough explanation of this rock choice in the video above.
How much did it cost?
We ordered 11 yards of 3/4″ minus and the cost was around $160 which included delivery. This did a large portion of the flat spot of our property around the trailer. It was more than enough to give us a place to park all of our vehicles and to give us a walking path to our trailer. We didn’t order enough to do the entire driveway to the road so we’ll probably do that at some point in the future.
We also had to rent an excavator to push the rock around. We like to take the “kill two birds with one stone” approach whenever possible. The excavator was $300 to rent for the weekend and we were also able to dig an 8’ hole for our percolation test as well as dig the footings for our timber frame barn. Even though we were hoping to get more done with our excavator time, all said in done, we did the best we could do and it was money well spent.
What alternatives were considered (or weren’t considered)?
An obvious solution may be to pave the driveway with either asphalt or cement. To pave the equivalent amount of space with cement or asphalt, it would have cost thousands of dollars. While we may do this in the future, it wouldn’t be until our home is built. However, we are quite happy with the rock for the time being, if we don’t have this forever!
How difficult was it?
Moving the rock around was a piece of cake (coming from the girl who was NOT operating the excavator!). Jesse has experience running an excavator but it wasn’t bad. The worst part of it all is that our property is built on a foundation of rocks and boulders, so we had to spend some amount of time just getting the land somewhat level by using the scraper. Jesse spent maybe 1 hour doing this step before moving the rock around.
After Jesse was done, I went around with a landscaping rake to push the rock up closer to the trailer, to level the rock a bit by hand, and to push the edges of the rock out to cover as much ground as possible. It was a bit of a workout, and I recommend using a sturdy pair of gloves.
Other Ways to Keep Clean
The other thing we have been using non-stop to keep our home dust-free is by using these microfiber dusting towels, or dry rags as we call them. Jesse has a lot of these leftover from when he owned his cleaning business. These aren’t really a hot commodity in many homes even though they should be. As a general rule of thumb, it is easier to clean dry than it is wet. These rags are great at picking up every little speck of dust. We frequently run these over the surfaces in our trailer, over our laptop screens, and even my leather boots when I go somewhere so I don’t look like a complete filth ball.
And that’s it! You don’t realize the little things you take for granted in life until you don’t have them, like a clean place to park. We couldn’t be happier with our new parking spot!
Get Involved
Have you done any type of paving lately? What do you do to keep your property clean? Would love to hear your thoughts as always!
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