Most soils work great with Perma-Zyme, while others need a helping hand to work their best. Wherever your soil fits on this spectrum, we’re here to help you build lasting, low-maintenance roads. With this blog, you’ll learn how your soil reacts to Perma-Zyme and how to help it perform even better.
We’ll walk you through:
But first, let’s start with the basics. To understand how Perma-Zyme will work with your soil, it’s good to understand how it works in general.
Perma-Zyme stabilizes soil using enzymes, which are proteins that cause soil grains to bind together and harden through chemical reactions. This creates a strong surface that resists water, erosion, and dust, so your roads last longer with less maintenance.
Enzymes contain particles called cations that have a positive electrical charge. These enzymes react with soil that contains negatively charged anions. The stronger your soil’s negative charge, the easier it is for the enzymes to do their jobs. Pretty simple, right?
The four main soils are gravel, sand, silt, and clay. Each one reacts differently to Perma-Zyme due to its electrical charge and physical properties. We’ll explain those reactions, then explore how other minerals—like mica—can impact them.
Gravel can come from any rock, and that rock’s electrical charge dictates how the gravel will react to Perma-Zyme. Most rocks have a positive or slightly negative charge, so they may not naturally react to the enzymes. But, some rocks do. Besides, even positively charged gravel still benefits your project.
Limestone and decomposed granite (DCG) are chemically complex—meaning they contain both negative anions and positive cations. But, the negatives outweigh the positives. Thanks to that strong net negative charge, limestone and DCG grains bind tightly together when you add Perma-Zyme.
In the U.S., you’re more likely to find limestone in your soil because we have large deposits of it here. About 70% of the crushed rock we produce is limestone, although areas like the East Coast and Minnesota do have granite deposits.1
Regardless of electrical charge, any gravel improves Perma-Zyme treated soil—just like adding gravel strengthens cement or asphalt. In this case, Perma-Zyme binds smaller soil particles around the gravel for greater shear and compressive strength. So, all gravel is useful for Perma-Zyme soil stabilization. Gravel that chemically reacts is just icing on the cake!
Sand reacts to Perma-Zyme like gravel, since it comes from the same parent rocks. While most sand has a positive or slightly negative charge that’s non-reactive with the enzymes, some sand contains tiny limestone or DCG fragments that do react.
Also like gravel, sand is beneficial because it’s coarse. It strengthens your soil by giving fine material something to bond around. So, having sand on your jobsite helps you get the lasting, low-maintenance results you want.
With all the nutrients in silt, you’d think it would be good for the enzymes. But surprisingly, it’s non-reactive with Perma-Zyme. That’s because silt only has a slight negative charge. And while enzymes come from living things, they aren’t alive themselves and don’t need nutrients.
Silt also has small, fine grains that are dense and hard to compact—meaning it’s hard to make silt strong enough to support the weight of traffic.
Thankfully, you can use Perma-Zyme even if you have silty soil. Most soils aren’t pure silt; they usually contain enough gravel, sand, or clay for the enzymes to do their jobs. So, some customers treat silty loams with Perma-Zyme and get great results. Others amend silty soil to make it stronger and more reactive, and they get great results, too (more on how to amend soil in a minute).
Clay doesn’t work with most soil stabilizers, but it works great with Perma-Zyme! Clay contains decomposed plants and animals, and this organic matter has a strong negative charge that reacts extremely well to our enzymes.
Clay also has the smallest soil grains of any soil type. So, clay grains wear their negative anions on the surface where enzymes can reach them easily—whereas larger soil grains can “hide” their negative charge inside where the enzymes can’t reach. That means it’s quicker and easier for enzymes to cause chemical reactions in clay than other soils.
The downside to clay is that those small grains are dense but not strong. Very clayey soils can crumble, and they become slick when wet. That’s why gravel and sand are necessary give clay the strength and traction it needs to handle traffic.
Soil contains minerals that can impact its reaction to stabilizing products. For instance, most mica minerals have a net negative charge. Yet, they have some properties that can slow down soil’s reaction to Perma-Zyme.
Here’s why:
Thankfully, it’s rare for minerals like these to render soil unusable. Among hundreds of customers each year, we can count those who experience mica setbacks on one hand. And if that’s you, don’t worry! We’re here to talk through your options and help you tackle your toughest soil challenges.
We use the term “ideal soil” loosely because 1) every project is different and 2) Perma-Zyme works with most soils. But by now, you’ve figured out that some soils are more helpful for the enzymes in Perma-Zyme, and some soils are stronger. In other words, most soils work—and of those, some work better.
Generally, soils that work best with Perma-Zyme contain at least:
The rest of your soil can be almost any mix of gravel, sand, silt, and/or clay that exists in the wild, and it should still work with Perma-Zyme. That said, if your soil is almost all made from the same material, you may want to consider amendments to help it react to Perma-Zyme and gain sufficient strength.
You can apply Perma-Zyme to most soil without adding other materials. But if your soil needs amendments—or you want them—that’s okay. Amending soil to enhance performance now can help you save time and money on maintenance later.
Let’s see how you can amend your soil to get the best results possible.
Issue #1: Some gravel and sand doesn’t react to Perma-Zyme.
Issue #2: Too much coarse material may have gaps between particles.
Solution: Import clay and/or dirty gravel.
Like we talked about, you need some reactive soil for the enzymes in Perma-Zyme to bind soil together. But you don’t need gaps between particles! You want some fine material to fill those gaps and create a solid, water-resistant surface.
So, you can import clay—which is both fine and reactive—or you can import dirty gravel. It may sound weird to add gravel when your soil’s already rocky, but dirty gravel contains fine material because it’s unwashed. If it’s made from crushed limestone, it will react with Perma-Zyme. And as a bonus, those larger rock particles will make sandy soil even stronger.
Issue: Silt is non-reactive with Perma-Zyme, and its fine grains aren’t very strong.
Solution: Import a dirty gravel made from crushed limestone.
Dirty gravel made from crushed limestone is the simplest amendment for silt. It’s reactive and coarse, so it has everything your project needs. If dirty crushed limestone isn’t available in your area, you can import DCG. Or, bring in a mix of clay and another type of gravel to get the reactivity and strength your soil needs.
Issue: Clay is weak, and it’s slippery when wet.
Solution: Import gravel for strength and traction.
Most clay soils contain enough sand or rock to achieve the necessary strength to support traffic, although some don’t. In the latter case, you’ll need to mix gravel into the soil so the clay can bond around these larger rock particles and reach full strength.
The great thing about gravel is that you can also add a one- to two-inch gravel topcoat for traction. Perma-Zyme helps lock in the gravel on the surface to prevent material loss, so you can skip the constant reapplications.
Most people ask three questions about soil amendments:
So, let’s get you the answers!
Most soils don’t need amendments, because they’re loams with enough reactive material for the enzymes to work and enough coarse material for strength. Soils that do need amendments are typically made up of almost all one material. If that’s your soil, you’ll likely get better results with amendments. But don’t just take our word for it—see how things worked out for a customer who amended their soil and one who didn’t.
Barry County, Michigan, added limestone to make their silty soil work better. Four years later, their road was rock-hard with almost no dust. Meanwhile, a county in another state chose not to amend gravelly soil; after four years, their road began to show wear and washboard. They likely would’ve gotten better results by adding some clay to their soil!
Ultimately, the choice to amend your soil is yours because you’re the expert on your project. We’re just here to guide you through the process. We can help you find out how your soil will react to Perma-Zyme, recommend how to get the best results based on our experience, and even help you choose amendments. Just contact us to get started.
We’d love to tell you an exact price, but it varies significantly by project. So instead, we’ll share the factors that can affect your costs and why:
If your soil needs amendments, then they’re worth it! Customers who amend their soil to work its best with Perma-Zyme get the same great results as everyone else—which means they also get the same long-term savings on construction and maintenance.
Counties who use Perma-Zyme to build their roads often report major savings, such as an Iowa county that cut their costs by 75% when they switched from a pricey polymer to Perma-Zyme. Maintenance savings are also significant: several Michigan counties reported average savings of $5,800 per mile per year after applying Perma-Zyme.
So, our customers’ answer is a resounding yes! Amending soil to work with Perma-Zyme is worth it because roads last longer with less maintenance.
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