Different soil stabilizers work best in different types of soils, and Perma-Zyme is no exception. Soils that are most compatible with Perma-Zyme have 15-80% clay content and varied particle sizes.
So, what if your soil doesn’t fit the bill? Don’t worry! Incompatible soil is not the end of the world. Typically, you can make simple, natural soil amendments with lime, decomposed granite, or aggregate to produce excellent results when using Perma-Zyme.
In this article, we’ll walk you through:
There are four main types of soil: gravel, sand, silt, and clay. Most sites contain a mix of two or more soil types; this mixture is called loam. Generally, clay-based and limestone-based soils are the most compatible with Perma-Zyme. We'll talk more about lime-based soils in a minute; for now, let's focus on clay.
Clay-based soils work well with Perma-Zyme because they contain lots of organic matter. This organic matter consists of negatively charged particles called anions. Meanwhile, the enzymes in Perma-Zyme contain positively charged particles called cations. When you mix the two, they create a chemical reaction that permanently bonds the clay particles together into a hard, concrete-like surface.
Compatible soils need at least 15% clay to work their best with Perma-Zyme. However, there’s such a thing as having too much clay in your soil. Ideal soils contain less than 80% clay because the soil needs a variety of particle sizes to give it good shear strength. Clay has the smallest particles of any soil type, so it’s dense but not very structurally sound. If your soil contains at least 20% larger particles like sand and gravel, the clay will bond around those particles and make the treated area stronger.
Another measure of soil’s compatibility is its plasticity. Plasticity refers to how easily you can shape soil. When soil is in its plastic state, you can stretch, mold, and compact it. Compaction is the key to a successful Perma-Zyme application because it pushes the clay particles as close together as possible to create a strong, smooth surface. So for proper compaction, you’ll need soil with plenty of plasticity.
Geotechnical engineers accurately calculate the soil’s plasticity using an Atterberg test. Soil that scores greater than seven on the Atterberg is Perma-Zyme compatible. However, you can also estimate soil’s plasticity by hand (more on that in a minute).
If you’ve ever been around clay soil, you know it’s very plastic. When it’s wet, it looks and feels like Play-Doh, and you can easily roll it into a ball. So, checking soil’s plasticity is another way of confirming that it has the right clay content and physical properties to work with Perma-Zyme.
Soils that are primarily made up of gravel, sand, or silt aren’t naturally compatible with Perma-Zyme. Let’s dig into why that is.
Gravelly and sandy soils are both incompatible with Perma-Zyme because they lack negatively charged matter, so the enzymes in Perma-Zyme can’t chemically react with them. This includes pure gravel and sand, as well as sandy loams and gravelly loams.
Many people are surprised to learn that silt and silty loams are incompatible with Perma-Zyme. Silty soils are often associated with rivers and agriculture, so it would seem as if they should have enough organic content to work with Perma-Zyme.
But, silt has high nutrient content—not high organic content. Like gravel and sand, silt originates from tiny, inorganic rock particles that are positively charged. That means they won’t react chemically with the enzymes. On top of that, silt is very dense and hard to compact. Since compaction is key to a successful Perma-Zyme application, silt is ineffective.
It's almost impossible to tell if soil is Perma-Zyme compatible just by looking at it, since most soil particles are too small to tell apart with the naked eye. Plus, soil content can change dramatically from one location to the next—even within the same county or jobsite. That’s why you need soil evaluations.
You can hire a geotechnical engineering firm to run sieve analysis and Atterberg tests, which will reveal your soil’s clay content, particle size distribution, and plasticity. That said, geotechnical tests can be expensive and time-consuming. And if your project is in a rural area, there may not be a lab close by. So, we started evaluating our U.S. customers’ soil for them. With the #200 Finder Soil Evaluation, we’ll analyze your soil’s clay content and particle sizes for you.
This soil evaluation is super easy, and we recommend it for U.S.-based customers who plan to treat at least one acre or one-third of a mile of road.* Here’s how it works:
*For smaller projects and international customers, we offer a soil assessment kit that you can use to evaluate your soil for fast, easy results onsite. Due to U.S. importation laws, we cannot receive soil samples from international customers.
You may have noticed our soil evaluation doesn’t include an Atterberg test. However, remember that your soil's clay content helps determine its plasticity. If your soil contains enough clay to pass the sieve test, it should be plastic enough, too. We will also perform a hand-test to check that your soil can hold its shape and stretch when we manipulate it. While not precise, this estimation will be sufficient to determine if your soil’s plasticity is Perma-Zyme compatible.
If your soil is incompatible, you can still use Perma-Zyme with a few simple soil amendments. And thankfully, these amendments are still cheaper than most traditional soil stabilization methods, like polymer injections or repeat chloride applications.
Technically yes, you can apply Perma-Zyme to incompatible soil. But, you run the risk of paying for Perma-Zyme and applying it to soil where it just won’t work. Unfortunately, that would waste money. So, most people evaluate and, if needed, amend their soil.
That said, a few people have strategically treated slightly incompatible soil without making amendments. And a few others have foregone soil evaluations and unknowingly applied Perma-Zyme to highly incompatible soil. The former has a chance of working; the latter does not.
One county in Nevada successfully applied Perma-Zyme to gravelly, rocky soil that had slightly less than the recommended amount of clay. The Perma-Zyme cured properly, and over the next month, the road became less dusty and more stable. However, there is still a chance the treatment may not last for a full 10 years, which is how long Perma-Zyme lasts when mixed with compatible soil.
For soils that are extremely incompatible, the treatment may only last a few days, or it may not work at all. Some customers who purchased Perma-Zyme and applied it without evaluating their soil first found that the soil crumbled less than a week after treatment, because it was far too sandy, gravelly, or silty.
That’s exactly the kind of situation you don’t want—and neither do we! That’s why it’s a good idea to take advantage of your #200 Finder Soil Evaluation or soil assessment kit, so you know what soil amendments you might need. With that in mind, let’s talk about how you can amend your soil to work with Perma-Zyme.
The types of soil amendments you’ll need depend on why your soil is incompatible in the first place.
For soils that lack sufficient clay, you’ll need to use lime or decomposed granite soil amendments.
Lime is processed limestone, which people often use as a soil amendment or stabilizer because of its calcium and magnesium content. We recommend using crushed limestone with Perma-Zyme. Decomposed granite is made up of tiny pieces of granite that have flaked or crumbled off their parent rock due to erosion and weathering. It has a sandy-rocky texture, and people often use it for landscaping.
The fascinating thing about lime and decomposed granite is that, while they are both natural soil amendments, neither of them contain organic matter. So, how do they work with Perma-Zyme? Great question!
Lime and decomposed granite are chemically complex. Lime contains both positively charged calcium cations and negatively charged carbonate anion groups. Likewise, the different types of granite each have positively and negatively charged particles; for instance, granite that's mostly made of quartz contains negatively charged oxygen and positively charged silicon.
So, the negatively charged anions in lime and decomposed granite react chemically with Perma-Zyme’s positively charged cations—even though they also contain positively charged particles and even in the absence of organic, clay-based material. (That's why soils with lots of natural, unprocessed limestone are also highly compatible with Perma-Zyme!)
The amount of lime or decomposed granite your soil needs depends on how much or little clay it has, as well as the size of your project. Our soil stabilization experts will make recommendations about the proper amounts in your soil report, and they’ll walk through those recommendations with you.
Sometimes, you may even need soil amendments for clay soils. For soils with very high clay content, you’ll need to import aggregate. Then, the clay will be able to bond around these larger rock particles to give your soil greater shear strength and prevent crumbling.
The great thing about adding aggregate is that you can also mix it into the top layer of soil during the Perma-Zyme application. This lets you create traction on unpaved roads, without having to constantly re-gravel them. After all, gravel prices are only going up; one county in Iowa was spending $1 million a year on gravel before they applied Perma-Zyme. With Perma-Zyme, you can simply import compatible soil and aggregate one time for stable, durable roads that last 10 years or more.
Perma-Zyme works best with clay-based and limestone-based soils, but you don’t have to give up on “incompatible” soil. You can still apply Perma-Zyme with a few simple, affordable, and natural soil amendments, and you’ll get the same great, long-lasting results! (Hey, 10 years of road stability is worth the one-time cost of importing lime, decomposed granite, or aggregate.)
