New landscaping will help you to deliver a much-needed upgrade to your outdoor environment. In fact, landscaping lighting and plants combined with the overall landscape design can help you to create a perfect environment, which you can call home. However, one of the biggest challenges that you will have to face during a large landscaping renovation project would be dealing with airborne dust. If you are getting ready to dig up some dirt and through a landscape renovation project, do yourself a favor and take some measures to reduce dust.
What is the best dust control solution in your landscaping?
Digging up the landscaping and creating dust in the landscape has a number of negative repercussions, including environmental problems, damage to vehicles, and health hazards as dust floats through the air and into buildings. Dust suppression can be done by sprinkling water on dirt or by using products like magnesium chloride and calcium chloride. These chlorides help to keep unpaved landscapes and huge dust-producing regions in good shape without making areas too muddy to work with during a landscape renovation project.
While magnesium chloride and calcium chloride are both dust suppressants, their chemical composition leads them to perform differently depending on the application site and concentration. Continue reading to learn which dust suppression product is ideal for you.
Dust Control using Water
This is a virtually free way of controlling dust during landscaping renovation projects, but it requires frequently reapplying the water – especially in hot, dry weather. The other problem with using water for dust suppression is that it makes the dirt muddy which will hinder your landscaping project and make a mess.
Dust Control using Calcium Chloride
A nice alternative to using water for dust control is calcium chloride, which is a water-absorbing salt that comes in flake and liquid forms. To decrease dust creation, it absorbs moisture in the air without turning your dirt into mud. This dust suppressant’s typical commercial concentration is between 35 and 38 percent.
Calcium chloride dust control products often have a greater concentration of dust suppressing elements than magnesium chloride dust control products. This implies that less product is needed to obtain the same result as magnesium chloride. In certain circumstances, calcium chloride products are somewhat more costly than magnesium chloride ones. However, since less product is needed, the overall cost is nearly the same.
If you operate in a hot and dry climate, a calcium chloride dust management solution can be a good option for dust abatement. Calcium chloride stays liquid even under dry, high heat, but magnesium chloride solidifies in same situations, resulting in distinct advantages. This little distinction might be critical in determining which product is best for your dust suppression task.
Dust Control using Magnesium Chloride
Magnesium chloride is yet another water-absorbing salt that collects moisture in the air and keeps landscapes from throwing a lot of dust into the air. This method efficiently reduces the amount of dust that escapes by keeping soil moist. Dust control using magnesium chloride is also slightly soluble in water and flake form.
In comparison to calcium chloride, magnesium chloride has smaller molecules. The capacity of both chlorides to reduce dust is due to their chemical composition and the capability of water ions to attach to calcium and magnesium metal ions. The charge between such connections of water with metal ions is dispersed over a smaller surface area because the magnesium chloride compounds are smaller, resulting in a better electrical field. This implies that the water ions will be unable to evaporate and would instead stay in a liquid form, leaving the landscape wet and dust particles firmly attached to the surface.
As a result, magnesium chloride is a little more powerful landscape stabilizer. Despite this large chemical difference, magnesium chloride couldn’t be regarded as much more efficient at dust control than calcium chloride, and both dust suppressants are effective.
Magnesium chloride and calcium chloride both have the ability to corrode applied surfaces, but magnesium chloride having a somewhat larger risk. Having stated that, both dust control technologies have minor corrosive effects when used sparingly.
Which should you use for dust control in landscaping renovation project?
Both hygroscopic salts work well to keep dust at bay better than just using water. Because of their moisture-absorbing characteristics and the strong link formed between the landscape particles, using one or more of those products improves landscape surface stability. Additionally, reducing dust output from unpaved landscapes improves air quality. Landscape treated with magnesium chloride and calcium chloride compounds need less maintenance and are less susceptible to deterioration.
Whatever product you pick for your dust solution, finding the proper firm to apply it is critical for getting the most out of it. Contact Rasevic for details, options and pricing.
Other effective ways for landscaping dust control
- Using landscaping fabric as a windbreak
Landscaping fabric is a flexible item that is often utilized in conservation and building projects. Landscape fabric may be purchased in bolts from most hardware shops and tailored to suit specific situations. It’s not only long-lasting and recyclable, but it also retains permeability while covering exposed soil, making it great for weed management and dust control.
While this fabric was designed particularly for use as a land cover under stone, it may also be used as an inexpensive, temporary windbreak in dusty locations. To avoid heavy gusts of wind from overwhelming the system and tearing it down, many landscapers prefer to cut tiny holes in the cloth.
- Provide a natural windbreak
Windbreaks, whether natural or manmade, are useful instruments for reducing dust in transitional zones. Expandable trellis systems, in conjunction with landscaping fabric, may minimize the intensity of incoming wind, which would otherwise throw up airborne dust. Natural barriers are an excellent way to keep a manicured yard looking nice while also keeping dust at bay. Potted plants are easy to transport and may be used as windbreaks in a variety of settings.
Smaller plant pots may not have been able to endure the power of the wind dependent on the changes in wind intensity, therefore bigger pots may provide better results. Repurpose the trees when the landscaping is completed for planting in other places of the yard that need some shade.
Final words
Dusty conditions are very common in dry, windy situations, or on a hot bright day that would normally be ideal for yard work. Airborne dust will make its way through every nook and corner, causing annoyance to neighbors and maybe breaking local regulations or homeowners associations. Make sure that you follow the tips we shared and overcome problems that dust can create.
If your property is located in Washington DC or the Mid-Atlantic region, contact Rasevic for more tips or a quote on your next landscaping project.
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