SprayCrete & SprayGrass for Slope Stability

[rScotty]

I know nothing about spraying cement and/or grass seed - except that we have some raw areas here in the mountains that could sure benefit from some slope stabiliztion. From the pictures of coastal and flood erosion I see, this might be useful for other areas too. So if anyone has any info I'm interested.

It would be really sweet to have something that would fit on the tractor and run from accessory hydraulics.

I'd just as soon buy one something that works - but would consider design and build.
thanks,
rScotty

 

[newbury]

Have you investigated using old tires?
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...FkFHUt2CwcQ1QJ6BAgpEAE&biw=1366&bih=663&dpr=1

 

[rScotty]

Many thanks for that link.
Well that's an interesting internet building group for sure. Their projects make for a nice read about the tires and compaction. Takes me back to the 70s and watching the Peace Corp do their projects in Central America. Nice to know that there are innovative firms like that Pangea Design Firm. I sure do find their info fascinating - would love to look at some of their work. Maybe I'll contact them.
A lot of what they use just makes sense once one steps outside the standard design box, and several are architectural features I've used myself on this house.

If I do have to design and build a tractor spray attachment - something I dearly do NOT want to do - then it's nice to know that there are people who could also make use of the design.

On the tires, they are not appropriate for what I need to do because these slopes I'm needing to stabilize are steep short faces mostly of rock and sparse soil with a creek that prevents access. I have successfully used a curtain of wire pegged into the rock for small areas - and this fall I used grass plugs of grass seed and fertilizer placed by hand.

But that is all too time consuming, difficult, and I'm too old... and it just breaks my heart to see my wife climbing the slopes carrying all those tools and her with a fear of heights, too.

So I am investigating spraying. It must be possible, although if so it will need to spray a good distance, probably 40 feet and stick to a steep rock face.

rScotty

 

[2manyrocks]

If spraycrete is the same thing as shotcrete, it seems like that is shot from specialized pumps, hoses and nozzles. Access to the site would seem to be the key element along with having the bucks to afford this work not to mention having the physical strength to do this if you were thinking of this as a DIY project.

When the highway department stabilized two different rockfaces here a couple of years ago, they drilled off the loose rock for one project where they were able to leave a very wide right of way for any loose rocks to fall onto. On the other one where there was no room for expanding the right of way, they installed chainlink fence material over the entire rock face.

 

[rScotty]

It might require a chain link over the face. And then I would spray shotcrete over that.
It seems an easy do it yourself project to make the sprayer, but I don't find any info. & don't want to reinvent what I can simply buy.
rScotty

 

[Smokeydog]

We have an easy way in our climate. Kudzu. Trading one problem for another.

See Paulownia trees on steep rocky ditch banks. Asian interloper that thrives in city to poorest soil. Paper like seeds sticks to tires and tracks enhances spread. See along logging and mining roads. Valuable hardwood for export. Prized in Asia for waterproof box construction and planted for dowries. Don’t know if it can take your cold?