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deviant_deziner wrote: Mary,
Sorry to say that the forces of water is just too great , and no amount of stabilizer with secure a decomposed granite surface in place.
What the stablizer does do is 'bind' the d.g. granuals together more tightly.
I've had two d.g. paths, side by side . One had stabilizer mixed into the body of the d.g. and the other did not.
When the d.g. was wet , after several days of rain, the path with the stablizer did not act like goopy mud .The other path that did not have stablizer mixed into it could suck your boots right off your feet is was so goopy.
Having a secure border around the d.g. helps in maintaining it in place, especially if it is on a hill.
Erosion will happen, in various degrees depending on the grade, the amount of water, how the water is washing across the dg path and if the water is oozing up from the water table below.
If you are really looking for stability , cost effectiveness and easy long term maintenance you might consider a colored concrete path.
By the time you have the stablizer mixed in with the d.g. and do all the neccessary prep work, a basic colored concrete path can be more cost effective in the long run .
Of course you have to weight in other stuff like context, aesthetics, short term and long term budget, climate, environment , how you plan on using the surface,ect......
But you might be surprised at how inexpensive , in the long run, that a colored concrete path can be in contrast to d.g.,
If you go the colored concrete route and like the natural color of d.g. you might find the DAVIS COLOR called Palamino an excellent color choice.
below is a project where we used d.g. with a stabilizer around the bocce ball court and on the path leading down to the putting green.
We added stabilizer to the d.g.
All the flat surface areas are fine, but the hillside paths need dire attention after this rainy winter season.
about 2 yards of d.g. washed down off of the stair case down to the lower landing.
Now that the rains have tapered off , we will be going back in, scooping it all up, remixing in the stabilizer and resurfacing the stair way.
In a normal winter we probably would not have this problem, but this job was brand spanking new as soon as the rain came so didn't have a chance to really become settled despite us viberplating the d.g.
