• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

Worth salvaging landscape gravel?

 
pollinator
Posts: 1760
Location: Denver, CO
124
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Around here, gravel sells for $36 a cubic foot, bagged, and $3 a cubic foot, bulk. There are lots of people who would gladly pay to get a weedy patch of gravel and failed landscape fabric removed.

Now, is this gravel worth sifting, cleaning, bagging, and selling for $20 a cubic foot as "eco gravel?" Or would I just loose money?

(Eco gravel because new gravel is very environmentally damaging. )

Larger landscape rock seems to be popular and sell well. But I'm undecided if I should go for gravel.

On a related note, what is the best way to sift gravel?
 
gardener
Posts: 6814
Location: Arkansas - Zone 7B/8A stoney, sandy loam soil pH 6.5
1647
hugelkultur dog forest garden duck fish fungi hunting books chicken writing homestead
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
How many bags sell per month of the 36 dollar a bag gravel? if this is a product that sells pretty well at 36 bucks then yes it will sell at 20 bucks and would be worth it.

To sift gravel you need a screen that is just smaller than the gravel to be sifted or you would need two screens one larger to get rid of big trash that the gravel would pass through and drop onto the second screen that would be slightly smaller than the mesh of the gravel.
If you mount these in a sturdy frame so that they can be moved back and forth, you can reduce the time and effort of screening. If you set this rig up with a motor (human on a bike or electric) then you can further reduce the time and effort to screen the gravel.

If you market it as recycled gravel you might find a bit bigger market.
 
Gilbert Fritz
pollinator
Posts: 1760
Location: Denver, CO
124
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'm not sure how well the $36 a bag stuff sells, but Home Depot carries it so it must sell at least somewhat.

I will look into it further; I'm trying to find customers before diving off the deep end, but it may be a chicken and egg problem. I might have to do one job, bag the gravel, and then try to sell it; and chock up the wasted time to learning/ helping neighbors if I can't sell the stuff.

I have to give the neighbor a quote on their landscape removal in a day or so.
 
Bryant RedHawk
gardener
Posts: 6814
Location: Arkansas - Zone 7B/8A stoney, sandy loam soil pH 6.5
1647
hugelkultur dog forest garden duck fish fungi hunting books chicken writing homestead
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Gilbert, even if it turned out there wasn't a market for bagged gravel, you could save up the removed gravel then use it on another job later on.

We did a few yards where we pulled up 20 yards of white rock when I was with my parent's nursery.
I just cleaned it and held onto it, later on we got a job where the client wanted white rock in the beds around the buildings and we resold the salvaged rock.
This increased our profit margin on that commercial job quite a lot.

If you are in the landscape business, there are lots of avenues for making extra profit from salvaged materials.
For instance, one winter we had a green house heater go down and many 5 gal trees were hit hard.
I took them and created Bonsai out of them, those sold for 65.00 more than the plant would have sold for if it had not been damaged.
gift
 
The Humble Soapnut - A Guide to the Laundry Detergent that Grows on Trees ebook by Kathryn Ossing
will be released to subscribers in: soon!
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic