# used motor oil in "paving"?



## plarkinjr

Hi, our recently aquired property has a shop located about 30 yards off the my main (private) gravel road. The ground between the road and shop is mostly sand with some pea gravel. Usually I take my used motor oil to town for recycling, but I'm wondering if it might serve a better purpose as a "driveway" to the shop. Till a couple inches, pour it around, till again, and then put traffic on it to compress it? Sort of an "asphalt in place" type process? Probably a 2-watt idea.

Thoughts? Soil contamination? Just making a big mess?

I remember as a child, the sand out back of my grandfather's shop was black as tar, and harder still, from all the oil and grease tracked out there over the decades.


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## simi-steading

You'l have a mess.. used oil is nothing like the oil they use for chip and oil roads.. The oil they used for that is more in line with tar and asphalt.. It hardens. Used motor oil won..;t for a long long time.


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## Darren

In Mississippi they used to spread stone chips and oil, not tar, for new road surfaces in rural areas. There was very limited leakage of the oil into the soil. If you're looking for a better surface, using geotextile fabric beneath crush and run small stone will give you a road. That's one of the least expensive methods of road building for a property owner to limit the amount of stone needed.


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## Micheal

Don't know about Texas, but here in NY that would be way illegal if'n caught.


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## dkhern

probally not ecologicly pc they used to do the country roads here years ago. i wouldnt do it because i would thve to track thru it going and comming takes a while to harden would be a mess


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## RonM

The EPA would frown on that to the tune of major fines &/or prison time, dont do it.....


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## Bob Huntress

The petroleum based product that works in paving is almost a solid at 70 degrees F. It is purchased to patch driveways in a block and heated until it is fluid enough. Have you ever watched paving crews and the machine that spreads the pavement out? You'll notice that it has a gas bottle on it that fuels the heater. Those properties are specifically refined out of what will become motor oil. Could you imagine an engine that had oil that was soild until the engine reached high temp? This very low viscosity also prevents it from draining into the soil and eventually the water table. I imagine that additives could be introduced to the used oil to make is far less viscous, and it may, for all I know, be something that is done to recycled oil to make a pavement base, yet used straight oil is not going to work, and will drain away from the so called paved surface.


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## AtomicFarmer

Here in SWPA, they tar and chip roads in our rural area. It's cheaper than paving but it makes a MESS. During the summer, when it's done, the fresh tar is very fluid and chips can fling up from the road and stick to cars, along with the tar itself. I know you won't be driving on your driveway as fast as a rural road, but it may still make a heck of a mess of your vehicles.


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## plarkinjr

Darren said:


> In Mississippi they used to spread stone chips and oil, not tar, for new road surfaces in rural areas. There was very limited leakage of the oil into the soil. If you're looking for a better surface, using geotextile fabric beneath crush and run small stone will give you a road. That's one of the least expensive methods of road building for a property owner to limit the amount of stone needed.


I've seen the same down here in Texas, hence my asking. However, your description of a better alternative is, well, better.  And the area I'm thinking of is on high ground, but quickly slopes down toward a small creek/stream, and discussion of migration to water contamination is quite valid. So, I guess I'll just keep hauling my old oil to town for recycling.  Thanks y'all!
:cowboy:


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## KMA1

Alabama counties used to use a lot of small gravel and hot sprayed tar on roads, especially on dirt roads. I think this may have been what some of you were seeing and not oil. Some places sprayed used motor on dirt roads in summer to cut down on dust. I am pretty sure you will end up with a m ess putting oil directly on dirt or sand. I know that burned oil sometimes can contain dioxin, which has led to massive toxic waste cleanups. Dioxin is a carcinogen. Not to mention the possibility of groundwater contamination. I think your best bet might be quality geotextile fabric with gravel on top. That is what I am doing.


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## george darby

another option would be soil cement stabilization uses a lot of cement but isnt that hard to figure 6% by wheight of the soil is a usual mix till it in and compact it u could rent a soil compactor or use heavier equipment to pack it in after tilling with comon farm equipment a 3"layer of stablized soil will suport a fair amount of trafic its comon place in many areas to use lime stablization in clay soils and cement stablization in sandy or silty soils before placement of concrete pavement on highways .


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## Wis Bang 2

Used oil was the number one dust control until the EPA got going in the early 70's. 

I remember seeing, in 1972, the oil drain from a truck shop was piped out to an old oil tanker w/ a 'spreader' pipe under the back bumper. 

The mechanics told how they used to tow it around the yard but now the oil was collected and this calcium mix was put down as dust control.

In the 60's dad used to spread oil on the TT 'Scrambles' track at the motorcycle club. It was still evident years after we stopped using the track.


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## texican

Tried it. Won't work. 

What will is used vegetable oil from grocery stores, fast food places, bakeries, etc. Few years back, the only buckets I could find, had grease in em... didn't need the grease (too nasty for biodiesel) and could only burn so much processing stump piles. Found if I poured it out on my dirt road, after a few hot days, it'd harden the road up and shed water... almost as good as an oil top road.


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## luvrulz

Micheal said:


> Don't know about Texas, but here in NY that would be way illegal if'n caught.


Illegal in many states. The water run off will hurt the watershed and any ponds, creeks, wells and who knows what else within the area. Wouldn't suggest it and if I found my neighbor doing it, I'd turn them in....


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