Wondering How To Use Gravel Around Your Home?
Gravel is an incredibly versatile building material, both around your home, and in construction projects all over the world. For thousands of years, forms of gravel have been used by people to make their lives better. We’d like to walk you through six of our favorite applications for using gravel, which will hopefully inspire you to contact us and let us provide you with all of the materials you need to start your gravel project! Let’s get started, shall we?
Skip The Mulch
Gravel can be an effective substitute for using mulch in your landscaping! While mulch may look nice in some yards, once the wind kicks up, you can look forward to your mulched flower beds or planter areas practically blowing away. Gravel is effective at preventing moisture from evaporating from the soil, which can be a huge benefit to plants, especially when the weather turns warm. Retaining valuable moisture for your plants is something that gravel can just do better than mulch.
You do have some options when it comes to gravel as a substitute for mulch — when it comes to aesthetics, or decorative appeal, you have the option of small, smooth gravel that is easy on bare feet, or you can go for more coarse, rough gravel for a more rustic look. Typically, this rougher gravel stays in place better, so it could be ideal for traffic areas (but not so much for those bare feet.) It’s up to you what kind of gravel you’d use for a mulch substitute.
Functional Decoration
One of the great things about gravel is that it is both visually appealing and has very simple, effective functionality in many cases. Gravel can be used as an effective material for draining moisture from the bottom of flower pots, as well as along pathways around your home. Gravel can also be incredibly useful for reducing the risk of soil erosion in areas around your home that are susceptible to moisture collection. Consider placing gravel around any drain pipes on the exterior of your home, as well as areas of your property that are at risk of being “soft spots” for moisture collection. Help keep the property value of your home high by reducing the risk of erosion with gravel!
Simple Foundation
Gravel works remarkably well as a foundational element to patio spaces or other small outdoor constructions. If you’re building your patio out of concrete slabs or bricks, using gravel under the pieces as well as in-between them will give you both functionality and striking visual aesthetics. Some gravel consistencies work better for this type of work — finer gravel can compact easier, allowing for added stability in the foundation of your patio construction.
Beautiful Walkways
Gravel can be used to create wonderfully pleasant walkways through gardens or grassy areas. Gravel tends to work very well when going for a rustic, country home look that you sometimes don’t get with concrete. Depending on how much foot traffic you expect to have around the areas you intend to pour gravel, you will have to decide on the size of gravel that is appropriate for you. Coarse, larger gravel will hold its place better, but won’t be comfortable to walk on unless you’re wearing shoes. Finer gravel may move around a little bit underfoot, but it will be much easier to walk on, even barefoot. We recommend using a gravel size that is smaller than ¼” to obtain the ideal walking surface for garden or yard pathways.
Versatile Driveways
Using gravel in your home’s driveway can be a nice alternative to concrete. The draining properties of gravel will help keep moisture from collecting too long on your driveway surface, which you don’t get from concrete. However, if you still like the idea of a concrete driveway, you can mix gravel with concrete, and give your driveway some added traction and a striking appearance. The colors that are available in gravel also give you more design opportunities than you may have with concrete. When layered properly, a gravel driveway can support any type of vehicle just as well as concrete.
Landscaping Accents
Gravel is particularly useful in landscaping elements. Gravel can easily be placed around a flower bed as a border, used as filler between stone or concrete slabs in a walkway, or for creating pathways through your yard. You should be aware that gravel easily absorbs heat, which you should bear in mind if you’re going to be placing it around plants or flowers that are sensitive to overly warm temperatures. River stone gravel is also a nice touch for any water features or ponds that you may have installed in your yard.
Let MJS Materials Be Your Gravel Supplier!
We hope that this list of our favorite ways to use gravel around your home has inspired you to begin your next project! MJS Materials offers all of the gravel you could ever need! Please contact us if you have any questions regarding the composition or application of gravel, and one of our materials experts will provide you with a knowledgeable, helpful answer! We have a large fleet of haulers and loaders, and are able to deliver any amount of gravel that you need directly to your work site! Whether you need to buy gravel in bulk, or just need a little bit to work on a small project, MJS Materials has got you covered. Call us today, and let us help you get started on your project!
Takeaways
Gravel is a versatile building material that can be used in several ways around your home, including but not limited to:
- A durable, reliable mulch substitute
- Being a functional decorative element that aids in moisture drainage
- Provides a simple, durable foundation for patios and small outdoor constructions
- Being a simple and effective material for walkway construction
- Can be used to build versatile and stable driveways that are also aesthetically pleasing
- Provides the perfect accent pieces for various elements around your home and yard