snow melt system with pipes in roadbase

brucewo1b

road base is concidered in your araea here it would be crushed hot top mixed in with the gravel that got dug up wth the hottop 30 years ago it was stone dust, you would be better to ask what they concider road base.

Mars_2

snow melt with pipes in roadbase

Hey guys I have a job upcoming that will be a driveway and some patios. The snow melt for these areas is going to be like a paver system except that the pavers are large flagstone sheets.The stone guy wants to use road base in the place of low silica sand, I've never heard of this and would like any help with this question. Road base good or bad as a medium to embed kitec tube for a snow melt system.Thanks for any input.

Mars_2

road base

The road base in question is ground concrete that was as near as I can tell used for highways and comercial use.

[Deleted User]

Bad...

Hi Matt, Considering that road base has a LOT of air between the rocks, it is a poor condcutor of heat.

Will it work? Probably to some degree, but not nearly as well as it would poured in concrete or even sand. At least with sand, when the sand gets wet from the melting snow, it becomes more conductive.

ME

Mars_2

Thanks Mark

Hey mark thanks for that. That makes sense the density of sand and that of road base even when compacted has to vary quite a bit. I can see that the road base with the varying size of the aggregate could cause problems with the transfer of the heat from tubes to surface. the conversation I had with the contractor had to do with the possible movement of the ground sub strait and possible cracking of the flagstone pavers. I cant see this as an issue and I guess I will need to speak to the contractor re this issue.
again thank you mark I am thankfull for your help as always we should try to get together some time for lunch.

[Deleted User]

What are you doing...

January 11th at 6:00 PM...?

ME