Anyone know of this and have any experience with it. I'm getting ready to lay a granite patio (face down not to be slippery) in plank-like strips with each strip being made of similar width, random length, parallel sided pieces scavenged from a counter installer. 1 stip might be 4" +/- 1/2" wide and the next might be 7" +/- 1/2". There will be some gaps here and there. If this stuff works, I might not worry so much and could add small stones. Also it would keep the soil in the gaps and out of the house. (The ground here is wet much of the time and dry dust is on occasionally a problem - also the patio will be in the shade most of the day in summer).

They were also using a clay sand in part of the garden for similar purposes that would tamp down and more or less stay down. We've got lots of clay in South Carolina 25 miles up the road, but I don't know what to ask for or how to get it.

David

Bentonite clay is a natural volcanic action mineral that can be ground very finely and is found in cosmetics and is used medicinally. It has many industrial uses. Small quantities can be mixed with sand and when wet will make a sticky coating that binds the sand. So I'll go on from here and see what I can find. My source said he had seen the use of the product and it is indeed a flour-like additive to sand.

He told me that locally for purposes similar to mine he has used a mixture of Portland cement and sand in a 1 to 5 proportion, compacted it, laid the stones as tightly as possible and filled any voids with the same material. Then gently watered it down slowly.