I am about to move into a new house and the cheap and easy way of finishing most new houses is to infill around the edges with nice little stone shillies.

Trouble with this is one of my dogs in particular thinks its fun to run about with these stones in his mouth and we are sure he swallows the odd one or two. In our current house we got rid of all these stones but for the time being its not an option at the new house.

My current best idea is to remove all these stones and lay a liner, replace a thin layer of stones and cover in an epoxy resin. Stones remain, liner allows easy removal at a later date and dog cant pick up a block of stones all glued together.

Would this work?

If not what can i replace it with? I dont like the idea of bark.

I dont like the idea of bark.

You probably shouldn’t have got a dog, sorry.

I knew that was coming 🙂

Not sure if it suits your application but we used this stuff for a porous but stable surface around our house:

http://www.geosyn.co.uk/product/golpla-grass-gravel-reinforcement

We grew grass in ours and used it in place of patio, but it also takes gravel and maybe allows finer stones than appeal to the dog while still keeping a stable flat surface.

luket – that stuff is more for big areas. This is like a border between house and paving about 6-8″ wide. It saves them having to do any work, they just infill with stones.

an aside, but when I was growing up one of the farmers I worked for had a dog used to carry around stones.

turned out it was eating them too. had to have an operation to remove several kg’s from its stomach…

Water, obviously.

Now water would be cool. But may just be classed as a puddle tbh

Is the stony channel uniform width? Can you scoop out the top inch or two and put a grid across?

could use a Aco-channel instead of stone?

It will be different widths tbh. They do it to save having to cut things properly. Just bung a load of stones in to fill

That eco channel would cost me an arm and a leg to do. It surrounds the entire house.

How much are the vets bill to remove the stone from dogs tummy? Would training the dog not to eat stones be cheaper?

This is the stuff i have been thinking of using.

https://www.thegardenrange.co.uk/p/accessories/easihold-pour-on-gravel-resin/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgtKawJXq8gIVzNPtCh2Qtgc1EAQYAyABEgIgtfD_BwE#tab-description

That looks interesting. Usually the resin bound stuff needs to be mixed well in a cement mixer or similar to get a decent covering. Please report back if you end up using it. I would guess your going to have to replace all the stone with something around 10mm to get it to bind.

Yes that was my thought. Guessing 6-8″ wide topping on the existing stones (remove some to get a nice flat finish) and it does say permiable so hopefully drainage isnt too much of an issue. Might try a strip first to see.

😉

Grass?

This is what i want to replce. Grass or cement will look a bit weird.

https://www.pavingexpert.com/splash_strips

Chicken wire or another metal mesh over it to stop the dog picking the stones up?

The wire mesh might work. Not sure

What about sedum blankets cut into strips, like you would use on a green roof.

https://simply-sedum.co.uk/products/

Thats a curve ball. Not sure how my house would look with this all around it. It might look brilliant. I suppose it would be as good as anything else at soaking up moisture. Hmmm.

I don’t think they do it because it’s easier. With flush/accessible doorways I guess the damp proof course ends up close to ground level. To protect against rain splashing off the ground and consistently wetting the wall, you can use a gridded channel drain, or stone chippings to prevent water splashing up when the damp proof course is below the acceptable level.

Build a sieve into the dog?

Smaller stones that pass through the dog (or are too small for the silly mutt to bother with).

I’d be wary of sealing it with epoxy – stones are usually there for a reason and you could end up with damp issues if rain water has nowhere to drain away.

The stone strip aren’t there because it’s easy, there are there to drain water away and the random stones help to prevent water splashing up the wall above the DPC. Anything that prevents drainage or is hard and flat is a bad idea.

Frozen sausages?

As Spooky says the stones act as drainage and prevent the wall being exposed to damp, epoxy resin is also toxic and if it goes all the way round the house will cost more than anyone in their right mind would pay to get damp walls and poison their dog.

Builder solution..needs to let water through and dry out…. is get an inch deep stainless steel grill made, remove an inch of gravel and drop in, in sections/lengths, expensive but better looking than plastic parking grid cut into lengths.