Sharp Sand - Sharp Price !

Good one Ziggy - a definitive answer !

 

Thanks Ziggy - I didn't know exactly where it came from.

Harry - I think as far as horticultural use, its probably all the same. If you look closely at the sand you will probably see differences in size and colour. Some stuff from my local builders yard looks pretty rough. Ie its a range of different sizes with some quite coarse bits in it.

You will probably pay more for stuff that looks better - ie more uniform in size and an attractive sandy colour. But it won't make any difference to the plants.

 

My pleasure Gentlemen Apart from the Geology o level, they sent me on a course on aggregates in Wolverhampton, imagine a whole course just talking about sand Even my attention span can only hold for so long

 

Peter the builders yard sharp sand will be fine for me . I really don't want "designer " sharp sand at £5.50 a bag , and I am sure my plants won't give a damn

 

Dumpy bag is only about £50 if you use a lot of it.

 

Ziggy I only have a window box !

 

Had a load of sand (10 tons) 4 months ago, it smelt of salt, even the builders refuesed to use it, rep came out to see and agreed that it smelt of salt,it then got loaded back on to a lorry, had another load to replace it that was fine, the stroy was that the sand was dredged from the sea not the river as you would believe so that's where the smell of salt came from, even the builders made jokes of it, fish & chips would you like sand & vinegar on that sir.

 

Jiffy, I am very sorry and very surprised to hear that.

In fact I would have thought it was illegal to dredge sand from the sea. In 1917, Hall Sands a village in Devon was destroyed because of dredging:-

from http://www.devonhistorysociety.org.uk/2010/01/hallsands-allegoria-per-musica.html

 

Sharp Sand is definitely not the same as Builders Sand. Builders Sand will compact, which Sharp / Horticultural wont, and with Builders Sand you may not get anything like the same benefit for drainage.

I only use Sharp Sand, but there are plenty who say that Buidlers Sand works fine for them.

Either way, shop around, but they are not the same thing at all as far as drainage is concerned, let alone Salt, so not directly comparable

 

No they still dredge, the Habour at West Bay gets dredged & sorted by a small sand merchant in the bay. But that sand will be rounded and not sold as sharp sand.

When making up a mortar mix we use a variety of agregates, depending on what job its for, but we always make sure the softer sands have been pre washed.

Always remember a mason's tale from a building site in Australia, the buildings inspector tasted a pile of sand to test for salt. He was just about to condemn the mortar for not being washed. the mason said, "Its washed alright, we just got a lot of dogs on the site"

 

I think we are getting some confusion.
Builders do use sharp sand, also soft sand,(names probably vary around the country), sometimes known around here as building sand.

You can buy Sharp sand from any building supplier, it cheaper than horticultural sand, but basically the same thing.