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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Residential dirt roads- why?
I'm surprised at how many roads I've come across in my home search that are dirt, Does anyone live on one, and if so, can you share how well they maintain the road in winter? Does anyone know why these roads remain unpaved?
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Getting back to it- my diet and exercise blog
Losing it...Without Losing it
Re: Residential dirt roads- why?
I live on one - I'm not sure about ALL dirt roads but I know that the ones I live on are maintained by the homeowners. So you pay to have it graded when it gets pot holey and needs more dirt, you pay to have it plowed in the winter. It's an added expense so I would ask about that if you're interested in a house on a dirt road.
It's expensive to pave a road and more times than not it's the homeowners who anti up for the expense.
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The reason they remain unpaved is, as for many things, money. Lack of. Depending on your jurisdiction, road-paving costs would be prorated among the property owners along the road as an increased tax assessment.
I live in a rural area that has both paved and unpaved roads. It's easier to drive on a good dirt road than a poor paved road. Ask residents in the area how things go during heavy snowstorms and during the spring thaw (this often being a repeating cycle).
Unlike Tarah's neighborhood, in mine all roads whether dirt or paved, are maintained by the county and/or township. Residents don't pay directly per plowing, but indirectly via property taxes.
So you really need to ask how things work in the areas you are house shopping.
Ditto this. It is all dependant on the county and twp in which you reside. I grew up on dirt roads. I would prefer dirt over chip-n-seal or a badly paved road. Grating will smooth the ruts, lime will keep them from dusting and then plowing is how they are maintained in the winter.
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I live on one. It really isn't too bad. The township actually does the grating, but they do not plow in the winter. We actually have a very nice neighbor who uses his riding lawn mower plow attachement and does the entire road (there are less than 20 houses on my street).
I agree with pp, I would find out what the 'norm' is in that area.
I don't really know specific reasons besides what others have posted. The subdivision behind us (we live in Royal Oak), has some dirt roads, and some paved. I don't know if the residents have any say. There are signs to keep trucks off the dirt roads. I'm wondering if another reason is to minimize traffic & noise. The sub is really quiet. We walk the dogs back there to the park, and there are barely any cars except for people who live there. It's suprisingly quiet being so close to the main roads.
I would also agree they are very expensive to maintain. They take a huge beating in the winter with snow, salt, plow trucks. Michigan roads in general are pretty horrible if you haven't noticed already.
My parents live on a dirt road. It is maintained by the county. It is still dirt because the majority of people who live on it want it that way. Not only would it cost way too much to pave it, but if it did get paved people would use it as a cross through to get to the express way and drive way too fast on it. it is the country and people are used to having their kids and animals be able to play outside.
that is just their story, i am sure everyone has their own.
My parent's dirt road is maintained much better than my paved road.
This. Our road is paved and it was plowed only 3 or 4 times this whole winter.
Ditto!! I think our road got plowed once by the county this past season.
Steph and Jeff's Shutterfly Website
~ Stephanie & Jeffrey ~ 9.15.2007
Oh no! I think I'm in for an awakening. I'm coming from a big snow belt area (and on top of a hill that seemed to get more snow than the bottom- it was a 3 mile drive uphill to my house.) We also had one of the guys that worked in the office live on my street so the plows did an amazing job on our road. I only got stuck and couldn't make it up my hill twice in 5 years of living there. Maybe it's a good thing I like to stay home during the winter?! ha!
Thanks for the input--- I think we'll keep those houses we found on our list to check out and just ask for detailed information from the realtor. And hope to see some neighbors in the area out that we can talk to too. (We looked at renting a house on a dirt road but our realtor didn't find out details for us as we had asked. We ended up not choosing that house because of size of the house, not the road. I think I'll make direct calls to the sellers realtor instead of depending on mine).
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It doesn't snow as much here, meaning we don't get multiple 12+ inches snowstorms/year. However, they don't generally plow roads for a few inches so you get used to making your way and eventually the snow moves to the sides and evaporates. It's also flat, so you know, hills aren't as much of an issue. I think I've gotten stuck once in all my years here, and it was my husband's fault for thinking there was only 4" of snow on the ground when there were really 10".
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Just an FYI...in regards to roads getting plowed in the winter, most communities have cut back because they cannot afford it. If it's a big concern for you, check to see who maintains the roads in that community. By who I mean county, township, city, etc.
When we lived in Detroit (1 1/2 blocks from Redford), it was rarely plowed in the area or subdivision (including the Redford part). Now, we live on a road that is a direct path to a trauma hospital, so they keep it cleared.
We also had a lot of traffic crossing through our neighborhood/street with people cutting through to the main roads. I was not a fan of people clocking at 50mph or more in the subdivision.
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