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I keepkee van round the back on an access across a piece of grass that was designed for occasional access by a caravan when it was designed.
Van gets more use than the previous owners caravan especially in winter when it's wet . As a result the grass looks like the Somme and now has 2 8inch deep canals running through it thanks to my rear wheels.
Plan is to excavate , add drainage , put in a type 1 base and some of those grass support grids you see about -- I want it to look like grass rather than slabbing or graveling it is still garden after all.
Anyone used them before with decent results ? Vans as damned near it 3.5ton when it's ready to go so I'm thinking that the flimsy thin plastic plant tray looking ones probably are not up to the job.
Any recommendations ?
There are concrete versions that are designed for commercial/landscaping use that take a load but then the grass space is smaller.
I think they are called grass grid and we have used the concrete ones for fire engine access on a project I worked on. Never used the plastic one for grass although we did use them for gravel once.
yeah im not keen on the concrete ones , it seems the remainder fall into two catagories .
Plastic ones and rubber ones,
plastic ones tend to be 35/40mm deep and are designed to be used in the manor i plan - on a sub base and once filled with soil are supposed to be quite robust assuming you dont buy the cheap ass ones - some of the ones i see take 16 ton axle load.
then there are the rubber mat ones which although look more robust appear to be more a temporary thing you throw on top of existing grass , with less hole space to prevent it cookie cuttering the grass
HD plastic ones looking pricy although beats the ear ache from the grass needing an all terrain lawnmower now.
I think you’d be surprised how much weight you can get away with, I think it’s the frequency of use that might be your challenge. Interested to see how you get on.
https://www.grassmats.co.uk/product/gridpave/
this looks good although 16.80 per SQM
Looks alot more robust than some of the options which seem to rely heavily on the soil inside to provide structure - i think my tires would rip the cheapo ones to shreds (i have no choice but to turn while pretty much stationary as im parallel parking a 7m vehicle into an 8m gap between a fence and a garage door.)
We have them outside work, hold up well with window cleaners vans, fork lift trucks etc.
Grass looks good.
Worst are the bits near the path where the grass is really short from people who along so you can see the grid.
Terram do a range of products for this application, depending on load, frequency of use, turning/non turning traffic etc.
We stuck a load of the basic mesh down on a clay field entrance to allow all year access to 2wd vehicles and its been fine, just cut the grass really short, fill in small hollows, roll out the mesh and pin it down well. You can't even see ours any more as the grass has grown through it. They did similar at work for overflow parking but didn't do the prep and hardly pinned it down and now it's all ripping and lifting.
Have a think about what's under your turf layer, weak soft soil will move about especially if you're turning on it. A lean ballast mix should still drain and sandy soil top dressing should keep the grass growing.
Seems to be clay with thin layer of soil.
Planning to dig out 8inch soil did in some french drains to the ditch and then back fill with a relevent amount of type 1 . Compact , membrane sand soil grass grids and top soil/seed.
The half where the van parks will be treated similar and reslabbed as the bit that's currently slabbed isn't coping with weight.
The run off from the field will be rerouted so the standing water issue should be minimalised
If its on a slope they can pop out from expansion, other than that I have seen them take a lot of abuse. Cars turning fast on them and continuously parked on day after day for years.