Permaturf

Have any of you used this? http://www.permaturf.com/ If so, what are your thoughts and what have you used it for?

 

There's a similar product made by a company out of Colorado - can't recall the name - had lots of ads in Landscape Architecture magazine a year or so back. Called Grasspave, Gravelpave, I think, and had a few other derivations, too, like for hillside erosion control. For those of you with subscriptions, the ad had a firetruck parked on grass that was presumably grown in the Grasspave.

Do you have a project you're considering this for?

 

We have a similar product here,but its made of steel I think. Very expensive.Designed to reduce damage from vehicles running over turf.

Karl

 

There was an article in one of the trade mags not too long ago extolling the virtues of this product-even quoted a manager of a large shopping mall near me where they use this stuff. What they failed to mention in the article about the shopping mall was that nobody parks on the stuff during the growing season-the area made with this stuff is only open for traffic during the holiday season Nov-Dec when the grass is dormant so any damage would be superficial given the lawn is dormant then anyways.

That said, it looks like any other lawn during the growing season without any kind of foot or vehicle traffic.

 

hello,

we had looked into a similiar product at the airport where I work. It was some sort of fiber type product that looked like chopped up chicken wire to me that you mixed with a specific type of sand, compacted, and did in layers. We ordered a video and they showed a fire ladder truck drive across it, put down it stabilizers, extend its latter, then drive away. Only a few spots we indented from the stabilizers, no tracks though. We have some areas on the sides of taxiways, ramps, etc. where aircraft occasionally runoff into our wet 'swampy' grounds and get stuck, and thought of it for that.

We also comtemplated the idea of doing our airport entrance road shoulders with the product, being as we do not have curbs and it seems like every other day I am out there fixing 'ruts' from crazy fuel truck drivers, run-away taxi cab drivers, and the infamous 'Overnite' tractor trailer driver.

It is very expensive though. we tried to price it out and it came in at well over 10/sq ft. to install. For that price, we could install curbing, widen the road, even install a paver boarder on our roads. Very intricate install, having to get a specific grade sand, having to have the ability to mix up the 'soup' mix of sand/fibers, and then the fact that they want you to use bare root sod on top of it. I don't even know where I would find bare root sod.

I think this is one of those 'big' buck municipal type ideas that only our hard earned tax dollars will be spent on when some engineer decides to throw it into the specs of some road project. Then again, that's kind of explains how we like to spend money at the airport, so who knows, maybe I'll be telling all of you next year how the stuff works......

steveair

[Edited by steveair on 09-23-2000 at 12:17 AM]

 

Scraper,

The product stonhenge was talking about is made by a company called invisible structures inc. http://www.invisiblestructures.com is there web site. From talking to people it seems like there products are the "industry standard" I have seen it installed and it looks far superior to any of the masonry type units.

good luck

 

We install this product for around $12 per sq. ft., most times it is used for fire truck lanes around schools so yes goverment type work is where it is most used. One problem with this is brown out in the summer with a gravel and sand base root systems seem light and thinning takes place. This product is for light use only, by light i mean usage as a temperary parking and short term driveway not for everyday usage. one thing I do like about it is it goes in fast three men can install 1000 sq ft a day with out problems and a good money maker.

[Edited by paul on 09-23-2000 at 06:19 PM]

 

Thanks for the responses guys! I have a customer who was asking if there was anything I could do with all the ruts that he gets around his driveway. It is circular and a little tight for SUV's, trucks, etc. to turn without going over the edge of the drive into the lawn. He didn't want to make the drive any bigger though. Looks like this stuff or something similar could do the trick.

One more question: What will aerating do to this stuff? I guess I could just not aerate the areas with it. Only taking about probably 300-500 ft2 adjacent to the drive.

 

Aerating will likely destroy it. It's almost at the suface and dense enough that you can't expect to pull out cores between the cylinders of plastic. Best to not aerate.