Eco-parking - lawn grate: choose and install it yourself. Eco-parking for a dacha Do-it-yourself eco-parking at your dacha
Many car owners who have garden plots, would like to combine a beautiful green lawn with parking for your own car. Purchasing a lawn grill will solve two issues at once. You will receive an excellent garden path and parking for cars at the dacha. There are plastic and concrete gratings; you can familiarize yourself with the options for designing lawns by looking at the photo. They are convenient and practical, they are easy to install. Yes, and such a lawn will not require special care.
Advantages and disadvantages
The use of lawn gratings has its positive and negative sides. Therefore, before installing them on your personal plot, you need to familiarize yourself with the pros and cons of operation.
The positive aspects of use include:
- Easy to install. The work of installing a lawn grate can be done on your own.
- The eco-parking keeps its shape at any time of the year thanks to the presence of a layer of crushed stone and geofabric.
- The lawn is absolutely non-traumatic. Therefore, even small children can play on it.
- Eco-parking is maintained using simple gardening tools.
- Lawn grates are environmentally friendly and do not interfere with the natural growth of vegetation.
- The green parking lot can be used as a recreation area or as a picnic area.
There are slightly fewer disadvantages, but they are also worth considering:
- It is necessary to accurately calculate the load on the grid. The material deteriorates over time. So, suitable for passenger cars plastic varieties, and for cargo - concrete.
- After rain it is very difficult to remove accumulated water.
- Concrete gratings become very hot from sun rays, which negatively affects plant growth.
- The weight of concrete gratings is very large.
Plastic gratings
This type of grating is most often used for car parking. Their height should not exceed 5 cm. They are usually green, but if desired, you can choose any color.
Lawn plastic grates have a ribbed surface, which ensures adhesion of the car to the grate.
Attention! During rain, a lawn grill can reduce slipping when the car slides.
The advantages of using a plastic grill include the possibility of installation at an angle, i.e. there is no need to level the surface. The structure is secured with metal brackets.
Features of using plastic gratings:
Concrete gratings
Concrete gratings can withstand very heavy weight loads. Therefore, they are mainly used for parking trucks. As with plastic gratings, installation of concrete gratings does not require preliminary leveling of the surface. But unlike its plastic counterpart, this grille is difficult to hide under the grass; it will always be visible.
Do-it-yourself lawn grating installation
You can install the lawn grate yourself. But you will need a lot of time, care and accuracy in your work. Therefore, it is worth resorting to outside help. For example, involve friends or relatives in the creation process garden path in the country. By following the sequence of installation steps, you will get a beautiful and durable lawn. We present to your attention step-by-step instruction for installing a plastic lawn grid for eco-parking.
- There is no need to carry out special soil preparation. But you still have to work a little with the surface.
- Level the soil a little and compact it.
- Secure the edges of the grill. To do this, you need to place stones in a concrete solution.
- Prepare the layer. Make a mound of soil and gravel about 5-6 cm high.
- Lay a level of road mesh on top.
- Place the mesh with the wide side down and the grid facing up.
- Shift all rows onto one cell and fasten the parts at an angle of 45 degrees.
Advice. If necessary, you need to adjust the size of the grille to suitable dimensions. Use cutting tools for this.
- Fill the lawn grid with a mixture of soil and gravel.
- Sow grass (green lawn). Don't forget about periodic watering.
Advice. You need to sow the seeds 3–4 cm below the surface of the trellis. This will reduce the risk of damage to the grass.
- The work has been completed. And if you followed the instructions exactly, you will soon become the owner of a green eco-parking lot at your dacha.
Caring for eco-parking
Regular care of your lawn grate is a guarantee of long service life. Thus, with proper protection, the eco-park will last from 10 to 15 years. IN winter time To clear the surface for snow, you need to use forks and shovels with a safe coating (rubber pads). In the summer, it is enough to periodically trim the grass with a lawn mower.
There are a few more tips that you can follow to extend the life of your lawn.
- Trim the grass periodically (its height should not exceed 5 cm).
- Fertilize and water your lawn only according to the soil type.
- Aerate the soil using a fork or other sharp tool.
- Weed and clear the lawn of debris in a timely manner.
- Do not forget to replace broken sections of the grille.
- Do not use salts or chemicals on the surface (for example, in winter).
Eco-parking at the dacha - aesthetically pleasing and practical. You can do the installation yourself, but it is better to seek the help of friends. This way, you can complete all the work faster and better.
Which grill to choose? It depends on what kind of car will be in the parking lot. So, for a passenger car a plastic grille is enough, but for trucks you will need a concrete one. An eco-parking can become not only a parking place for a car, but also a recreation area for children or a barbecue. The construction cost is low. Having spent minimal money and effort, you will improve the site and create parking for your iron horse.
Eco-friendly parking: video
Eco-parking for a summer residence: photo
Every owner country house wants his site to look well-groomed and modern. The entire picture of the surrounding landscape directly depends on how accurately the lawn near the house is formed. IN Lately When laying lawns, various lawn grids are used. And the explanation for this phenomenon is its practicality and ease of installation.
Application of a lawn grate
Lawn gratings can be used for car parking, ecological parks, temporary recreational facilities, as well as for golf courses near private homes. The trellises help to preserve green spaces in the form of green lawn grass in those areas where, in principle, this should not exist. Such coatings can withstand loads of up to 1200 kg per square meter or a parking lot of up to 40 tons, taking into account what materials are used.
The mesh can support the weight of the car while keeping the grass from being damaged, which serves as a natural filter. Low-strength gratings are typically installed on platforms designed for medium loads. Most often, such tiles are installed for parking light vehicles near shopping centers. Under high loads, lawns are made of concrete: for example, for parking heavy transport- helicopters, airplanes. These coverings allow any communications to be carried out under the lawn. Using lawn gratings, you can create eco-parks in massive residential complexes, business areas and, of course, near cottages.
The main purpose for which gratings are used is to protect the grass from mechanical stress. Therefore, they are installed on pedestrian paths. The grass is well preserved due to the fact that the entire load is distributed along the cell walls. As a result root system the lawn remains untouched, and excess humidity enters through the drainage located under the lawn.
Here are a few benefits of grilling: environment:
In addition, the installed grid not only allows you to use the lawnmower for maintenance, but also makes it easier to work on it.
Selecting material for the site
Any mesh has two important parameters - the perceived load and the cell size. The parameters are interrelated and offer the buyer a wide range various solutions. Almost all manufacturers write in the product labeling the maximum possible weight per 1 square meter. m surface. For this parameter, select a mesh, not forgetting to add a 30-40% safety factor to increase the mass due to passengers and cargo in the car. Of course, this rule only applies to parking. For a playground or lawn near the house, you can choose a reserve of 10-20%.
The lawn grate is made of a special environmentally friendly polymer. There's no need to choose cheap analogues made of PVC or other specialized types of plastic. Their strength will be lower, and the savings from their acquisition are not very significant.
Types of lawn structures
The lawn grate is a honeycomb module, often made of concrete or high-strength plastic. The latter type is more modern and has recently become widespread due to its greater attractiveness, aesthetics and ease of installation.
Concrete grating
The most natural and attractive design adjacent territory is to create a lawn on it. On a bright summer day, a fresh, beautifully trimmed and well-groomed lawn near your home will look simply irresistible. Unfortunately, often a self-created lawn does not look attractive. It is quite possible to prevent problems from occurring. To do this, you should take advantage of the benefits of a concrete lawn grid.
This type of lawn has been around for a long time and can be found in parks and other places. The obvious advantages of concrete gratings are low cost, durability and high strength.
Among positive qualities of this material the following are noted:
Concrete lawn slabs appeared not so long ago. It is strong, durable and has a low price. Each grid has a different form of modules.
However, the concrete lawn grid has one significant drawback- rapid wear. Such structures do not tolerate temperature changes, especially during the autumn-winter season.
Plastic mesh
Lawn plastic meshes are currently effective universal remedy, with which you can create perfect lawn. They are used not only to create landscape garden or yard on private property. Its use gives excellent results when it is necessary to equip large areas intended for public use.
The mesh is made of high-strength plastic, thanks to which the structure can withstand loads of up to 1200 tons per square meter. meter. At the same time, the service life of a plastic lawn grate is quite significant and can reach 25 years.
Installing a network along river banks helps prevent flooding, and along roads it stops the destruction of roadside slopes. Form plastic mesh may be different - in construction stores you can find modules both small round and with large shaped cells. Variety matches choice concrete structure for the lawn.
Advantages of a plastic grill:
Preparing the surface for installation
It is very easy to install a lawn grate yourself. First you need to prepare the base for laying the mesh.
It is worth following the step-by-step instructions:
Laying the mesh
Laying lawn gratings is very simple task . Installation of the mesh can be done quickly. The method of laying the coating is practically no different from installing conventional paving slabs.
The sequence of laying a lawn mesh with your own hands:
Lawn grid parking
When planning a personal plot, owners of a private house are faced with the problem of placing a parking lot near the house and want it not to take up much space. Modern materials and new technologies make it possible to equip a unique parking lot in the form of a lawn. This is possible thanks to nets that strengthen the soil and prevent it from being trampled. Before laying the nets on the surface, it is necessary to properly prepare the base. Plastic and concrete gratings are used to install the parking lot.
The construction sequence is as follows:
In order to build a parking lawn, you do not need to be a specialist, simple construction skills are enough. The cost of parking with a lawn grid does not exceed the cost of materials and construction of a site with a hard surface.
An incorrectly selected mixture of grasses for eco-parking can negate all the efforts and costs of creating an eco-zone. Mixtures that are resistant to trampling are suitable for parking cars.
Lawn mesh is widely used in suburban construction. With its help, you can create an area for children to play or organize parking for a car. It is important to note that mesh is less expensive than asphalt and can be made yourself.
To maintain the continued attractiveness of your trellis lawn, you should adhere to simple rules care:
- regular watering;
- seasonal soil fertilizers;
- timely mowing of grass.
In this case, you can evaluate the aesthetic appearance of the lawn, as well as the convenience and comfort of using the site.
Many car owners with garden plots would like to combine a beautiful green lawn with parking for their own car. Purchasing a lawn grill will solve two issues at once. You will receive an excellent garden path and parking for cars at the dacha. There are plastic and concrete gratings; you can familiarize yourself with the options for designing lawns by looking at the photo. They are convenient and practical, they are easy to install. Yes, and such a lawn will not require special care.
Advantages and disadvantages
The use of lawn gratings has its positive and negative sides. Therefore, before installing them on your personal plot, you need to familiarize yourself with the pros and cons of operation.
The positive aspects of use include:
- Easy to install. The work of installing a lawn grate can be done on your own.
- The eco-parking keeps its shape at any time of the year thanks to the presence of a layer of crushed stone and geofabric.
- The lawn is absolutely non-traumatic. Therefore, even small children can play on it.
- Eco-parking is maintained using simple gardening tools.
- Lawn grates are environmentally friendly and do not interfere with the natural growth of vegetation.
- The green parking lot can be used as a recreation area or as a picnic area.
There are slightly fewer disadvantages, but they are also worth considering:
- It is necessary to accurately calculate the load on the grid. The material deteriorates over time. So, plastic varieties are suitable for passenger cars, and concrete varieties are suitable for trucks.
- After rain it is very difficult to remove accumulated water.
- Concrete gratings become very hot from the sun's rays, which negatively affects plant growth.
- The weight of concrete gratings is very large.
Plastic gratings
This type of grating is most often used for car parking. Their height should not exceed 5 cm. They are usually green, but if desired, you can choose any color.
Lawn plastic grates have a ribbed surface, which ensures adhesion of the car to the grate.
Attention! During rain, a lawn grill can reduce slipping when the car slides.
The advantages of using a plastic grill include the possibility of installation at an angle, i.e. there is no need to level the surface. The structure is secured with metal brackets.
Features of using plastic gratings:
Concrete gratings
Concrete gratings can withstand very heavy weight loads. Therefore, they are mainly used for parking trucks. As with plastic gratings, installation of concrete gratings does not require preliminary leveling of the surface. But unlike its plastic counterpart, this grille is difficult to hide under the grass; it will always be visible.
Do-it-yourself lawn grating installation
You can install the lawn grate yourself. But you will need a lot of time, care and accuracy in your work. Therefore, it is worth resorting to outside help. For example, involve friends or relatives in the process of creating a garden path in the country. By following the sequence of installation steps, you will get a beautiful and durable lawn. We bring to your attention step-by-step instructions for installing a plastic lawn grate for eco-parking.
- There is no need to carry out special soil preparation. But you still have to work a little with the surface.
- Level the soil a little and compact it.
- Secure the edges of the grill. To do this, you need to place stones in a concrete solution.
- Prepare the layer. Make a mound of soil and gravel about 5-6 cm high.
- Lay a level of road mesh on top.
- Place the mesh with the wide side down and the grid facing up.
- Shift all rows onto one cell and fasten the parts at an angle of 45 degrees.
Advice. If necessary, you need to adjust the size of the grille to suitable dimensions. Use cutting tools for this.
- Fill the lawn grid with a mixture of soil and gravel.
- Sow grass (green lawn). Don't forget about periodic watering.
Advice. You need to sow the seeds 3–4 cm below the surface of the trellis. This will reduce the risk of damage to the grass.
- The work has been completed. And if you followed the instructions exactly, you will soon become the owner of a green eco-parking lot at your dacha.
Caring for eco-parking
Regular care of your lawn grate is a guarantee of long service life. Thus, with proper protection, the eco-park will last from 10 to 15 years. In winter, to clear the surface for snow, you need to use forks and shovels with a safe coating (rubber pads). In the summer, it is enough to periodically trim the grass with a lawn mower.
There are a few more tips that you can follow to extend the life of your lawn.
- Trim the grass periodically (its height should not exceed 5 cm).
- Fertilize and water your lawn only according to the soil type.
- Aerate the soil using a fork or other sharp tool.
- Weed and clear the lawn of debris in a timely manner.
- Do not forget to replace broken sections of the grille.
- Do not use salts or chemicals on the surface (for example, in winter).
Eco-parking at the dacha - aesthetically pleasing and practical. You can do the installation yourself, but it is better to seek the help of friends. This way, you can complete all the work faster and better.
Which grill to choose? It depends on what kind of car will be in the parking lot. So, for a passenger car a plastic grille is enough, but for trucks you will need a concrete one. An eco-parking can become not only a parking place for a car, but also a recreation area for children or a barbecue. The construction cost is low. Having spent minimal money and effort, you will improve the site and create parking for your iron horse.
Eco-friendly parking: video
Eco-parking for a summer residence: photo
Eco-parking- This is parking on the lawn. Other names: ecological parking, eco-parking, eco-parking, green parking, eco-lawn, maintained lawn, grass parking. All these names reflect the essence of the technology, in which a car parking area is created without harming the environment by preserving natural grass.
Originally created to solve one of the the most important problems cities - problems of lack of parking spaces, eco-parking has gained great popularity not only among city authorities and businesses, but also among owners of suburban areas. And this is well deserved, since eco-parking has a number of advantages over traditional parking covered with asphalt, concrete or paving slabs.
Advantages of eco-parking
1. Environmental friendliness . The lawn improves the microclimate, traps dust and harmful substances.
2. Aesthetics . A green lawn looks much more attractive than asphalt or concrete, it pleases the eye and improves your mood, and blends harmoniously into the natural landscape, which is especially important for suburban areas.
3. Economical . The construction of eco-parking is simpler and cheaper than their traditional counterparts, and the somewhat higher maintenance costs (watering, mowing, fertilizing) are offset by significantly lower costs for repairing the surface. In addition, eco-parking does not require organizing additional drainage systems. Lawn grates allow water to pass into the lower layers of the soil, as a result, water does not stagnate on the surface and puddles do not form.
Process creating an eco-parking boils down to this:
- Choosing a lawn grate
- Preparing the base for laying a lawn lattice, the so-called “pillow”
- Laying lawn grating
- Filling the cells of the lawn grid fertile soil
- Sowing lawn grass seeds
Lawn grate– this is the main element of eco-parking. It consists of cellular modules interconnected into platforms of any size. The grid cells are filled with fertile soil, into which lawn grass seeds are sown. The gratings remove the load from the top layer of soil and transfer it below to the sand and gravel base. As a result, they reliably protect the root system of grasses from damage, and the top fertile layer of soil is protected from overcompaction and deformation.
Choosing a lawn grate determined by the expected parking load, soil properties, financial capabilities and aesthetic preferences of the consumer. When purchasing a lawn grate, you should pay attention to the following parameters.
1. Lawn grid height
The higher the lawn lattice, the larger the fertile layer in which the root system of lawn grasses will develop, which means the better and more durable the lawn. At the same time, leading manufacturers compensate for the slight decrease in grating strength by using quality materials and a special cell structure. Grilles with a height of 3 to 5 cm (30-50 mm) are available for sale. Preference should be given to more expensive lawn grates with a height of 5 cm (50 mm). Budget options heights of 3-4 cm are permissible only for temporary structures with small and irregular loads.
2. Material from which lawn gratings are made
Concrete and plastic lawn gratings are available for sale. Concrete lawn grates on suburban areas are practically not used. They are only suitable for city parking lots with high degree loads, since in everything except strength they are much inferior to plastic competitors. Concrete lawn grates are more expensive and heavier than plastic ones, they look worse and, in fact, do not fulfill their main function, since they occupy up to 70% of the parking area, leaving very little space for a lawn.
Plastic lawn gratings are made from special materials that are resistant to loads and adverse external influences polymers: polyethylene and polypropylene. Polypropylene gratings are cheaper, but in terms of strength and frost resistance they are much inferior to their competitors. Preference should be given to gratings made of polyethylene (preferably made from primary raw materials).
3. Size, shape and wall thickness of lawn grating cells
Lawn gratings with cells are available on the market various shapes: square, round, diamond-shaped, hexagonal, honeycomb. Gratings with complex honeycomb cell shapes are considered more durable. The thickness of the cell walls ranges from 2 to 5 mm. For good gratings it should not be less than 4 mm. The mesh size also affects the strength of lawn gratings. Small-mesh grids are stronger, but difficult to fill with soil.
4. Size of lawn grating modules
Each manufacturer independently determines the size of lawn grating modules. Smaller modules are more convenient to pack and transport. Grilles with large modules are more practical for installation.
5. Lawn lattice color
Grilles are available in black, green, brown and gray. Experts have not come to a consensus on which color grilles look better. The choice of lawn gratings by color is a matter of aesthetic preferences of the buyer. The main thing is that high-quality dyes are used to prevent the grilles from fading (burning out) in the sun.
6. Manufacturer of lawn gratings
On the counter you can find lawn gratings made in China, Russia and Germany. German products tend to be different high quality and price. Among the budget products from the Middle Kingdom, there are quite a few outright surrogates. Domestic products occupy an intermediate position in terms of price and quality. In general, when choosing a lawn grate, it is better to ignore the country of manufacture and pay attention to the quality parameters described above.
So, A high-quality lawn grate must meet the following requirements :
1. Height – 4.5-5 cm
2. Cell wall thickness – from 4 mm
3. Material of manufacture – polyethylene
Such the lawn grate will have the following characteristics :
- Service life – 20-25 years
- Frost resistance – up to -40 degrees. WITH
- Strength (resistance to mechanical compressive loads) from 200 to 1200 t/m2 (up to 43 Tf)
- Chemical resistance (gasoline, oil)
- UV resistance (sun fading)
- Occupied area - no more than 10% of total area parking
Preparing the base for the lawn trellis
Preparing the base for a lawn grid comes down to leveling the area for parking, laying a layer of crushed stone and a layer of sand. Leveling the area for future parking is done manually or with special equipment (bulldozer), depending on the size of the site. In most cases, a pit will need to be dug for parking and excess soil will need to be transported off-site. If parking is created on problem area with soils prone to erosion or subject to very heavy loads, it should be fenced around the perimeter with a retaining curb.
A layer of crushed stone or sand-gravel mixture 10-50 cm thick is poured onto the leveled area, depending on the expected loads. So, for an access road or pedestrian paths it is enough to pour 10-20 cm of crushed stone, for parking cars you will need 15-30 cm of crushed stone, and for trucks already 25-50 cm. To create a drainage layer, any crushed stone not contaminated with clay is suitable, except for limestone . Crushed stone should be compacted thoroughly.
Then a leveling layer of sand 3-15 cm high is laid on the crushed stone. passenger car 5-10 cm of sand will be quite enough. It is better to use clean, fine-grained sand without stones or clay. The sand layer is carefully leveled and compacted using special tool(roller, vibratory plate or vibratory rammer). Note that sand compacts better if you spill it with water.
It is advisable to lay geotextiles (at least 90 g/m2 thick) between the layer of crushed stone and sand, which will prevent sand from being washed out into the crushed stone. It would not be superfluous to lay a layer of geotextile under the crushed stone.
After the underlying “cushion” of crushed stone and sand has been carefully leveled and compacted, you can begin laying the lawn lattice. This process is quite simple and, with a certain skill, should not take much time. An experienced specialist can lay 40 m2 of lawn lattice alone in 1 hour. Individual lattice modules are laid in a certain order on the sand and are easily fastened together with special locks (latches). During the installation process you must follow a number of simple rules :
1. It is better to lay the lawn lattice modules not in a simple pattern, but in a checkerboard pattern. This simple technique will significantly increase the strength of the parking lot.
2. Between the individual modules of lawn gratings, expansion joints (gaps) must be provided, which allow you to avoid troubles associated with seasonal expansion/contraction of plastic. Most manufacturers provide such seams in advance in the design of the gratings.
3. To prevent the gratings from moving horizontally, they are fixed to the base with special fasteners. Some manufacturers build these fasteners (pins) directly into the grilles, others supply them complete with the grilles, and others offer to purchase them separately.
4. If the lawn grate needs to be given a certain curved shape (in places where the parking lot is curved), then this can be easily done by sawing the plastic with any available tool ( circular saw, jigsaw or hacksaw).
Now the laid lawn grates should be filled with fertile soil. It is better to sift the soil. It should be sufficiently loose and clean (without wood, stones and weed residues). During the filling process, it must be periodically compacted, shed with water and, if necessary, topped up. As a result, the level of the fertile layer after planting the grass should coincide with the upper edge of the lawn grid. At the same time, it is important not to overdo it with compaction and not to overcompact the soil.
The last stage of preparing the eco-parking is sowing lawn grass. For sowing in eco-parking areas, lawn grass mixtures made from low-growing grasses that are resistant to trampling and shading are suitable. Before and immediately after sowing, the parking lot must be watered.
The formation of a lawn (from the moment of sowing the grass to the moment of the first mowing of the lawn), depending on weather conditions, takes from 1 to 1.5 months. At this time, it is necessary to exclude mechanical impact on the eco-parking. The car will have to be left somewhere else.
From the moment the lawn is mowed for the first time, the eco-parking is ready for use. At first, there will be tire marks on the lawn, but you should not be afraid of this. Every day the grass will recover faster and faster.
Lawn care in eco-parking lots In general, it is no different from caring for a regular lawn. It also needs to be regularly watered, mowed, fertilized, and winter period clean from ice and protect from de-icing reagents. In addition, you will need to regularly add soil and sow grass seeds in places where bald spots (areas of dead lawn) appear. Unfortunately, no lawn is immune from this phenomenon.
There's one more thing important rule, which must be observed during the operation of the eco-parking. It is unacceptable to leave vehicles in one parking space for more than 3 days. Not a single type of lawn grass can tolerate prolonged shading. The same rule applies to storing construction materials in the parking lot and installing opaque rain shelters.
Eco-parking service life is 5 years. main reason The wear and tear of eco-parking lies not in the lawn gratings (they do not lose their quality for 20-25 years), but in the peculiarities of the development of lawn grasses. The fact is that over time, young grass roots end up above the grate and, as a result, are damaged by the wheels of parked cars.
After the “expiration date” of the eco-parking expires, it must be replaced major renovation: remove the gratings, level the sand “cushion”, change the soil and re-seed the area lawn grasses. The same repairs may be required for certain areas of the lawn that have been exposed to toxic substances (gasoline or oil) during operation.
Sometimes it is recommended to fill the cells of a lawn grid not with soil, but with crushed stone or decorative backfill (bark, wood chips, etc.). This technique is used to mark spaces in large parking lots, to strengthen areas with particularly heavy traffic (wheel tracks), and for decorative purposes (to create patterns).
Lawn grates are used not only to create eco-parking areas.
Areas of application for lawn gratings
- Creation of access roads for vehicles
- Creation of pedestrian and bicycle paths
- Installation of coverings for sports and children's playgrounds, recreation areas, gazebos, patios
- Strengthening erosion-prone slopes, embankments, roadsides, and water embankments
- Construction of runways, platforms for helicopters and small aircraft
- Installation of temporary covering that protects the soil at construction sites and during public events (fairs, exhibitions, festivals, holidays, etc.)
- Creating lawns on the roofs of buildings