This case study comes from a customer called Brian who was looking to create a hard standing parking area for a small car at the front of his home. Instead of creating a gravel driveway or concrete driveway, he decided to create a solid area and put artificial grass over the top to give it a more natural front garden look.
He decided to research paving products that would be easy to install, permeable and also easier to remove than concrete if he wanted to change his front garden in the future. This is when he came across our Ground Reinforcement X-Grid which is a fully recycled plastic grid that is easy to install, SuDS complaint and easy to move around. Brian researched some more, but eventually ordered enough X-Grid to cover his front garden
Preparing The Ground
Brian began his project by removing the existing paving in his front garden. A lot of digging and lifting was required. Once all of the material was removed and disposed off, a base of concrete with loose brick and rock pieces was left.
On top of these Brian laid a layer of hardcore and compacted it down to create a solid and flat sub-base on which the X-Grid would be installed.
Laying & Filling X-Grid
Brian received his pallet of grid a few days before and had been waiting for the sub-base to be finished before unpacking. But with a solid sub-base now in place, the X-Grid could now be installed. Brian laid the X-Grid one panel at a time and simply attached each piece of grid together as he went along using the specially designed slot and peg system.
As you can see from the photos, Brian didn’t lay the full area before filling. He would lay a section and then overfill with sand before moving onto the next section. This was repeated until the entire area was covered in X-Grid and the grid over filled with sand.
Compacting X-Grid & Laying Artificial Grass
The entire area was overfilled with X-Grid as Brian was going to whacker the sand to ensure the entire area was hard standing and there would be no movement at all when walked on or driven on. Brian hired a compactor from a local builders merchant which you can do so. He then went over the entire area multiple times to ensure the floor was flat, hard and level before laying his artificial grass.
Once nicely compacted he began rolling out his artificial grass. Rolling out in strips and securing into the ground, Brian repeated this until the entire front garden was covered. Giving a more natural look to the front of his house whilst remaining a solid and safe parking area.
Conclusion
Brian was and still is very pleased with his new artificial grass parking area made by using X-Grid, Sand and Astro Turf. We agree that using astro turf as the top layer of his parking area looks great and will continue to do so for a long time to come.
A huge thanks to Brian for the fantastic photos of his parking area and the steps he went through to install it. If you have any information or photos to share with us or if you have any questions regarding our products then please do not hesitate to contact us.