For many people, they can’t imagine have anything but a paved blacktop driveway for their home. This does make some sense. After all, traditionally paved driveways are most people grew up with and are used to. Because of this, they expect things to look a certain way. Cars also, one generally thinks, would drive better on a driveway that mimics roads.
When people do think about non-traditional driveways, they tend to think of gravel driveways, natural stone driveways, or completely unpaved driveways, like dirt. Generally speaking, these aren’t what you want. Rather, they’re a cheaper alternative to asphalt paving for your driveway. However, what many people don’t consider, is a concrete grass grid driveway.
It’s worth pointing out that a concrete grass grid driveway isn’t just patches of grass that you pull onto. That would only lead to your car killing the grass that it’s sitting on. Instead, they’re interlocking grids, which evenly distribute the weight of your card to hold it. This allows grass to grow around it, making it a concrete grass grid driveway that is both durable and beautiful. It’s so fully functioning that it even works with snowplows.
In other words, a concrete grass grid driveway is more than a viable alternative to an asphalt driveway. It’s a downright attractive one and looks beautiful with any garage door service. Here are five different reasons why you may want to consider installing a grass driveway for your home.
Grass Driveways Help to Prevent Flooding and Runoff
There are a few incredibly important things that installing a concrete grass grid driveway can do. One of them is that it helps reduce runoff and can actually prevent flooding. Runoff is a term to describe rainwater once it has fallen to the ground. From there, it runs off from where it landed and goes into the nearest waterway. Typically, as it goes it collects nutrients from the soil, bringing them towards the water. The issue is that it doesn’t just bring nutrients. Chemicals and other debris will also be brought into the waterways. From there, they change the chemical composition, effectively poisoning the water. The water then runs from stream to river to lake or ocean. This means that runoff can negatively impact ecosystems far from where it occurs.
On pavement, most of the water that falls onto it will runoff. Unfortunately, there are also more chemicals and pollutants there. This means that runoff from a driveway and other pavement is prevalent and bad for the environment. However, this doesn’t occur with a concrete grass grid driveway, as the roots can stop the water and suck it up.
The roots of the grass are important in another key way. They help to prevent floods from forming. This is good for a few reasons. First, you won’t have to worry about parking in mud or stepping out into a puddle. You also won’t have any damage to your yard or the surrounding area from a flood. So, as your yard receives a water treatment, the grass will help to safely remove the extra water, like a seamless gutter.
They Can Prevent Erosion After Tree Removal
Plenty of people look out to their yard and want to cut down on trees in it. There are several reasons why this might be the right option for your yard. You may have a yard with a lot of trees in it already, and you want to create space to install a patio, pool, or simply have more space. Other people may consider repurposing trees that are already in their yard, like making garden wood chips of the trees, using a stump grinder, or by going through a forestry mulching service. However, there are side effects of this that you need to be aware of, like erosion.
Erosion is something that people commonly associate with beaches that are falling into the ocean and being blown away by the wind. However, it’s possible anywhere. Crumbling ground can be absolutely devastating, damaging structures around them and ruining your yard. A paved driveway won’t help you avoid this once you’ve eliminated those trees either. So, how do you prevent it, and why might it happen once you remove trees from the yard?
Simply, when you disrupt the ground, it is at risk of erosion. Tree removal, in particular removing their roots that hold the ground in place oftentimes, does this and makes the soil less compact and looser. This is why when erosion is discussed at the beach dunes are such an important part of the discussion. The roots hold the sand as much together as possible. So, if you replace the tree roots in your yard with grass roots from the concrete grass grid driveway, you can help to prevent some level of erosion in your yard.
Grass Driveways May Be Your Best Legal Option
One of the best ways to make your home better to live in, or as a way to add value to your home, is to build an add-on or extension. Oftentimes, these are done in the form of a driveway or sunroom. This will add to the square footage of your home and give you a new practical space. There is a catch to doing this, however. You will need a lot of permits for the construction and to follow local zoning laws.
Depending on where you live, there is a good chance that there are laws that dictate how close to another property you may build a structure. Furthermore, there are often laws that dictate how much of your land can have a structure built on it, and how much of it needs to stay a green space of some kind. Where this is the case, it is possible that your driveway may be in violation of these local ordinances and laws. So, you will need a different solution to park your car. This is where that concrete grass grid driveway comes into play, as it is a way of getting around the issue and still having a driveway, despite these ordinances.
It’s important to read up on local laws and regulations to understand what you can build on your property. This way you won’t be at risk of fines or any other issues due to what you’re planning to build on your property. You may just live somewhere where a grass driveway is the best option for you.
Traditional Driveways Are Harder to Maintain
One thing that most people don’t consider before installing an asphalt driveway is just how difficult it can be to maintain over time. The reality is that these can have serious issues. For one, cracks and potholes form easily, particularly in cold weather climates. These will need to be fixed, which is a difficult process to do yourself. In other words, you’ll probably need to find someone to come in and fix the driveway for you, which becomes expensive quickly.
Furthermore, and particularly in cold weather climates, where the driveway meets the road can create some major issues. Oftentimes, the two are made with different mixtures, so they’re uneven. When cold weather comes, and the road freezes and thaws, this will create cracks. They will almost pull apart, creating issues for cars as they pull into and out of the driveway. Furthermore, concrete needs to be power washed to be cleaned. This requires either buying or renting a power washer, which can get expensive quickly. That’s before you consider just how difficult a power washer is to operate, and the amount of time and energy you will spend trying to clean the driveway.
You are going to have to worry about all of this maintenance, but a traditional asphalt driveway offers you nothing more than a gravel, dirt, or grass driveway does. So, why take on this extra work? After all, there is very little work that comes with maintaining a grass driveway. You only have to cut the grass that grows on it, as well as make sure that the grass gets enough water. Of course, this isn’t really extra work. You already need to water and mow your lawn once a week or so, anyways.
So, when it comes to maintaining a grass driveway, it’s much easier than many people think.
A Grass Driveway is Great for Your Health
A lot of people turn towards a concrete grass grid driveway because it makes their yard much more of a green space. This is something that people like for tons of different reasons, and it can be seen in how neatly they treat their yards. Oftentimes, people like to have more grass and plant life in their life because spending time outside in nature, or in a garden makes them feel happier. This may even be in their subconscious, as they don’t think about it, but they do walk away from these types of things in a better, calmer, and happier headspace.
By installing a concrete grass grid driveway, you can help bring this feeling home. It is less concrete in your life and more green space. It is expanding the part of your yard and outdoor space that will let you find that send of satisfaction and happiness at home, as well as when you go out into nature.
There are a lot of other benefits that come from bringing more grass to the area around you. Humans breathe in oxygen, but once it has gone through the body it becomes carbon dioxide. Plants do the exact opposite. They take in carbon dioxide, before emitting oxygen. In this is one of the most important relationships to life on Earth. This way, the plants never run out of carbon dioxide, and people never run out of oxygen. Unfortunately, due to deforestation, particularly deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest, there is less and less oxygen being produced by plants. However, there are small ways to reverse this. One of them is by having a grass driveway, which means that more oxygen will be produced in your yard. In turn, the air will be better and you may even find that it’s easier to breathe in and around your yard.
This all comes down to a couple of things. First, that a green driveway could help to make you happier than you’d be with a traditional driveway, and at the very least it will make you feel calmer to be around nature at home. Furthermore, it will help to keep the air in your yard pure and clean. Of course, that’s all looking at the impact on a very micro-level. Including the help preventing runoff and erosion that comes with a concrete grass grid driveway, as well as the extra oxygen it will produce, choosing a green driveway is a great and responsible environmental choice. It may have a small impact in the grand scheme of things, but everything does matter.
At the end of the day, the concrete grass grid driveway isn’t going to be for everyone. Between traditionalists who want to stick with something that they know and expect, like asphalt, and people who don’t have anything against non-traditional driveways, but they just don’t like the way a grass driveway looks, there are plenty of people who don’t love the idea. For many people, however, the concrete grass grid driveway is a near-perfect option for a driveway. For one, grass driveways produce oxygen, help to reduce potentially harmful runoff that can poison entire ecosystems, and prevent further or future erosion. They can also create more green space in your yard, which makes your yard much bigger for your personal use and more enjoyable to be in for you. In other words, this is better for your physical health, mental health, and the environment as a whole. This is what tons of people are looking for as they make decisions in your life. So, why not start making this change in the driveway?