A Guide to Providing & Maintaining Grass Car Parking Areas

Keeping a grassed parking area in working order area can be challenging, especially when it is not prepared correctly and/or protected properly.

A well-maintained and reinforced grass parking area will look safe to park on and provide a sense of trust for those who park there.

There are several key activities that will greatly help to maintain a grass parking area: –

• One is mowing the grass regularly. This will keep the grass at an even height.  This will also tend to help drainage and allow a good flow of water and air to the grass root structure keeping it strong and healthy.
• It is also important to fertilise the grass in the spring and autumn so that it can grow and keep healthy and strong.
• The use of weed killers to remove any unwanted weeds that will weaken the grass root structure and will take nutrients.
• The correct degree of reinforcement and protection to suit needs and expectations.

What are the Causes of Failure on Grass Parking Areas?

The main causes of grass parking areas that become unsupportive and unusable are: –

• Utilising a grassed area as a car park when it is unsuitable to start with. This could be due to several reasons.  Some of the major ones would include extremely bad drainage, inadequate grass, newly sown grass, acute slopes, or unconsolidated soils.
• Asking too much of an existing grassed area without the appropriate reinforcement.
• Lack of good preparation and maintenance that is tailored to suit the expected demands of the grass car park.

How to Select the Right Solution for your Grass Parking Area

Various car parking grass protection mats are available. The optimum conditions to obtain the best performance from Grass Reinforcement Mesh for parking, would be to install the mesh on flat, even, well drained ground that has strong, well-established grass.

In providing the appropriate solution that would result in trustworthy grass car parking areas numerous factors need to be considered: –

• How well does the area drain? Reinforcement meshes are used to strengthen what is already there.  Grass Reinforcement meshes are unlikely to help on very soft or marshy ground.
• How much grass cover is there? The mesh needs strong complete grass cover / structure firstly to support the mesh and, secondly, to entangle with the mesh giving extra strength and stability.  Grassmats reinforcement mesh is shaped to encourage Grass entanglement.
• How often will the car parking area be used? There are two major factors here to consider – how big is the parking area and when will it be used?  For example, if the car parking area was grassed verge along a driveway and parking was required all year round for domestic use only, then, using the medium or heavy grade reinforcement is likely to work well.  If, on the other hand, the mesh was required to be used for everyday parking for a good number of cars – for example at an office or a school – and was on a field and access was across grass to get to the parking spaces, then problems could occur.  Success is likely when the mesh is used within its capabilities especially on the larger projects.
• How big is the car parking area? As a rule, the bigger the car park the more likely damaging attritional factors will come into play and eventually could – if left unchecked or prevented – end up closing the car park.  The larger the car park the higher the likely speed of the moving vehicles will become.

Case History Examples of Larger Scale Installation of Grass Reinforcement Mesh

On the Grassmats website there are case studies. One of them is at The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust.  Here, Easter holiday, summer holiday, and event parking only was required for up to 80 cars.  On site there is well grassed and well-draining area that that was suitable for ground reinforcement mesh.  On this occasion medium grade was chosen as the grass parking was not going to be used during winter months or even most days – only the warmer months and when required for events.  Another case study on the Grassmats website is for Claremont Fan School.  In this case, the Grass Protection Mesh chosen was the Heavy grade. This is because, although draining well, the area is going to be used most days, all through the year as a pickup/drop area for the parents.

Please visit a look at our Grass Reinforcement Mesh page, which lists the best product for different grass parking area uses, or direct any questions you may have to our team of experts who will be able to advise and come up with a solution tailored to your needs.

If Grass Mesh is Unsuitable

If Grass Reinforcement Mesh is unsuitable for your needs, we have a few products that may work for your situation, so please contact us for advice on sales@grassmats.co.uk or on 01260 583 020!

If Grass Mesh is Suitable for Your Car Park