Grass Driveways: Hot New Design Trend
June 20, 2016 6:22 pm
Most people envision a solid, single slab of concrete when they think of a driveway. The very real and devastating drought in California, though, has caused many homeowners to rethink how they construct their hardscapes. This shift in thinking has allowed permeable driveway design to take root. Also known as a permeable driveway, this new design has businesses and residents seeing water savings in surprising ways.
What Is a Permeable Driveway?
Grass paver driveways still have chunks of concrete, but they are designed and laid out in such a way that water is allowed to seep through, either through squares, or other designs created. With the drought going on, any rainfall quickly becomes problematic. The earth is dry and hard, making water absorption difficult. Heavy rain can quickly create landslides, severe runoff, flash flooding and numerous other problems. Porous driveway pavers let the water seep into the ground without simply running off and pooling, causing other problems.
Advantages
In addition to better water surface management, this new driveway design allows water to reach more of the areas surrounding the driveway directly. This has two huge benefits: It reduces the need for man-produced water for these areas, and it naturally cools the surrounding area to lower temperatures than a single concrete slab can. The overall appearance of the driveway is much more aesthetically pleasing than traditional options. It can be made of many different materials including stone, brick, concrete, pervious concrete, grasscrete, river rock, gravel, glass, and others.
You can have these driveways professionally installed or take it upon yourself to do it with a little bit of research. When you jump on this trend, your home or business may be able to earn credits through a green building program. Not only are these driveways environmentally friendly, but they are also extremely low maintenance and stylish!
Establishing a Useful Trend
It’s up to all of the residents and businesses of Palos Verdes and other areas of California to do what we can to ease the burden of a drought. A permeable driveway is just one simple way to let rainfall do its work to naturally nurse our ground back to good health.
