The maintenance of a personal plot is often quite a costly undertaking, since it is constantly necessary to invest considerable funds in improving and refining the territory. In particular, a lot of money "eat" the drainage measures of the same yard. If you do not perform this work, then your home may be at risk, since water from the roofs and snow moisture very negatively affect the condition of the foundation and walls.
What can be used to carry out this kind of work? How can they be cheapened and made the results of their work more durable? Geotextiles are able to help you. This is a synthetic material made from polypropylene fibers, which can be used in conditions of close contact with the soil or other building materials.
Where to use?
Today, this material is very popular in construction, as well as among companies involved in the implementation of drainage works and road construction. He gained such widespread use due to his high durability and unpretentiousness to operating conditions. As with other synthetic polymeric materials, the main distinguishing feature that it boasts is its ultimate durability.
Key positive qualities
Geotextile is also a material known for its excellent resistance to aggressive chemicals. In addition, it perfectly tolerates even frost to -60 and heating to +100 degrees Celsius.
Geotextiles do not decay; they are indifferent to mold and fungus, which easily destroy wood and even some
types of bricks. Plant roots, rodents and insects also can not do anything with it. It should also be noted its high mechanical strength and tear resistance. As a result, geotextile is one of the most favorite materials of road builders, as it allows to achieve high durability of the canvas.
Its other advantage is compactness and perfect undemanding to storage conditions. They sell it in the form of large rolls that can be transported to the place of work, cut in the same place into the required parts. Since the material practically does not absorb water, it does not need to be protected from rain. Even if the roll lies in a puddle, its weight will not change in any way.
Physical properties of geotextiles
All varieties of materials of this class have approximately the same physical characteristics:
- Resilience: geotextile is a material resistant to stress, easily performing a reinforcing function.
- When trying to break the fibers can be lengthened by 45%, which gives it high resistance to puncturing and strength.
- Despite the excellent filtration ability, the fibers do not silt and are not clogged with the smallest particles of soil. The reason is their high smoothness, as a result of which garbage does not stick to them.
- Polypropylene has excellent resistance to UV radiation, and therefore the finished material can easily withstand direct exposure to sunlight.
Thus, it can be used for site separation, reinforcement, filtration and drainage.
Main areas of use
As we have said, in recent years it has been widely used in the laying of the roadway. Geotextile allows you to separate the layers of sand and gravel, as a result of which it is possible to achieve an ideal load distribution on the roadway. This approach can significantly reduce the consumption of sand, increase the pace of laying tracks, as well as reduce the cost of purchasing crushed stone and concrete mix.
In addition, it is indispensable for creating embankments, strengthening slopes in unstable areas. Geotextiles, the characteristics of which we have described, are excellent for fixing soils with poor bearing capacity. Due to its high elasticity and shock-absorbing ability, the resulting structures have excellent mechanical strength and durability. Because of this, the material can be used when laying tracks from tiles and even gravel. It protects the soil from subsidence and mixing with sand or gravel.
By the way, it is thanks to the strength and elasticity that geotextiles are used to design the roof in the form of an inner lining for a bitumen coating.
Due to the fact that in recent years the population has become increasingly demanding on the appearance of their plots, the material has become widespread in landscape design. It perfectly protects the soil from washing off the fertile layer, prevents weed germination, but does not impede access to fertilizer roots. Geotextiles are perfect for creating beaches on the silty banks of rivers and lakes.
Drainage systems
But the most important factor due to which the material has received such recognition by the owners of personal plots, is its ideal adaptability to create drainage systems. If they simply lay a ditch for the drain of meltwater, it will not silt, and therefore it will be required to clean it much less often. Given the polymer origin of the material, it will last more than one year.
Important! If you use geotextiles to create garden plots, it will perfectly protect plants from high groundwater, which otherwise would contribute to rotting of the roots.
Roofing
We have already said that this material can be used during roofing. When used in conjunction with waterproofing membranes, it helps protect roofing materials from rotting and steam penetration. It is due to these same qualities that it can be used to protect the walls of basements and cellars from the penetration of soil water.
Regardless of the area of use, geotextiles demonstrate superior consumer and operational qualities.
Mounting method
How is geotextile laid? It all depends on the scope of its application. Consider the option with tracks.
First you need to carefully prepare the surface of the soil. Stumps, plant roots and large stones are removed. Then the roll of material is carefully rolled out, the joints overlap, and their size should be at least 20-30 cm. It is very important to connect the joints so that moisture or the soil itself does not penetrate between them.
As a rule, a torch is used for this, with which layers of material are simply welded together. In the case of laying a garden path, you can use plastic or metal staples, with which the edges of the sheets are stitched together reliably enough. Then the material is filled with sand, it is compacted, and tiles are laid on top.
Laying during the construction of drainage ditches
First, a ditch of the required depth digs, and a sand-gravel pillow is laid at its bottom. Following are the drainage pipes. It is better to wait a bit with geotextile: first, a layer of coarse sand or small pebbles is placed on the pipe, and only then it is covered with this material. Soil is poured on top and slightly compacted. With this method of laying, the soil will not fall into the pebbles, and the ditch will not silt for a long time.
Please note: drainage geotextiles are strong enough material, but this should not be abused. So, on the surface, which is prepared for the same tracks, there should not be nails or glass. If part of the coating is perforated, the drainage quality will deteriorate sharply, the base of the track will quickly erode by rains and melt water.
Protecting the roof from moisture
In this regard, this material is not widely used in our country, but due to the development of individual construction, it has broad prospects. As in all cases described above, geotextiles (the application of which we have repeatedly discussed) are laid on a flat and well prepared surface.
There should not be large burrs or protruding nails on the roof boards that could damage the material. Rolls are rolled, overlapping edges. In this case, a burner is necessary, since only with its help it is possible to ensure reliable insulation of the roof from moisture by welding the edges of the geotextile with each other. The overlap size is at least 40 cm.
Finally
This material, of course, is a real find for almost all owners of personal plots. It is durable and lightweight, does not rot and protects buildings from moisture.
All the costs of its acquisition will pay off in the shortest possible time, since the same geotextile for drainage allows several times to increase the service life of ditches for the removal of melt and rainwater. They will rarely need to be cleaned, and the roofs on which this material was laid can generally stand for more than a dozen years without needing serious repairs.