Grassy Pavers Beautify Parking Lots and Driveways, and Reduce Cost of Drainage and Water Management
Introducing our newest product line – EcoRaster Grassy Pavers! We’re partnering wth Architek to bring you the latest and greatest in green products: living permeable pavers.
What are Living Permeable Pavers?
Let’s start with the basics: permeable pavers are interlocking concrete pavers that are designed to allow stormwaters to penetrate through public parks, outdoor parking lots, drives, and walkways once installed. More and more, building and landscape architects are turning to the use of permeable paving materials as a way to mitigate stormwater runoff.
Living permeable pavers, or grassy pavers, are a unique twist on traditional paver materials. Instead of the common concrete paver, the EcoRaster grassy pavers start out as a hollow paver form, made using 100% recycled plastic, to create a durable interlocking paver system. These forms are then filled with a quality topsoil and seeded with a custom grass blend. The product sounds deceptively simple, but a great deal of thought and care has gone into the EcoRaster product line. The plastic form provides a durable structure tat’s able to support heavy trucks and withstand general wear over long periods of time while the grass and soil allow storm waters to permeate through to aquifers below while naturally filtering out pollutants. The end result is a product with the strength of pavement and the natural beauty of grass.
“Much like the other products Architek represents and distributes, EcoRaster and Purus is a company that employs a high-quality and performance standard. They back up their products with research and development and uncompromising support.” – Ron, Principal at Architek
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- Pre Grown Green Paving
Why are Permeable Grass Paving Solutions Important?
Stop for a moment to consider your neighborhood. How many roads, sidewalks, and buildings are there? How many of those structures allow water to soak into the ground where it falls? If you live in an urban area, odds are that most of the surfaces you just pictured are impermeable surfaces, meaning water can’t soak through to the ground below. Instead, these waters flow into municipal storm drains and out into local waterways – taking any chemicals or pollutants they picked up along the way right along with them. The resulting deluge of polluted water damages the water quality of local waterways over time and can quickly damage delicate aquatic ecosystems and wildlife.
For many municipalities, aquifers are an important source of safe drinking water for cities and private wells. Permeable paving solutions play a critical supporting role in urban environments by allowing stormwaters to filter down into groundwaters, naturally replenishing the aquifer and ensuring a continued source of fresh water.
“Humans have a need to be in touch with nature. Living buildings allow for this.” – Ron, Principle at Architek
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- Green Permeable Parking Lot
In nature, grasses and other native plants act as a natural sponge and filter, allowing waters to soak deep into the ground (and eventually into aquifers) even as pollutants are trapped in the dense shoots and roots of the plants. By choosing to install grassy pavers rather than working with more traditional concrete materials, property owners can take advantage of the natural filtering properties of living grass to manage stormwater on site, reducing capacity strain on municipal sewers and protecting local waterways.
Stop by our blog: 4 Ways Lawns Benefit the Environment to learn more about the incredible benefits of installing grass on your property!
Who is Architek?
Architek is a Vancouver-based architecture firm that specializes in designing, installing, and maintaining Living Architecture buildings on the West Coast. Over the last ten years, they’ve worked closely with landscape architects and architects to incorporate engineered green roofs, living walls, and facades into building designs, with some truly inspiring results.
More recently, Architek has partnered with our staff here at Western Turf Farms to pre-grow grassy pavers so that an established product can be installed on the job site. By pre-growing the product, we’re able to guarantee a healthy, fully-functional and aesthetically appealing product from day one. This is especially important since it takes a great deal of time and effort to establish grass from seed. We take the guesswork out of the effort!
“When clients look out their window and see fully established systems the day of installation, they are impressed and there is a great sense of pride and accomplishment.” – Ron, Principal at Architek
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- Reinforced Grass Driveway
The Takeaway
At the end of the day, permeable paving solutions like the EcoRaster grassy pavers provide a cost-effective, low-maintenance solution to drainage and dust issues on any site while providing a unique aesthetic for any project, no matter how big or small. We’re proud to partner with Architek to make grassy pavers available to our customers.
