Due to the complexity of soil mechanics, geotextiles are crucial materials for civil engineering and hardscaping projects. Geotextiles help control erosion and improve soil characteristics to support the construction project. Most geotextiles come in woven and non-woven versions, which serve different purposes.
“As an expert in your field, you understand that installing the wrong geotextile can cause delays and extra labor,” says Americover Account Manager Jason Treiger. “Let the team at Americover help you procure the right materials for your project.”
Read below to learn about how geotextiles function, and the difference between woven and non-woven fabrics.
Related Article: Top Liners and Geotextiles for Bioswales
What are Geotextiles?
Geotextiles have five different functioning purposes in construction projects: moisture barrier, filtration, reinforcement, stabilization, and separation.
- Moisture Barrier: When used as a moisture barrier, geotextile fabric stops water from passing through. This is needed in projects to protect the top layer from damaging moisture or chemical damage.
- Filtration: A geotextile installed for filtration allows water to permeate while filtering out particles, especially when using drain pipe debris netting to sort out larger debris early on.
- Reinforcement: Geotextiles strengthen the ground, making it suitable to hold weight or sustain frequent traffic.
- Stabilization: Geotextiles make it possible to complete construction where it might have otherwise been impossible to build.
- Separation: Many projects are impossible unless the sub-ground and additional materials remain separate. Geotextiles create a workable barrier.
What’s the Difference Between Woven and Non-woven Geotextiles?
Woven geotextiles are fabrics made by weaving yarns together in a uniform fashion. These materials provide separation, stabilization, and reinforcement, but often have low drainage. This makes the material ideal for situations where you must keep water away from the sub-ground.
Ideal applications with woven geotextiles include:
- Driveways
- Roads
- Streets
- Highways
Non-woven geotextiles are composed of yarns connected randomly throughout the material, often resulting in a felt-like texture. Non-woven geotextiles are ideal tools for separation and filtration. Non-woven geotextiles are ideal for drainage.
Ideal applications for non-woven geotextiles include:
- Gravel Driveways
- French Drains
- Concrete Overlay
- Retaining Walls
- Hillside stabilization
The Best Geotextiles for Your Civil Engineering or Hardscaping Project
The experts at Americover can help you find the best product for your needs from our catalog. Our product solutions include:
- Enka® Solutions are high-performance and environmentally conscious geosynthetic drainage products. These easy-to-install solutions are ideal for erosion control, drainage and moisture control, soil reinforcement, noise reduction, radon mitigation, and more.
- Delta®-Drain is a drainage board used in waterproofing applications to allow water to flow away from the building foundation. It prevents hydrostatic pressure build-up by controlling the flow of below-grade water, and it can also be used as drainage matting underneath the floor vapor barrier in a crawl space.
- Non-woven Geotextile Fabrics are either mechanically entangled with barbed needles or spun onto a collecting belt and bonded with heat to be used for filtration and separation or as an overlay.
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As an Americover customer, you will receive the personalized support of a dedicated account manager to simplify the ordering process and ensure the best solution for every one of your projects. Our friendly, knowledgeable staff is here to answer your questions and fulfill orders Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. If you would like to speak with a representative contact us or call us at 760-388-6294.