Eco trellis — how to lay it on slopes, uneven ground and gardens with drainage?

In the con­tem­po­rary design of out­door spaces, land­scape archi­tects are increas­ing­ly turn­ing to solu­tions cre­at­ed with envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns. Eco grid is per­fect­ly in line with this trend, mak­ing it pos­si­ble to hard­en the sur­face while pre­serv­ing its nat­ur­al abil­i­ty to absorb water. While instal­la­tion on flat ground is not too dif­fi­cult, appli­ca­tion on slopes, embank­ments or areas with an irreg­u­lar pro­file requires thor­ough knowl­edge as well as care­ful exe­cu­tion.

In this blog post we will pro­vide detailed guid­ance on lay­ing of the eco grid in these more demand­ing con­di­tions. You will learn how to ensure the dura­bil­i­ty and safe­ty of the struc­ture.

Table of contents

• Is eco-grat­ing suit­able for slopes and slop­ing land?
• Eco-grat­ing — how to lay it cor­rect­ly on a slope?
  • 1. slope angle analy­sis
  • 2. Sur­face prepa­ra­tion and pro­fil­ing
  • 3. sub­struc­ture on the slope
  • 4. anchor­ing the eco grid
  • 5. Arrang­ing and com­bin­ing mod­ules
• How do you lay an eco grid on uneven ground?
• Lay­ing eco-grids in gar­dens with drainage
• How much does it cost to lay an eco-grid on a slope or dif­fi­cult ter­rain?
• Eco-grid — how to lay it prop­er­ly? Sum­ma­ry

Is eco-grating suitable for slopes and sloping land?

A def­i­nite yes! The eco-grat­ing is one of the most effi­cient and eco­nom­i­cal solu­tions for rein­forc­ing embank­ments, drainage ditch­es and slopes in gar­dens. How­ev­er, before we move on to the instal­la­tion itself, it is worth look­ing at the ben­e­fits of using this prod­uct in such con­di­tions:

• Ground con­sol­i­da­tion — the grid struc­ture acts as an inter­nal rein­force­ment for the soil, cre­at­ing a sta­ble grid that pre­vents it from slid­ing.
• Pro­tec­tion against leach­ing — its cel­lu­lar struc­ture effec­tive­ly pro­tects the sub­strate from ero­sion caused by pre­cip­i­ta­tion and wind.
• Increased ground sta­bil­i­sa­tion - This solu­tion is ide­al in areas where veg­e­ta­tion has dif­fi­cul­ty tak­ing root due to run-off water or when you need a green, dri­ve-through garage entrance locat­ed below ground lev­el.

How­ev­er, it is advis­able to exer­cise cau­tion on very steep slopes (in excess of 45–50 degrees), as the very eco grid may not be suf­fi­cient. In such sit­u­a­tions, addi­tion­al struc­tures such as retain­ing walls or gabions should be con­sid­ered.

Eco-grating — how to lay it correctly on a slope?

The cor­rect instal­la­tion of an eco-grat­ing on slop­ing ground requires more pre­ci­sion than on flat sur­faces. It is the way in which the sub­strate is pre­pared, the choice of the right lay­ers and the sta­bil­i­sa­tion of the struc­ture that deter­mine the dura­bil­i­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty of the entire sur­face. In order to ensure that the whole process runs smooth­ly, and to ensure max­i­mum dura­bil­i­ty, it is advis­able to go through the steps of instal­la­tion step by step:

1. slope angle analysis

Care­ful­ly mea­sure the slope of the ter­rain before pur­chas­ing the mate­ri­als. This val­ue will deter­mine the amount and type of sta­bil­is­ing ele­ments required.

• Slope to 10–15% — you can pro­ceed almost as if you were on flat ground using stan­dard instal­la­tion pro­ce­dures.
• Slope above 15% — requires the use of anchors (pins) for added sta­bil­i­ty.
• Per­mis­si­ble angles — Most plas­tic grilles avail­able on the mar­ket tol­er­ate slopes of up to 45 degrees. Above this val­ue, the shear forces can be too intense.

2. Surface preparation and profiling

The sub­strate must be uni­form and have ade­quate bear­ing capac­i­ty.

• Turf removal - The top organ­ic lay­er (approx­i­mate­ly 10–20 cm) should be removed until sta­ble native soil is achieved. Leav­ing plant mat­ter under­neath can lead to decom­po­si­tion and sub­se­quent set­tle­ment of the slope.
• Align­ment — On slopes, the ground should be formed into a smooth, uni­form plane, free of depres­sions and con­vex­i­ties.

3. substructure on the slope

This is one of the key points that dis­tin­guish­es slope instal­la­tion from flat ground instal­la­tion.

• Type of aggre­gate — Only use crushed aggre­gate (chock, grav­el) with sharp, angu­lar edges (e.g. 0–31 mm frac­tion). Riv­er aggre­gate (peb­bles) can act as rolling ele­ments, pro­mot­ing slid­ing of the lay­er.
• Geo­t­ex­tile — is indis­pens­able. Spread it direct­ly on top of the native soil to sep­a­rate the base lay­er from the soil and pre­vent the sub-base from wash­ing out.
• Cel­lu­lar geogrid - In the case of very steep or loose soils (e.g. sandy), it is advis­able to apply an addi­tion­al lay­er of cel­lu­lar geogrid, filled with bal­last, under the eco-grat­ing. This will cre­ate a sol­id sup­port for the top grid.

4. anchoring the eco grid

On slopes, grav­i­ty acts much more inten­sive­ly, so the grid mod­ules alone are not enough, they need to be solid­ly anchored.

• Types of anchors:
  • Plas­tic pins (approx. 25 cm) — suit­able for small­er slopes and lighter soils.
  • Ribbed steel bars type „J” (40–60 cm) — for heavy, clayey soils and steep slopes.
• Anchor arrange­ment - use a min­i­mum of 4 anchors per m². Anchor the upper and low­er zones of the slope most dense­ly, this is where grav­i­ty acts most strong­ly.

5. Arranging and combining modules

It is rec­om­mend­ed that the grates are laid from the base of the slope towards the top of the slope. This allows sub­se­quent rows to rest on already installed and sta­bilised ele­ments. When secur­ing the banks, the low­er edge of the entire struc­ture should rest on a sol­id kerb or con­crete retain­ing foot­ing. This ele­ment will take the pres­sure of the entire pave­ment, pre­vent­ing it from mov­ing.

How do you lay an eco grid on uneven ground?

Eco-grat­ing, although it has a cer­tain flex­i­bil­i­ty, is not able to adapt to sig­nif­i­cant irreg­u­lar­i­ties with­out risk of dam­age. Prop­er instal­la­tion there­fore requires atten­tion to a few impor­tant prin­ci­ples to achieve a sta­ble and durable pave­ment:

• The prin­ci­ple of „lev­el­ling up” — Any uneven­ness should be lev­elled out with a sub-base (sand/cement, grit). Avoid lay­ing grat­ings „by force” on pro­trud­ing roots or stones, as they may break under load.
• Match­ing — The eco-grat­ing mod­ules are easy to cut with an angle grinder or chain­saw. This makes it easy to get around tree trunks, boul­ders or inspec­tion man­holes, ensur­ing a pre­cise fit.
• Sup­port — Make sure that each ele­ment is ful­ly seat­ed on the floor. A hol­low space under the grille is a cer­tain­ty of dam­age if it is run over by a vehi­cle.

Laying eco-grids in gardens with drainage

As a per­me­able sur­face, the eco-grat­ing works superbly with drainage sys­tems to pro­mote effi­cient water man­age­ment on the prop­er­ty. A well-exe­cut­ed instal­la­tion ensures that the grat­ing not only allows water to pass through, but also helps to direct it into the ground or into the drainage sys­tem.

It is impor­tant to remem­ber, how­ev­er, that a trel­lis alone will not cope with a water­logged area if the native soil is poor­ly per­me­able — such as clay. In such a sit­u­a­tion, the water will pass through the grat­ing, but will be retained on the imper­me­able lay­er, cre­at­ing pud­dles under the struc­ture. There­fore, on dif­fi­cult soils, it is nec­es­sary to use a drain to car­ry excess mois­ture away already from the sub­struc­ture lev­el.

The drainage pipes should be in the aggre­gate lay­er, under the geo­t­ex­tile and with a suit­able fil­ter lag­ging. In this way, the eco-grat­ing acts as a wide „col­lec­tor” that col­lects water from the sur­face and trans­fers it direct­ly to the drainage sys­tem.

How much does it cost to lay an eco-grid on a slope or difficult terrain?

Installing an eco-grid on slopes, in gar­dens with drainage or on uneven ground is usu­al­ly more expen­sive than a stan­dard instal­la­tion. This is due to the need for anchors, geo­t­ex­tile, addi­tion­al sub-base or geogrids, as well as more labour. The price depends on the angle of the ter­rain, the type of soil and the extent of the nec­es­sary pro­tec­tion, so in such cas­es the cost is deter­mined indi­vid­u­al­ly. This is the only way to reli­ably deter­mine, how much does it cost to lay an eco grid under dif­fi­cult con­di­tions.

Eco-grid — how to lay it properly? Summary

Invest­ing in an eco-grid on slopes, uneven sur­faces or gar­dens with drainage is a well-con­sid­ered deci­sion with many ben­e­fits. By keep­ing in mind the guide­lines out­lined for ground prepa­ra­tion, prop­er anchor­ing and ade­quate infill, you will cre­ate a durable and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly pave­ment. While the ini­tial cost may seem sig­nif­i­cant, the long-term sav­ings asso­ci­at­ed with stormwa­ter man­age­ment, as well as the pos­i­tive impact on the envi­ron­ment, make it a worth­while ven­ture.

We hope that this guide has cleared up any doubts and pro­vid­ed the nec­es­sary infor­ma­tion for your project. If you have any fur­ther ques­tions, please feel free to con­tact us!