Geotextiles - woven, non woven, does it actually matter?

[VDubDan]

Got a reasonable size patio (about 27m2) and I'd like it to be "done once"!

When doing other projects I've never bothered with geotextiles but being on sand, there was definitely a fair bit of migration of Type 1 MOT into the sand before everything firmed up, so I'm gonna use it this time. For the sake of £80 or whatever, it's just a nice bit of piece of min.

But I'm confused by advice - the technical guidance all seems to say use "woven" fabric for stabilisation and separation, and use non-woven for things like drainage and weed prevention. But it seems most people just use non-woven for everything and it's lot easier to buy, and things like Terram T1000 crop up.

Does it matter? Any recommendations/thoughts?

 

[stevie888]

There is an enormous range of geotextiles around for many different purposes in the construction undustry.

Broadly speaking woven tends to be stronger weight for weight but when it comes to separation, which is one of the original applications, the mechanism is to prevent the fines in the soil under migrating up into the base material. We use to use it a lot under haul roads into sites where cheap and quick was the order of the day and non woven does this job well.

There are 2 principle types of non woven. Melded is rather like glas fire mat: the strands are heated and compressed so fuse together. Needle punched is an organised tangle of fibres produced by repeated piercing of the mat by needles, almost 3d knitting. The latter tends to be more flexible and is more commonly used.

Terram 1000 was one of the originals so has tended to become the common genericname for the product like Hoover or JCB