Vodaland - 2" GeoCell - 100% Permeable for Walking Paths, Patios and Erosion Control, Size 9 ft x 17 ft Black

I love this product. I was going to install a permeable paver parking pad for my camper van before I realized how expensive and labor intensive it was going to be. Other products designed specifically for this purpose were unaffordable. But this geogrid did everything I needed it to and saved me more money than it cost to buy two sheets! I excavated 6” and tamped down a shallow layer of #57 angular limestone with no dust, then stretched the geogrid and anchored with 12” rebar stakes (which was overkill). To join two sheets of the product, I trimmed one sheet’s terminal sections so that I could overlap them precisely onto the other sheet’s ends, and then zip tied them. It worked like a charm. The grid was easy to cut with tin snips, and wasn’t as hard to stretch out as people claim. A partner definitely helps, but it isn’t impossible to do on your own. We did the grid and gravel moving in one day. The parking pad looks amazing and is everything I hoped it would be! I’m so grateful for this product. However, the frustration it took to get accurate and consistent information from Smartartpark for planning my project unfortunately dropped my review one star. Nowhere on the website are there detailed installation instructions. It’s basically “get a beer, stretch it out, fill with gravel, yay!” You’re never told exactly what kind of gravel you need—should it have fines or not? Should it be limestone only or will crushed concrete work? How many stakes do you need? Where exactly do you need to anchor the stakes? etc. You see the seller answers questions here, which is nice, but the answers are wildly inconsistent: “Any gravel will work!” and then “You need 3/4” or larger gravel!” “You can use any thickness of our product for a parking pad!” while on one tiny part of the website you finally see that the 2” grid isn’t suitable for parking. “You don’t need to have a base layer of gravel for parking!” and then “A 2” or so gravel base is a great idea!” No consistency or clarity on the number of stakes you need, what kind, why you would choose one kind over the other, etc. The one place I did see an estimate for stakes answered by the seller, it wasn’t nearly enough in the end, but it was also completely unnecessary to use expensive rebar J-hooks as was suggested. Get your answers straight, Smartartpark! For careful planners who are trying to get all their ducks in a row, you have the power to make planning, buying, and installing your amazing product completely hassle-free! I was so irritated by the unprofessionalism and lack of attention to detail in the seller responses/product documentation that I almost didn’t buy this product. I’m really glad it didn’t hold me back in the end. What I do hope is that this review encourages the seller to do some quality control on their question responses, website copy, and product documentation, and present clear and consistent information across all of it.

Very pleased with this product. It is sturdy, easy to cut and easy to zip tie where you need to piece it. We have a 70’ walkway that was originally stones the original owners sourced from the property. They were different heights, shapes, and sizes. (See photo) Unsafe. Lived with them for almost a year and decided I had to make a change. We priced pavers and they were $6500-$8500. Nope nope nope. Decided on gravel as our driveway is also gravel, it would maintain a rustic feel to go with our log home, and very affordable (in total around $600.) We first dug up the menacing rocks and used them to create a short wall on either side of the walkway. Leveled out the red clay to a 4 inch depth. The walkway is 6’ wide for a 12’ expanse in front of the porch steps, then makes a turn and is 3’ wide the rest of the way. We chose to not put in a 2” layer of gravel but instead go with the 4” webbing without a gravel base. May be overkill for a walkway but we never want to have to rip it all out and start again. Laid out the webbing in the 6’x12’ section first and filled. Then did a 17’ x 3’ section, filled. Finally the remaining walkway was laid out and filled. As we did a section we reused the stakes we bought (55 count) except for those we wanted to keep for extra stability such as at end of runs and around corners. We used 6 cubic yards of #57 gravel. Although the river walk would have been pretty we were told it wouldn’t pack down and be as stable over the long run. We had enough webbing left over (various shapes) to create a 3’ x 15’ walkway on the side of the house in front of our crawl space. It required time consuming cutting and piecing with zip ties and there were several pretty large cells but it works. We had an extra 3 cubic yards of gravel delivered for that, for around our Generac and to replenish the driveway.

Dec 2019 update - Came here to buy more and I happened to read my own review from 2017, lol and thought I will post an update. Read the original review that is below this update. The area I fixed using this grid is still solid, even more solid than when I installed. Not one bit of top soil eroded. All the plants took off great and recruited additional sediments during flood events. I have since then planted dogwoods (just inserted cuttings, so I don't have to cut through the grids. I also planted a red maple (had to cut out a few cells to fit the 2 gallon root ball). Everything took off and the entire area looks great, I have not done anything to maintain other then pull out pesky grape ivy weed every once on in a while. Original early 2017 review: I live on a river front property. The peninsula in my backyard where 2 rivers meet was eroded badly and the county did nothing to resolve this even though it was covered under an easement. So instead of watching my property get washed away, I tamped the area (the slope was literally shaking when I was tamping and I know it would have slided sooner than later), installed a geogrid (triax, earthlock brand) and then this product (which should be called geocell or geoweb to avoid confusing it with traditional geogrid) in conjunction. The triaxial geogrid somewhat acts like a compacted base (similar to like turf reinforcement grids). I filled the cells with the falling/eroded clay hanging off the cliff, sand, stone, silt, compost what ever I could find around. I topped it off with some fertile loamy silt from a recent flooding that was dumped around. I planted grasses (mondo, liriope, sedge whatever else I could find around the area), ground cover plants etc and mulched. There was a record rain fall event week after I installed and not one bit of soil washed off. (I had pinned the plants knowing I will lose them if it floods before the roots establish). Product is easy to use, I just wished it was a little cheaper as I need lot to cover the entire embankment.

I have a fairly steep hill where I'm adding steps down to a future patio area, and didn't want to cut the grass in this area. So I decided to put rock in place and make it pretty much maintenance free. I figured the rocks would slide down, so I used the Geocell product to hold them. I started by cutting the grass very short, then killing it with herbicide. Then landscape fabric held with the pins that are sold for that purpose. I bought extra pins - some metal and some plastic - to also hold the Geocell. The Geocell is pretty flexible and can be stretched and expanded to cover more area. Using pins every 6 feet or so along the top edge and along the steps. The big rocks along the other edge held the fabric and the Geocell in place. Once an edge , you can then pull it into place across the area. I needed to then go back and pin it every 8-10 feet or so throughout the area to keep it in place. You can see that we used pretty large rocks so the weight of the rocks should hold the Geocell, which in turn holds the rocks. It's been several months and nothing has moved. The Geocell is nice stuff. Be aware that it doesn't necessarily stand straight up. Some of the dividers between the cells will lay down, but that's OK. Even lying down, they help hold the rocks. It's easy to cut with a utility knife and I think even a heavy scissors would cut it. I'm very happy with the product.

Used this over landscape cloth in a horse pasture. VERY easy to install, cuts easily with branch clippers to shape as needed. I used bailing twine instead of metal anchors because it is in a horse paddock so if the gravel/dirt erodes I didn't get a metal object protruding. I'm a little 66 year old woman and did this project by myself. My paddock area is about 300 sq ft and the project took me about 5 days in total from measuring to laying the base layer to securing the geo grid and then moving the gravel with a 4 foot bucket from the pile left by the truck. As i filled the grid with gravel, I could immediately ride the tractor over it to fill the next area because the grid is that strong. That part went very quickly. The most time consuming part of the project was tying the geo grid together so that it was all connected and stable, but certainly easy enough! I already ordered more and am doing areas through my horse gates that get trampled down and become muddy messes. Using this instead of hard geo grids, I was able to follow the lay of the land without the need to level everything, therefore not impeding the flow of rain water. I highly recommend this product!

In the past few months I've now used this product, the same thing but 4" tall version of this product (another brand) and a set of hard plastic grids...all of which to do the same job for me, which is to hold gravel where I put it. Each product does that job but this 2" stretch out grid was far behind the other two. As others have mentioned, it is hard to keep down and in place, even with lots of stakes. I used 12" lawn staples but it felt like I needed them every few feet because of the give of the material. By contrast, the 4" version was much more sturdy and much less likely to rise up as I worked the gravel into each pocket. A word of warning no matter what kind of grid you go with, once it starts to rise up, it's almost impossible to get back to the original level...the nature of gravel and gravity. But this 2" tall grid shifts and lifts like a leaf in the wind. If you use this I recommend completely covering it with your gravel by at least an inch to minimize the chances of anything or anybody accidentally pulling it up. This is only good for light traffic, like walking or maybe a small riding mower. Do NOT use for vehicle traffic. Use the 4" material for that.

My husband bought these. He said they worked perfectly for what he was doing. Great product, fast shipping! Thanks!

The other reviewers apparently are using this for yards and landscaping. And while it may work for those applications, it doesn't work at all for use in parking areas (or where vehicles will drive). We spent a miserably hot day in late August building an extension to our driveway using pea gravel with this grid. The problem is that as vehicles are driven on this product, it flexes like a cheap plastic bag and the gravel is displaced. Each time a vehicle is driven on the grid, it comes out of the ground more and the gravel backfills underneath it. My wife and I have almost killed ourselves by going face-first onto our concrete driveway due to tripping over this stuff as we get out of our vehicle. Frankly, it's very dangerous and now I have to spend money to replace it and time to install the new product. Highly NOT recommended!! Edit: The two indications I saw that led me to believe this item could be used with pea gravel were 1) the top picture showing it being used with pea gravel (see my third attached picture), and 2) the fifth bullet at the top specifically stating "Use with grass, soil, or gravel." Pea gravel is "gravel." Both are misleading, and not a very fair marketing practice. I guess the lesson here is to read the fine print and not assume based on the pictures shown or the bullets stating to the contrary. Edit (09/16/2018): I just finished the project to redo the driveway extension...without the geo ground grid. After tossing the $150 geo ground grid in the trash, we went back with straight 3/4" crushed limestone gravel...and it turned out great (see picture)! Although the geo ground grid "might" be useful in areas prone to erosion, the inherent stability of the 3/4" crushed limestone makes the geo ground grid superfluous. My recommendation is to use the $150 you would have used for a geo ground grid to help defray the cost of the limestone gravel.