A damaged lawn is not what you want from a weekend spent doing yard work. But it is an easy mistake to make when you use heavy equipment or machinery on your lawn. Machinery such as lawnmowers, weed eaters, trimmers, and rototillers can all damage your lawn.
How to protect lawn from heavy equipment effectively is to put down a protective barrier beneath the grass. Barriers such as lawn protection mats, plywood, and heavy-duty tarps work well and can protect your lawn from the damage of heavy equipment.
This article will discuss more on how to protect your lawn from damage when using heavy equipment. You’ll also learn some useful tips for how to lay down a protective barrier in your yard.
Contents
- The Impact of Heavy Equipment on Lawns
- How to Prevent Lawn Damage from Heavy Equipment
- 1. Use heavy equipment when the ground is dry
- 2. Cover your lawn with a heavy-duty tarp
- 3. Use plywood to protect your lawn
- 4. Lay down lawn protection mats
- Ground Protection Mats for Heavy Equipment
- Lawn Protection from Cars
- 1. Parking Curb Strip
- 2. Car Parking Mats for Grass
- 3. Cones and Barrels
- How to Protect Lawns from Wheelbarrow
- TuffTrak AlturnaMAT Ground Protection Mat
- How to Protect Lawn from Heavy Equipment (FAQs)
- 1. How do you drive on grass without damaging it?
- 2. Which equipment is used for ground protection?
- 3. How do I protect my lawn from tires?
- Author
The Impact of Heavy Equipment on Lawns
Using heavy equipment on your lawn can cause some serious damage. Any machine with moving blades, spindles, or rollers is capable of causing irreparable harm to your lawn grass.
Grass blades can easily be torn or ripped by the moving blades and knives of heavy equipment. The weight of the equipment can sink into the soil and compact it, making it difficult for grass to grow.
It’s not always the aesthetic damage that heavy equipment cause on your lawn that you have to worry about. Sometimes the damage is beneath the surface and not visible. Often, compaction in the soil means your grass will take longer to grow and may not be as healthy.
How to Prevent Lawn Damage from Heavy Equipment
Protecting your lawn from heavy equipment is an important step in keeping your lawn healthy and beautiful. The simplest way to do so is by putting down a protective barrier on the grass around the equipment.
Below are the top tips for lawn protection from heavy equipment you should consider.
1. Use heavy equipment when the ground is dry
Using heavy equipment on wet ground can cause severe damage to your lawn. The weight of the machine will force the grass apart and make deep ruts in the lawn.
A wet ground makes the grass more vulnerable to damage and makes the soil more likely to compact. With hollow and compacted earth, it’s harder for new grass to grow. To prevent this from happening, wait until the ground is dry before using heavy equipment on your lawn.
2. Cover your lawn with a heavy-duty tarp
A heavy-duty tarp will protect your lawn from the damage of heavy equipment. One of the toughest tarp materials is the iron horse polyester tarp. This material can handle equipment such as wheelbarrows, lawnmowers, rototillers, and string trimmers.
Make sure to cover your lawn in several directions. This step will help give the equipment room to maneuver without snagging on the edges of the tarp. Heavy-duty equipment such as land movers, loaders, and graders can damage the tarp if it is not secured correctly.
Supplement the tarp with an outdoor carpet to protect the grass.
Check out this heavy-duty iron horse canvas:
How to protect the lawn from a fire pit
3. Use plywood to protect your lawn
Plywood is another excellent way to protect your grass from heavy equipment. Plywood material provides a stable, durable surface on which equipment can move.
For effective results, lay the plywood on the grass before you secure it with landscaping staples. Once the wood is in place, drive heavy equipment over it without damaging your yard.
Note that while plywood provides an excellent foundation for heavy equipment, it’s not a practical solution you can use every day. Moreover, it’s expensive and may break, warp or splinter if the equipment is too heavy.
4. Lay down lawn protection mats
Lawn protection mats are a great way to protect your lawn from heavy equipment. These mats come in several different types and offer varying levels of protection.
Manufacturers specifically design lawn protection mats for different kinds of equipment, including heavy machinery.
It is important to understand what type of equipment you’ll be using on your lawn and select a mat that’s best suited for the job. For example, a mat designed for a grader will be different from a mat designed for a lawnmower or a mat designed for a car.
Ground Protection Mats for Heavy Equipment
Heavy equipment is often used in construction and landscaping, making these industries the perfect market for durable lawn protection mats. Such equipment include graders, trench rollers, skid steer loaders, site dump trucks, and more.
For such heavy use, the mat must meet your equipment’s specific weight guidelines. In addition to weight, you should also consider height and compatibility when making your selection. Not all mats are the same size, so make sure to check your equipment’s specs before buying or renting a mat.
Heavy-duty ground protection mats are an ideal solution to protecting your lawn from heavy equipment. They are also a safer alternative to plastic sheeting and plywood.
While plastic sheeting and plywood can easily tear or break, heavy-duty lawn protection mats are durable and made from thick materials that will not easily puncture.
Check out this Rubber tuff heavy-duty protective mat:
Lawn Protection from Cars
Cars are another common source of damage to lawns. Drivers can cause serious scuffs, rips, and other marks on your grass during vehicle maneuvers. Working vehicles around cars is also dangerous for drivers, pedestrians, and even homeowners themselves.
To protect your lawn from cars, you need to use effective protection methods such as protective mats or equipment covers. You can also use parking curbs, car parking mats for grass, and cones/barrels to keep cars away from your lawn.
1. Parking Curb Strip
You can purchase parking curbs in various lengths and construct them into neat, organized patterns that won’t damage your grass.
To set up a parking curb, you start by placing a barrier of some sort on your lawn to keep cars from entering the area. Then, you construct a parking curb and fill it with gravel.
The next step is to place a sturdy barrier around the edge of your driveway before driving over it at least once per day. This will compact the gravel and make a protective parking curb that will keep cars away from your lawn.
2. Car Parking Mats for Grass
Car parking mats for grass circles or barrels are a great way to protect your lawn from car damage. These mats include a slip-resistant rubber surface that can keep cars from running over grass, as well as rubber bumpers that prevent the wheels from damaging the underlying landscape.
While parking curbs do not offer much in the way of aesthetics, they do what they’re designed to do, to protect your driveway and grass from damage.
When you’re seeking a more aesthetic solution, consider using car parking mats for grass as they’re easy to install and remove as needed.
3. Cones and Barrels
Cones and barrels are particularly effective ways of protecting your lawn from cars. You can purchase these items in different sizes and use them to block off areas you want cars kept out of.
You can also use cones to mark off areas where cars need to stop, for example, in front of driveways.
Cones and barrels are easily moved, making them easy to install or remove, depending on your needs. They are also lightweight enough to carry several at a time without it being too much trouble.
How to Protect Lawns from Wheelbarrow
Wheelbarrows are not particularly heavy equipment, but the damage they can do to grass is impressive. This equipment can leave behind deep imprints that are difficult to remove and may require the replacement of the damaged lawn areas.
Even worse, wheelbarrows can cause soil compaction, an issue that leads in extreme cases to dead patches in your grass.
To protect your lawn from heavy or loaded wheelbarrows, you need to use the same equipment protection methods as heavy machinery.
This includes using equipment covers and mats or laying down plywood or plastic sheeting on top of your grass.
The best ground protection mats ideal for non-loaded wheelbarrows is lightweight ground protection mats. They are durable, easy to carry around, and can be reused.
Lightweight ground protection mats are also easy to cut so that you can fit them around your lawn’s contours without much effort.
Check out this Tufftrak ground protection mat
TuffTrak AlturnaMAT Ground Protection Mat
How to Protect Lawn from Heavy Equipment (FAQs)
1. How do you drive on grass without damaging it?
The best way to protect your grass when driving your car over is to use heavy-duty lawn protection mats. These mats are designed to take the pressure off your car’s wheels while protecting your grass at the same time.
Heavy-duty mats are made from heavy-duty recycled rubber and can withstand more than 1,000 lbs. of weight, so they’re up to the task of handling your car’s weight.
2. Which equipment is used for ground protection?
The best equipment for protecting your lawn from damage is equipment covers and ground protection mats. Equipment covers come in different shapes and sizes, including cones and barrels.
On the other hand, you can use heavy-duty equipment mats to protect grass from anything on wheels, such as wheelbarrows or lawnmowers.
3. How do I protect my lawn from tires?
To protect your lawn from vehicle damage, you need to lay down plywood or plastic sheeting on top of your grass.
Plywood can be used very effectively for protecting your driveway, while plastic sheeting is great at covering large areas.
Ground protective mats are also an effective solution for protecting your lawn from tire damage.
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Protecting your lawn from heavy equipment can seem like an intimidating task. But with the right strategy and a little know-how, you should be able to protect your grass without too much trouble.
Understanding how to protect lawn from heavy equipment and knowing what equipment to use is one of the first steps you need to take.
Use this guide as a reference, and feel free to visit our blog for more reviews and advice on protecting your lawn from heavy machinery.
