BaseCore HD™ Geocell Installation, Sacramento, CA 

I'm pretty happy with the results. No complaints. Its substantially helped with my drainage issues as well since I have a french drain right alongside it, it funnels water from all over the yard right through.

It is essentially a non-woven filter fabric. Nonwoven works best for water permeability. I bought it from the same site where I bought the Geocell product. This fabric is thicker than most weed fabrics, so they call it a Geotextile fabric instead. I believe they come in various thicknesses because some are designed for pretty heavy commercial traffic. For what you and I are doing at home, this stuff should work great: www.backyardbases.com/product/geotextile-fabric/

@@Lumbrjak1 Thanks for the quick reply and suggestion.

@@Lumbrjak1 Morning. Last question, are you able to cut and trim the cells to fit the needed space?

It cuts really easily, especially if you have a rectangular space. It comes collapsed like venetian blinds, so I used an angle grinder with a carbide metal cutting disk, and it slices through the plastic like butter. If you have to fill in a curved edge, it will take you a little longer, but it's doable. Take a look at the time lapse again, starting at about 0:34, you'll notice for the section closest to the house, the grid runs long, over the 2x4 edging, and I just ripped it right there with the grinder. Did that for several sections, it just happens so fast in the video you cant see it. I then used the cut off sections to fill in the very last few feet. I had to clip those cut sections together, which is why the cells get a little wonky in the last part. They sell the clips by the box, so i recommend you get a few extra to make sure you can zip any section together you might need to do. @@thatguydoov1193

I am very happy with the HD installation. I should note that I've never used the regular, so my comparison is not from actual experience. But the HD cells have a greater number of 'welds' because the cells are smaller and tighter together. There isn't a ton of traffic where I laid this down, it is a parking area for a travel trailer, and I wanted to be able to drive a tractor across it to do additional work in my yard. I don't recall for certain, I think the cells were about 3.5 deep, but they are recommended to take 1-2 inches overfill, so overall the depth of my entire setup was about 5 inches. I bought a package deal from www.backyardbases.com/ which I'm also happy with. It came with all of the 'snaps' to connect seams in the mesh, as well as a very sturdy geotextile fabric as underlayment. I've used filter fabric for many applications, french drains, etc, but never used a non-woven textile this thick and robust. Very happy with it.

Think of it like rebar in concrete, or the fiber within fiberglass. It provides structure and strength. The cells limit the movement of the material within. They decreases shifting and maintain level, andit is also necessary to apply many times more force before deforming the material. Think about driving a huge earth mover over plain gravel. It would leave deep ruts. In contrast, the gravel within the cells would likely experience little or no movement. Here in Sacramento, we have heavy clay, and during rains, it turns to pudding. Heavy things tend to sink in the mud, then it dries like concrete in the summer. This keeps everything level, distributes the weight among the cells, provides great drainage so the clay does not become saturated. Its a great solution.

So this can be used in place of Geo Grid for any project?