What do the following items have in
common: a Roman road, a large area of
filled land in Holland, and a residential
foundation drain system? In case you
didn't guess, the answer is geotextiles.
The Romans used textiles woven from
reeds to stabilize swampy soil beneath
their roads. Following World War II,
the Dutch used sailcloth and canvas to
stabilize roadbed fill and to drain waterlogged
soils. Modern "geo" products,
made from synthetics rather than canvas
or reeds, have been used for many
years beneath interstate highways to
increase the service life of paving.
Now a number of geotextiles and
related products are finding use in residential
construction. Among other
things, this family of products could
solve one of