You can also consider permeable pavers if you want a driveway or walkway, but don't want to disturb the roots of that old (or young) tree in your front yard. Mature trees increase your property value by 7-12%, so treat 'em right by protecting their roots and having their branches pruned by a certified arborist.

QUOTE: While concrete and asphalt are often selected for their cost savings, they do little to help the environment and often require regular maintenance.

Hmm...I don't know that I'd agree about the *regular* maintence bit having lived with both for quite a number of years. That said, I'm wondering how the permeable options compare with the standard concrete or asphalt cost wise AND if it's all it's cracked up to be. We're looking to replace a poorly paved asphalt driveway in the near future.

After many virtually maintenance free years, our driveway still looks great from the street but the uneven edges/borders have driven me crazy since we purchased the house years ago. Creative landscaping camouflaged that problem but I'm beyond weary of wading through ankle-deep water whenever there's a sudden downpour.Online research is a wonderful tool but I'd like to hear a reaview from someone who's lived with this for a while. Anyone?

*review*

Any idea of a price range? I'd love love love to do this.

Somehow I suspect the frost heaves on those would be horrible. Any case studies of their use in places that have four seasons?

And aside from frost heaves, how do they hold up during mud season?

I can't speak to any of these options in particular but the manufacturers do study and design systems for performance in northern climates. Ask questions and do your homework but I've seen them work just fine in Chicago.

I can't imagine taking a snowblower to some of these.

I suspect that if you are a snow-blower kind of person ... green paving solutions would be low on your list of priorities anyhow.

in my research all of these were more expensive than a traditional concrete or asphalt drive way, and most require some periodic maintenance to make sure they continue to drain properly

MindJudo, I suspect that you may have a short driveway....lol.

NGNerd, I have pavers, just added nylon slides to the snowblower skids, works great, doesnt harm anything.

We were considering this for repaving our dilapidated old concrete driveway, but found the permeable paver systems to be pricey. We decided to "green" our driveway the old-fashioned way--we are having the concrete driveway ripped out and replacing it with two concrete ribbon strips for the tire tracks, and the rest will be grass (or you could do pea gravel, etc.--whatever works for you). I know it wouldn't work for everyone, but it is a great solution for us! We live in the city and honestly mostly park on the street anyway. Our driveway will now be a needed addition to our yard space for kids and pets to play, and for us to park in on occasion if we need to.

What a brilliant idea. If by "ambient temperatures" you mean, global warming, that is true also. I think we should rip out not only concrete driveways but many parking lots as well. They're polluting, unfriendly to wildlife and extremely harmful to ecosystems, yes, even the ones we depend on.

Any idea how this holds up to shoveling? We have snow and ice for at least a third of the year around here.

The house I'm lusting over has an unpaved private alley, so this intrigues me! Though, like other commenters, I'm wondering how it'd hold up to the ice and snow we get here in Minnesota. Say what you will about unsightly asphalt driveways, they heat up and melt snow quite nicely during those winter months!

I love the idea of this, but living in Ohio with frosts causing heaving and shoveling...

@Mindjudo I so agree - my neighbors use a leaf blower for everything and just push the leaves into our street. I get it for huge driveways, but our suburbs have postage-stamp sized lawns and driveways. Haven't people heard of shovels and rakes?

We're in New England so I get the concern over snow, but I imagine there must be some type of solution for this (and I'll come back and post a link if I find one). Maybe we should keep in mind that a bit of extra expense and maintenance is several thousand times better than catastrophic weather and annihillation of entire ecosystems.

Do any of these work better (or worse) as sidewalks?

All- my firm has actually used these systems in one form or another for our projects all located in Chicago, the north shore, Wisconsin and Michigan. None of our clients have had any isses using permeable paving for their patios, driveways, sidewalks,etc. So yes, they do work for areas prone to snow, frost, shoveling etc. and most of the mfrs have done testing, so you could find more details from them. Also, for those of you who really do like asphalt, there is a permeable asphalt,but I don't have any experience with it.

It's not snow that concerns me -- it's frost heaves (heck, I've driven on the *interstate* when it was completely washboarded by frost heaves) in late winter/early spring, and instability from mud giving way underneath it later in the spring (which I've also seen happen to lightly paved roads.)

They may have a solution that doesn't involve re-doing the driveway/road every year. But you clearly can't groom these the way they do dirt roads near the end of mud season, and I don't see how it can have even as much stability as cheap, old-fashioned asphalt.

I'm not dissing them. The climate concerns that come to mind immediately for me are irrelevant many other places. And they may work better in the nawthc'ntry than I'm imagining they would.

But I can't help wondering what this pavement would look like at the start of summer, and what would be involved in repairing it.