Erosion Control Blankets & Hydromulch in Columbus, OH

Erosion control blankets and hydromulch in Columbus are what we use when plain seed and mulch will not stay put. That means slopes behind houses that back onto a ravine, banks above a creek, roadside ditches and drainage swales, basin side slopes, and fresh cuts where a builder graded a walkout basement. Bare soil on those spots moves with every hard rain, and the gullies get deeper each time. Our erosion control services cover the slope from prep to established grass.

Where Columbus slopes come from

Columbus is mostly flat glacial plain, but the creeks cut into it. Tributaries to Alum Creek and the Olentangy River carve ravines through shale, while Scioto tributaries cut through limestone. Big Walnut Creek, Darby Creek and smaller streams add their own valleys. Neighborhoods built along those corridors have steep back yards and short, fast drainage paths. Add a climate that averages about 41.6 inches of precipitation a year, with severe thunderstorms in spring and summer, and you get slopes that need more than loose straw.

Hydromulch, heavier and bonded

Standard hydroseed mulch is fine on gentle grades. On steeper ground we raise the mulch rate and add more tackifier, or use a bonded fiber matrix: a hydraulically applied mulch with binders that dries into a continuous layer that resists raindrop impact and holds seed against the soil. It goes on from the truck, so it reaches places a crew cannot walk easily, and there is no netting left behind.

Erosion control blankets

Where water runs in a concentrated path, or the slope is long and steep, we pin down rolled erosion control blankets over the seed. Straw blankets work on moderate slopes; straw and coconut blends or 100 percent coir last longer and handle more flow in channels and swales. Blankets are trenched in at the top, overlapped in the direction water flows, and stapled on a set pattern so water cannot get underneath. Straw blankets are often called straw erosion blankets or straw mats; the material is the same.

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Slope stabilization step by step

We start by finding where the water comes from. A downspout dumping onto the top of a slope, or a neighbor's yard draining over the edge, will undo any blanket. Then we fill small rills, smooth the surface, add topsoil if the slope is bare subsoil, and seed with a mix that roots deeply. Blanket or bonded mulch goes on last. On ravine edges we keep work back from the stream and keep fill out of the channel.

Seeding season matters more on slopes

Grass is the long-term erosion control; blankets and mulch only protect it while it grows. The best seeding window for Central Ohio's cool-season grasses runs from late August into early October, so that is when slope work does best. When a slope has to be covered in another season, we still stabilize it, and the blanket or bonded mulch carries more of the load until the grass catches up.