Woven vs Non-Woven Geotextile Fabric: What’s The Difference?
September 25, 2025
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If you're in the business of building roads, stabilising soil, or providing erosion protection on embankments, you're already aware that geotextiles are the low-profile workhorses under your project's surface.
However, the question always arises on site and in specification rooms as to whether to use woven or non-woven geotextiles. By making a properly informed choice, you avoid rutting, clogging and settlement.
By making an uneducated choice, you open yourself up to callbacks, premature failures and schedule creep.
This blog breaks the differences down into layman's terms, maps applications to the right fabric, and provides a simple specification checklist that you can easily isolate into your next BOQ.
We will keep the topics practical, so that you can easily measure performance, risk, and cost to make decisions with confidence.
Additionally, we will also reference what reputable geotextile manufacturers qualify on their product data sheets, as well as what a responsive distribution supplier should help you verify in short order.
What is a geotextile?
Simply put, a geotextile is a synthetic fabric which interacts with soil and aggregates to provide four functions:
- Separation: preventing fine subgrade soils from migrating into base layers.
- Filtration: allowing water to pass through while retaining fines.
- Drainage: allowing water to be moved laterally to a safe outlet.
- Reinforcement: providing tensile restraint to distribute loads and limit deformation.
How is a woven geotextile built?
A woven geotextile is made by weaving together high-tenacity polymer yarns—most typically polypropylene or polyester.
When finished, the geotextile has an identifiable warp and weft pattern.
What this construction gives you:
- High tensile strength with low elongation. Ideal when you want the fabric to "hold things together" and be low to no stretch.
- Excellent load distribution. Great under unpaved roads, laydown yards, and construction platforms where rutting is a concern.
- Small openings. A smaller apparent opening size (AOS) can aid in separation when subgrade fines are problematic.
Trade-offs to know:
Lower permittivity compared to many non-woven geotextiles, which could limit vertical water flow where the subgrade is silty and poorly draining.
Possibility for clogging if the opening size is not matched to the soil gradation and plasticity.
You will see geotextile manufacturers advertise tensile properties per wide-width tests, AOS (equivalent to sieve size), and permittivity.
A good geotextile supplier should be able to help you match those properties with your soil report, rather than use generic "road grade" terms.
How non-woven geotextiles are constructed
Non-woven geotextiles are constructed by needle-punching or thermally bonding random fibres into a fabric-like mat. Non-woven geotextiles are made by punching needles or bonding fibres together randomly. This results in a felt-like mat-like structure.
Here is what the construction of nonwoven geotextiles offers you:
- High flow permeability and good filtration characteristics from the three-dimensional pore structure of the fabric.
- Better puncture and tear resistance for a given mass, which is beneficial when installed over a rough subgrade.
- The creep and elongation of nonwoven geotextiles can accommodate settlement without transferring sharp loads.
Here are some trade-offs to be aware of:
- Lower tensile strength at low strain than a woven geotextile, so these are not the first option when the primary function is reinforcement.
- Be aware that if you have chosen a mass that is too light then you may lose the separation performance when installed under heavy, angular aggregate.
- Again, most of the best geotextile manufacturers will publish permittivity, transmissivity, mass per unit area, puncture resistance, and AOS for these products so you will be able to choose properly.
How to interpret the performance characteristics
When comparing the performance characteristics of products, be sure to focus on the test methods you will trust and how each test relates to your soils and loads.
- Tensile strength and elongation (wide-width): relates to the potential for reinforcement with woven products.
- Permittivity (vertical flow): used in non-woven with a higher value for filtration and drainage benefit.
- Transmissivity (in-plane flow): important for drainage layers and composites.
- Apparent Opening Size (AOS): should be matched to the soil gradation; a useful initial reference is the 15% passing size (D15), as your geotextile supplier can help you to correlate.
- Puncture and tear resistance: indicates survivability during the placement of aggregate.
- UV stability and durability: only matters if there will be exposure before the cover.
- Seam strength: needed when joining panels; ask the manufacturer how they validated sewn seams versus overlapped seams for geotextiles.
The installation method that avoids early failures
- Even the best fabric will fail if it’s not installed properly. Keep it simple:
- Grade and de-root the subgrade. Do your best to remove protrusions that can puncture.
- Avoid wrinkles and slack. Install the fabric flat in the direction of traffic.
- Do not ignore overlaps. Overlap on average 300–600 mm, with increased overlaps in weaker soils. Your geotextile supplier can confirm overlapping recommendations.
- Gently place the aggregate. No direct tipping from any height; push out the material so it is not dragged.
- Compact in thin lifts. Build stiffness gradually.
- Keep the fabric clean. Keep to a minimum, mud tracking and ponding, before it is covered.
- Protect from long-term UV. When practical, cover the area within the recommended exposure window.
- Document as-built. For closure, take photos of subgrade, overlaps and first lift density. This is useful for the warranty.
Customized Solutions for Your Packaging Needs
When selecting the right materials for your geotextile projects, understanding the customization possibilities can make a significant difference. Just like in the packaging industry, where tailored solutions ensure optimal protection and performance, GDIPL excels in offering custom packaging solutions that are designed specifically for your industry’s needs. By leveraging advanced technologies and a deep understanding of diverse sectors, GDIPL ensures that their packaging, like their geotextile products, is both efficient and effective.
Learn more about how GDIPL tailors custom packaging solutions to meet the specific requirements of various industries, ensuring that each product performs at its best and delivers maximum value. You can read more about these bespoke packaging services in our detailed Custom Packaging Solutions blog.
The bottom line
Think in functions. If you need reinforcement and crisp separation under loads, reach for a woven geotextile.
If you need filtration and drainage with robust installation tolerance, favour a quality non-woven. Match properties to soils, document your install, and lean on data from credible geotextile manufacturers and the practical insight of your geotextile supplier.
Do that, and your pavement, platform, or wall will behave the way the drawings promised.
For tailored selection support, project-specific submittals, and prompt delivery across your sites, talk to our team at GDIPL—we’ll help you choose the right fabric, not just sell the closest roll.
Frequently Asked Questions
Using a woven geotextile is recommended when reinforcement/separation is the emphasis under wheel loads. Woven geotextiles use high tensile strength with low elongation, thus controlling rutting in soft subgrades.
Although using a heavier non-woven increases survivability and filtration, it will NOT enable a non-woven to match the low-strain strength of a woven geotextile. When reinforcement is critical, a woven geotextile is the chosen option.
Use a non-woven with an appropriate AOS and permittivity for your soil and provide a clear drainage path. Your geotextile supplier should be knowledgeable enough to correlate lab data to your gradation curve.
No. Yarn type, weave type, and finishing types vary by manufacturer. Ask geotextile manufacturers for wide-width tensile data, AOS, and durability testing for product comparisons.
Confirm soil gradation and PI; check the AOS compatibility for your soils; verify overlaps in the field; and check first lift rutting. If you are not confident, contact your geotextile supplier before covering the specified area with the geotextile.
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