Artificial Grass

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Vidor06

Long term loafer
Has anyone got any experience of buying and laying artificial grass? My back garden is currently fully paved and I am looking to create a grassed area and it feels like the easiest option will be to buy and lay some artificial grass. So, has anyone done it? Have you got a recommended company to buy from? How easy did you find it? And most importantly would you suggest its the correct course of action?
 
My friend has artificial grass and they get to have artificial fun on it.

I can see then benefit for ease but there really is no substitute for real grass.
 

John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
Yep. Our lawn was small enough to use an offcut (I don't remember the supplier, sorry).

The process is to dig down about 15cm across the entire area the "lawn" will occupy. Put in edging boards around the space. Fill the area with sand, and flatten with a whacker (we hired one). Lay a weedproof membrane. Lay the artificial turf by nailing it to the edging boards with 4" nails. It took us about a weekend to do, as I recall, and the hardest bit was getting the sodding whacker in and out of the car. Joking aside, you'll generate a lot of waste topsoil digging down far enough for the sand base, so think about where all that will go.

The upsides were that it looked surprisingly good, and of course, it looked surprisingly good all year 'round. The downside was that it was, essentially, like having a big, outdoor carpet. If anything pees on it, that smell can linger for a while, especially in Summer. I'd not recommend it if you have a dog (unless you take Fido for his ablutions elsewhere) or cats, (if they like to pee on lawns). If you get regular fox visits, I'd be circumspect too.

We've relaid turf after 3 or so years of the artificial stuff.
 

gtsiwak

Regular
Location
Woking
As above . But I recommend special metal edging that you just hammer in to the ground . Lasts longer , you can't really see it , and you can bend it which means you can lay all sorts of shapes of grass . Under the grass - sharp sand , and membrane . I never nail the grass as it needs to shrink and expand little bit when is hot or cold out side .
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
My aged mother in law has fake grass in part of her garden. It was quite expensive but it does look very good. At first glance you would be hard pressed to tell it was artificial.
 

accountantpete

Brexiteer
Proper grass rolls would be cheaper and easier.

You presumably have a flat paved area so lift and then put down a thin covering of sand/top soil. Then simply unroll the grass and keep well watered in dry spells.

If you wait for a bit of warmth it should be rooted in 3 weeks.

The only downside is the mowing of course.
 

gtsiwak

Regular
Location
Woking
Plenty different kinds of artificial grass.
The more you pay the less artificial it looks. But from my experience nothing beats live grass . I installed a loot artificial grass in my area mainly for dog minders and people with very active kids.
 

ayceejay

Guru
Location
Rural Quebec
It depends what you want to use it for. For instance on any play area where you expect a ball to bounce predictably the process is a lot more complicated than stated above. Whatever the area is used for it is the subsurface that is most important and must be fully compacted. I would use a different method and materials than that used above.
Probably too much information bit en tout cas http://www.tenniscourtsuk.co.uk/surfaces.html are the number one in this process.
 

Rooster1

I was right about that saddle
My neighbours two doors up had some laid professionally. You need a stone base, then a soft base, then the grass.
However, if you have cats, they like to do their business all over it and you have to wash it all off, daily if you have small kids.
 
As soon as I saw this thread I knew I'd get summoned!

I can't help, I laid the real stuff. The only thing about the artificial stuff, apart from it being artificial, is how do you clean it. I have a dog, so didn't fancy that idea.
 

Mrs M

Guru
Location
Aberdeenshire
My neighbour along the street has artificial grass in his front garden.
He laid it as he's a gardener.
Looks very smart but he sends the wife out to hoover it regularly.
Think regular turf would be less bother. :smile:
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
My neighbour has just filled in his swimming pool and laid some crappy artificialgrass. He says it'll be good for their young kids all year round but it looks terrible IMHO
Here's a couple of pix from last week's prep and today. The prep in their case was a layer of concrete over the rubble-filled pool, 4 inches of reddish crushed material and 4 inches of sand - tamped and whacked as described above.

astro1.jpg


astroturf.jpg
 
Top Bottom