Is “Fake Grass” right for you?
The struggle to keep our small front yard looking nice for visitors was a battle we fought and lost for a number of years. We have large oak trees that pull water and nutrients from the topsoil and shade the grassy area in front of our home most of the day. We also have two energetic golden retrievers who love to play chase in the yard and dig. At its best, our lawn looked pitiful most of the time and we had to do something drastic to improve it.
Contractor or Do it Yourself?
We had three contractors come out to give us a quote on the work. All were very expensive at $10-12 per square foot. This is when I decided to become my own contractor. If you’ve got lots of patience and you’re willing to work up a sweat and be sore for a couple of weekends, you can save a lot of money doing this yourself.
Preparation
The area where you will install turf will require preparation to create a stable surface and allow for proper drainage. Typically, the old grass and a couple of inches of topsoil is removed from the area and it’s replaced with crushed concrete or shell and a 1-2 inch layer of decomposed granite.
This is backbreaking work. I had a concrete/paving company come in and remove the grass and topsoil, add 4 inches of crushed concrete, and grade the area with heavy equipment. If the area you want to convert to artificial turf is small, you may be able to tackle this yourself. I spread approximately two cubic yards of decomposed granite on top of the crushed concrete and stabilized it with a rented tamper from a home improvement store.
Before we go on, you should learn from my mistake
Not thinking, I almost killed a beautiful 60-year-old oak tree because I instructed the concrete contractor to remove almost 50% of the nutrient roots (small and pencil-sized) where we were installing turf. If the contractor knew better he didn’t tell me I was harming my tree, and I was too hasty to invite my tree guy to give me his opinion. Fortunately, after a lot of expensive deep root injections, the tree survived but not inexpensively. The arborist cost me almost as much as I saved doing this project myself.
Choosing your turf
There are a number of brands and levels of quality in artificial turf. The more you spend, the less it will look like green indoor-outdoor carpet or a putting green. We chose high-end turf because it would be installed in our front yard where friends, family, and my clients would see it as they came to the house for meetings.
When choosing turf, do your homework and read lots of online reviews or give me a call. You want realistic looking turf with a decade-long warranty, good drainage, and a tough backing dogs can’t easily destroy.
We bought our turf through a home improvement store’s web site and they delivered it for free (in-store choices are extremely limited but most stores will sell you samples). Artificial turf is manufactured in 15 foot-wide rolls and is sold by the linear foot. If your area is longer and wider than 15 feet, you can splice two pieces together.
Turf Installation
Installing the turf is actually the easy part. Roll it out, trim it to size with a utility knife, and pin it down around the edges with galvanized spikes or staples that aren’t visible after installation. We opted for placing landscaping brick over part of it to create a nice border. As I stated above, if your space is wider than 15 feet you can splice the turf. Just make sure the direction of the turf is maintained.
Before you host your first lawn party, you’ll need to spread infill on top of the turf and work it in with a push broom. This keeps the turf in place, and depending on what you use as an infill, it can also reduce pet odors. Silica sand or Durafill is often used in home applications. Sports fields often have rubber infill, but rubber traps heat and odors so it’s not often used in residential applications.
Likes and Gripes
Let me start out with what we love about our artificial turf. It never needs mowing, fertilizing, aerating, re-sodding, or watering. It looks wonderful year-round, and we receive compliments all the time due to the realistic type of turf we purchased.
What don’t we love about the turf? Apart from the expense, turf becomes really hot in full sun… water it down first if you plan to walk on it in the summer in bare feet. If pets use it, it also needs to be deodorized frequently and treated for fleas. We spend about $20 a month on a water-based deodorizer and use a granular flea treatment. Leaf accumulation can also be a problem. If you don’t keep leaves off the turf they’ll decompose and weeds pop up here and there. Decomposed leaves also degrade the base material. With our two big oak trees nearby, I’m out there often with a high-powered corded blower to move the leaves off the turf because a plastic rake damaged the grass. Once a year, I take my pressure washer and lightly spray it to give it a deep cleaning. Artificial turf is not maintenance free.
Closing thoughts
I recommend artificial turf over the hassles of keeping grass looking good, especially in southeast Texas. It’s not a cheap project though, so it’s worth calling your financial advisor to ask how it fits into your short-term financial plans and to make sure it doesn’t disrupt your ability to save for retirement!
Interested in learning more about our artificial turf installation?
Drop by the home offices of Kingdom Wealth Management any time to see our turf (and play with our golden retrievers, who are already waiting for you!) Also, check out this article that the Houston Chronicle featured on their front page of our yard in August of 2018!