Anyone used artificial grass instead of putting down a lawn?

I've seen it in a few garden centres that I've visited, what ground preparation do you need to do before laying it?

I'm just looking into that myself - the bottom half of mine is just riddled with moss year after year in spite of relaying.
I've looked at http://www.grass-direct.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, the Porto grass, and will give it a whirl when we get a decent spell of dry weather. I'm only talking about 5 by 2 metres at £16 per metre. They'll happily send you free samples, the one I chose looks and feels really good. Hope this helps.

You can lay it on hard ground or soil. I'm taking up my lawn, levelling and firming the soil and then putting sand down as the company suggests. It looks perfectly straightforward to me.
All the info is on the website.

If you have a moss problem, you could have it again with artificial grass. Be careful choosing the cheap stuff, it flattens really easily and looks awful in no time at all. Look for the 'v' technology for a grass that bounces back. Anyone who wants any of the decent stuff, I can sort it out at a good price.

evensteadiereddie wrote:You can lay it on hard ground or soil. I'm taking up my lawn, levelling and firming the soil and then putting sand down as the company suggests. It looks perfectly straightforward to me.
All the info is on the website.

Lots of Youtube video out there showing many examples of how to lay it on different surfaces. I laid it on decking.

Had a rear lawn taken up and had artificial put down last year. The rear lawn wasn't getting sun in part of it and never dried out properly, causing it to look poor in two areas and was unusable for Kids playing. It's made on a textile machine like carpet is and, as such, the pile runs one way. Obviously you brush it against the pile so it stands up, but you have to do it now and again as it angles very slightly one way. You can put silica sand(the rounded stuff which doesn't stick to your feet) infill to help the pile stand. They recommend the pile runs towards your house so it always looks good anyway. That's your choice though, and I had mine running across (sideways) for a few reasons I'll not bore you with.

4m wide seems to be the limit, so if your garden is wider then you'll have a join. I was worried about that but it's barely noticeable and, after a bit, you don't notice it anyway, especially when it's brushed.

The work took 2 days in total as they had the old turf to dig up and remove before laying around a 4 inch hardcore and around 2" sand on top of the weed free membrane they put down. Mine is about 4.1/2 metres x 6 or 7 metres. I'm happy anyway. No more mud, just wet feet, although it dries really quickly as well. If I didn't have kids in mind when getting it I'd have gone for a more expensive and longer pile, but the 35mm I went for it fine. Don't go shorter as it just looks fake...even though it is.

Have you tried skinning up with it? Rubbish.

My neighbour has put plastic grass down outside the front of his house.

It's brilliant...It looks just like *******g plastic grass.

Artificial grass? Ain't that a illegal psychoactive substance?

I've seen it in people's gardens and it looks exactly what it is, as HatfieldClaret says.

I also don't like it in principle. We are altering the environment far too much and this reduction in photosynthetic potential does not help. You may say it's only my little lawn but it seems to be an expanding market. All the flora and fauna of the soil - worms, amoebae (one amoeba, two amoebae!), bacteria, fungi will suffer. Not good!

I understand 'kids playing in gardens' etc., but......

CardyTheClaret, I'm interested in your offer. How can I get in touch with you.

HatfieldClaret wrote:My neighbour has put plastic grass down outside the front of his house.

It's brilliant...It looks just like *******g plastic grass.

I suspect that they've done the half measure then as most people do when doing small front lawns. You can buy some really good looking stuff now, although it's blooming expensive, but it's not really designed for kids playing on it as it's thicker, better coloured, but softer plastic. It's more for show. You buy slightly shorter piles, so I'm told, for kiddies and animals, and the harder (mid range and slightly cheaper) stuff wears better but looks less realistic. You can also buy cheap crap.

Hipper wrote:I've seen it in people's gardens and it looks exactly what it is, as HatfieldClaret says.

I also don't like it in principle. We are altering the environment far too much and this reduction in photosynthetic potential does not help. You may say it's only my little lawn but it seems to be an expanding market. All the flora and fauna of the soil - worms, amoebae (one amoeba, two amoebae!), bacteria, fungi will suffer. Not good!

I understand 'kids playing in gardens' etc., but......

And what do you think of road building and house building etc? I've done mine (back only) with children playing in mind as it's barely usable otherwise. Likely the same reason a lot of people do it with lawns larger than a few feet squared. I wouldn't do the front personally.

Each to their own though on choice. I spent 12 months deciding as it's a big decision plus not cheap, and maybe I'll change back when there aren't kids playing on it, but right now it's brilliant. I'd get someone in who knows what they're doing because I've seen some disasters when people post their own on Facebook, although they're proud of their work.

We've done it. I did try growing a lush lawn in our north facing garden on what is a damp bed of clay but gave up.

As advised above, get decent stuff, dig out for good depth of hardcore and sand and you'll be right. The kids are always on it now.

Before you lay any of this god forsaken stuff just thing for a moment about the harm its doing to the wild life. Have you guessed yet that I'm not a lover of plastic grass.

Mine will be surrounded by flower beds and on soil not concrete, so the drainage will be OK as will the worms and so on. Conscience relatively clear.

They took all the trees, and put them in a tree museum

"They took all the trees, and put them in a tree museum"
Price to see 'em is more that $1.50 now though.

trees! dug a couple of saplings up at the weekend. They come up like weeds..... hard to get out too, their roots run deep.

Bfc wrote:CardyTheClaret, I'm interested in your offer. How can I get in touch with you.

cardysiphone@gmail.com

[[/img]

No Ney Never wrote:Anyone used artificial grass instead of putting down a lawn?

I've seen it in a few garden centres that I've visited, what ground preparation do you need to do before laying it?

We`ve had ours down for 7 years now and absolutely love it!
You have to do the proper groundwork to stop it holding water. We dug out @ 6 inch or so and filled it with aggregate, then whacked that down and topped with @ 2 inch of sand.
Never had any trouble with it. Lawn mower and strimmer straight on T`Ebay

Artificial grass is brilliant for the elderly. No more lawn mowing and it looks good all year round. We had ours done three years ago. It was one of the best things we've done.