Astro Turf worth it ?

Dan103 · 18 Jul 2017 at 19:35

Psycho Sonny said:
i don't think astro turf looks better. you can clearly tell an astro turf lawn from a real one very quickly and blatantly. it's plastic after all. i get that it's low maintenance which makes it very appealing to a lot of people.

i decided to seed my lawn as IMO grass is better. I am thinking though of sticking astro turf down on top of my decking. decking is just too much maintenance. i'm thinking of painting it to try and stop rot then astro turf over the top. i get that paint will deteriorate every winter but so long as it prevents the rot for longer it's worth it. as just now it looks pretty bad. astro turf over the top of it would make it look nice again plus more appealing to sit down on if need be.

I don't neither but what I am comparing it to is not a top notch lawn that is unblemished. My current lawn is yellow patchy and awful and in that sense it would look better with the added bonus of low maintenance in the future. that's my comparison if it was Wimbledon I wouldn't even think about changing.

Dan103 · 18 Jul 2017 at 19:43

kai said:
Worth it, 100% we love ours. The dog loves the grass, its low maintenance and with zero mess.

The wonderful condition of new builds!

The photo was taken literally 30 seconds ago, its been down for a few months.

That looks nice in my opinion. especially when the dog makes patches on the real stuff

roadie · 18 Jul 2017 at 21:13

roadie said:
Astro turf=chav

Maybe I was too judgemental, but I am really not a fan. There are alternative solutions that are also low maintenance. For example, you could create a desert style garden using gravels.

clubb699 · 18 Jul 2017 at 21:41

If theres loads of silver bearch trees over the top of the area dont bother they clog the area up, we removed them in the end ,if you dont have trees definatly 100 percent

Iron-man · 18 Jul 2017 at 22:51

Salty22 said:
Does it discolour over time?

I have had mine for 4 years and it has not discoloured at all, Still perfect

cadmunkey · 19 Jul 2017 at 09:56

How easy is it to get runny cat turds out of it?
Next doors cat uses my front lawn as a toilet and his turds are bigger than a dogs.

ChrisD. · 19 Jul 2017 at 10:06

cadmunkey said:
How easy is it to get runny cat turds out of it?
Next doors cat uses my front lawn as a toilet and his turds are bigger than a dogs.

It's unlikely a cat will continue to use AstroTurf. They like longer grass and the associated smells.

cadmunkey · 19 Jul 2017 at 11:07

ChrisD. said:
It's unlikely a cat will continue to use AstroTurf. They like longer grass and the associated smells.

Good to know. The front lawn isnt really a lawn anymore as its North facing and now mostly moss. So really like the idea of the fake stuff!

joey1211 · 19 Jul 2017 at 11:10

I'll just leave this here. It might sway some.

http://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/sites/default/files/refuges_for_wildlife_in_your_garden_0.pdf

Dan103 · 19 Jul 2017 at 12:28

roadie said:
Maybe I was too judgemental, but I am really not a fan. There are alternative solutions that are also low maintenance. For example, you could create a desert style garden using gravels.

Maybe might have to have a look into this also. Would go nicely with my desert grass.

a1ex2001 · 19 Jul 2017 at 15:10

We will be installing artificial turf for a few reasons the first is I'm tired of owning, maintaining and storing a lawn mower to mow a patch of grass that is about 3m x 3m. Our postage stamp lawn also doesn't get a lot of sun so for a large part of the year it is just a bog meaning we hardly go into the garden during the winter. I think we are the only people on our street without cats hence the entire neighbourhood population uses our lawn as a toilet which will hopefully reduce with artificial grass. With two little ones we also have a growing collection of garden toys most of which are permanently on the lawn resulting in dead patches and the grass is two soft and uneven for a lot of wheeled toys. Finally we want our garden to feel like another room on our house and be usable as often as possible well draining astro turf will help with this as it will dry much quicker after rain, needs next to no maintenance and you can just walk in and out barefoot without bringing mud and grass cuttings!

If I had a bigger garden I would have real grass as it would be worth the effort to maintain it and also we would have sufficient space for a hard play area for the kids tos/bikes etc.

Psycho Sonny · 19 Jul 2017 at 16:23

a1ex2001 said:
We will be installing artificial turf for a few reasons the first is I'm tired of owning, maintaining and storing a lawn mower to mow a patch of grass that is about 3m x 3m. Our postage stamp lawn also doesn't get a lot of sun so for a large part of the year it is just a bog meaning we hardly go into the garden during the winter. I think we are the only people on our street without cats hence the entire neighbourhood population uses our lawn as a toilet which will hopefully reduce with artificial grass. With two little ones we also have a growing collection of garden toys most of which are permanently on the lawn resulting in dead patches and the grass is two soft and uneven for a lot of wheeled toys. Finally we want our garden to feel like another room on our house and be usable as often as possible well draining astro turf will help with this as it will dry much quicker after rain, needs next to no maintenance and you can just walk in and out barefoot without bringing mud and grass cuttings!

If I had a bigger garden I would have real grass as it would be worth the effort to maintain it and also we would have sufficient space for a hard play area for the kids tos/bikes etc.

i would have said the opposite is true.

the bigger the garden / grass the more maintenance it requires therefore it makes sense to go with a low maintenance option. the smaller the area the more sense it makes for a higher maintenance option. cutting an area of 3m by 3m would literally take 5 minutes.

a1ex2001 · 20 Jul 2017 at 09:53

Psycho Sonny said:
i would have said the opposite is true.

the bigger the garden / grass the more maintenance it requires therefore it makes sense to go with a low maintenance option. the smaller the area the more sense it makes for a higher maintenance option. cutting an area of 3m by 3m would literally take 5 minutes.

Storing and maintaining a mower in a small terraced house with a tiny lawn is a hassle (it lives in the cellar) it takes me longer to lug the mower up the stairs, clean it afterwards and lug it back down the stairs than it does to mow the lawn. The process of mowing a larger lawn is satisfying and rewarding the process of mowing our lawn is tedious. Looking out of our windows today the lawn is a patchwork of bare and dead bits where the kids toys have been and it's raining this morning which means it won't be usable until tomorrow unless the sun comes out bright before lunchtime. I grew up in a house with a massive lawn and enjoyed mowing it I've lived here ten years and have loathed it since the first year!

Psycho Sonny · 20 Jul 2017 at 10:20

a1ex2001 said:
Storing and maintaining a mower in a small terraced house with a tiny lawn is a hassle (it lives in the cellar) it takes me longer to lug the mower up the stairs, clean it afterwards and lug it back down the stairs than it does to mow the lawn. The process of mowing a larger lawn is satisfying and rewarding the process of mowing our lawn is tedious. Looking out of our windows today the lawn is a patchwork of bare and dead bits where the kids toys have been and it's raining this morning which means it won't be usable until tomorrow unless the sun comes out bright before lunchtime. I grew up in a house with a massive lawn and enjoyed mowing it I've lived here ten years and have loathed it since the first year!

get a shed?

a1ex2001 · 20 Jul 2017 at 10:52

Psycho Sonny said:
get a shed?

in a 3mx3m garden? I'd loose a load of my outside space to an ugly wooden box to store 'stuff' in I'd much rather put the money toward the astro turf and enjoy the whole of my garden and never have to mow the lawn again!

Besides as my post made clear the storage/hassle of the mower is only part of the equation a shed won't fix it being muddy 8 months of the year or the kids toys killing it etc etc etc astro just suits us better!

the funny thing is I actually really enjoy mowing grass, if money was no object I would happily do it for a living provided it's a big space so yopu actually spend time doing it rather than spending more time sorting getting stuff out and putting it away!

Psycho Sonny · 20 Jul 2017 at 11:23

fair enough. i only have 4 small patches of grass. 2 of them are roughly 1.5m by 2m and another which is probably 0.5m by 1m and the biggest is probably 2m by 2m. a 90% of my front is monoblocked, the back has a mixture of monoblock, stone, wooden decking and 2 raised beds of grass (one bigger than the other) and a small patch at the side.

if my lawn mower ever bites the dust. it will probably be cheaper for me to just replace with astro turf. since the patches are so small.

plus i think leather jackets are ruining my lawn. i just reseeded and a lot of it in the middle is yellowing and patchy. so astro turf would sort them out too.

~Divine~Wind~ · 20 Jul 2017 at 18:12

we're looking at this at the moment, any more pics chaps?

insane200 · 20 Jul 2017 at 19:51

I've just been told we are having artificial grass out the back, it's only a 84 square meter garden

looking around it's £1600 ish for medium quality grass, plus it need to be rotavated first and levelled, then the membrane and join tape and pegs to hold it down, Not going to be a cheap thing to do, but means no mowing, and the kids can play when ever and not drag in mud.

mushtafa · 21 Jul 2017 at 20:47

Astro turf was the best thing we've ever done. Our garden is pretty much north facing, so the grass was dying every year. It now looks nice all year round, no mud, no mess and dries very quickly.

My advice would be to order a number of samples from various suppliers. I would have personally gone with one which had more brown in it to look more natural, but my missus picked liked the greener ones.

You also want to make sure you prep the ground/base properly. The better you do that, the better it'll look and last longer.

The garden is now usable all year round.

Feel free to fire me any questions - done mine myself with some help from a couple of friends.

Thread here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/small-diy-garden-project.18735639/#post-30042283

Before

After

Salty22 · 21 Jul 2017 at 22:28

Mushtafa if you don't mind, how much did that cost to do? looks great

Astro Turf worth it ?

Can't type for toffee