• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About Us
    • Meet Our Talented Team
    • Anti-hate Speech Policy
  • Terms Of Service
  • Free Printables
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us

DIY Home & Garden

A DIY & Gardening Resource

  • Home Page
  • DIY Projects
    • Upcycling
  • Home
    • Cleaning and Organizing
    • Holidays
      • Christmas
      • Valentine’s Day
      • Easter
      • Fourth of July
      • Halloween
      • Thanksgiving
      • Memorial Day
      • Mother’s Day
    • Home Safety
    • Home Decor
    • Pets
    • Real Estate
  • Gardening
  • Herbal and Natural Wellness
  • Recipes
    • Baking
    • Breakfast
    • Salads
    • Venison Recipes
    • Home Canning and Preserving
      • Canning
      • Dehydrating
      • Freezer Recipes
  • Travel
Home » All About Artificial Grass (Installation and Maintenance)
All About Artificial Grass (Installation and Maintenance)

All About Artificial Grass (Installation and Maintenance)

06/18/2019 By Deborah T

Love us? Share us!

When it comes to installing your brand new, evergreen artificial grass, it’s best to leave to the pros. There are several steps where you could go wrong, which may just result in a ruined turf.

Artificial grass fitters, on the other hand, are trained to do their job well, leaving you with just the perfect garden or yard.

Now, if you’re a committed DIY-er, then this article is going to give you a few pointers on how to carry that job out. Of course, after this process is over, the maintenance one begins. Still, don’t worry; carrying for artificial turf is much easier than carrying for real grass. The hard work will pay off an evergreen lawn to boost the look of your home’s exterior.

The Preparation

The area you want to install your artificial grass should be clear of any type of vegetation, which is why you should make sure to spray it with a weed killer you’ve used in the past and you know works. Of course, for your safety and that of your family, you should be sure to get one that’s non-toxic. This should be done around two weeks before the turf will be installed.

In order to make room for the base, remove the top part of the soil by 3 or 4 inches. Then, make sure there is some form of drainage. If there isn’t, and you’re installing on top of poorly draining soil, be sure to install an effective drainage system. After ensuring that you’ve got this in place, install a waterproof border to ensure that the lawn won’t separate or slump over time. Finally, there’s the optional step of adding a weed barrier, which is not necessary, but it is helpful for ensuring that weeds won’t come through to the surface.

Installing the Base

For this, you first have to figure out which is the best material for your area. Generally speaking, crushed rock, gravel, or decomposed granite and pour it around 3-4 inches as the base. Now, shock and lawn pads are completely optional, but if you’re installing the artificial turf over a hard surface, they may be needed. Plus, if you’ve got children and elderly individuals around, then adding a shock pad is a good idea regardless of whether there’s a hard surface underneath or not.

Next, it’s time to grade the base, and you can do so using a landscaping rake. By using a strong or a bubble level and ruler to get the flat surface to a 2-3% slope. Once you’re done with this, it’s time to ensure that the base is slightly wet, and compacted. Then, as the base dries, it’s time to roll out the lawn on the side. Doing it like this ensures that the lawn will have enough time to get back to its original shape. Once this is done and the base is looking good and dry, it’s time to lay your seam fabric over the base.

Installing the Lawn

Now, it’s time to stretch every strip of turf and place it over the base. Make sure that you’re not dragging the turf over the base, since you may ruin it. Next, you can trim the excess artificial turf with a utility knife. If you’ve got a long cut coming up, make sure you’re cutting it short distance by a short distance. This step will ensure that you’re not leaving gaps. Next, it’s time to peel back a bit of your turf and start applying the glue to the seaming tape. Apply the adhesive in a serpentine pattern.

After that, you can start seaming the strips by using staples or nails, which should be placed about 3 inches apart. Then, make sure to put some weight on it, and leave it to dry for two hours. Once the two hours have passed, use landscaping anchor pins to fasten the artificial grass in place. Then, add infill to it, as this is what will ensure that the blades will stand and that the grass is weighed down.

Between infill applications, be sure to brush the turf to help it get its lovely shape in place. Once you’re done with all the infill applications, water everything down, and that’s it! You’ve got a beautiful looking lawn!

RELATED CONTENT: How to Grow Garden Pansies

Maintenance of Artificial Grass

As previously mentioned, artificial grass doesn’t need nearly as much caring as synthetic grass. However, there is still some maintenance that needs to be done. You’ll most likely have to rinse it down once each week, in order to get rid of any dust that may have gathered on the grass. Then, once a month, using a stiff brush, be sure to get rid of all the dirt on it. After you’re done with this, use a broom to sweep against the grain of the grass, to help it get back to its upright position.

If you get quite a bit of snow and ice during the winter, the best way of dealing with removing it from your artificial turf is allowing it to melt away. If, on the other hand, you must remove it, get rid of only the top portion, allowing one inch of snow to be removed with a broom.

Subscribe to DIY Home & Garden
Love DIY Home & Garden? Subscribe for insider tips.

 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Deborah T
Deborah T
Editor and author at DIY Home & Garden, a Word Innovations publication
Deborah Tayloe is a full-time blogger, children's book author, and freelance writer, contributing to large publications.

She has a B.S.Ed. in Secondary Education/English and a Spanish Minor. In addition, she holds a Certificate in Natural Health from a fully-accredited program and is a Certified Herbologist. She pursued these natural wellness certifications due to her love for herb gardening.

Despite freelancing to make a living, her love is "all things home."

Deborah grew up in a family that grew a large vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, helping her parents pull weeds and can home-grown foods as part of her childhood. In fact, she had no idea that she could purchase veggies and fruits in pre-packed steel cans until she went to college and made a food run.

Today, she lives in Bertie County, North Carolina, an agricultural rural area with more chickens than people. She lives with her husband and two rescue pets a sweet toy fox terrier and a cat who showed up one day and moved into the house. Together, they enjoy DIY projects, furniture refinishing, gardening, and canning.
Deborah T
Latest posts by Deborah T (see all)
  • Moths Play a Greater Role in Pollination Than Previously Thought, Says Study - 06/06/2023
  • GMO Seeds Versus Non-GMO: Key Differences and Ethics - 06/05/2023
  • Catnip vs Catmint (They’re Not the Same!) - 06/05/2023
Tweet

Filed Under: Gardening

About Deborah T

Deborah Tayloe is a full-time blogger, children's book author, and freelance writer, contributing to large publications.

She has a B.S.Ed. in Secondary Education/English and a Spanish Minor. In addition, she holds a Certificate in Natural Health from a fully-accredited program and is a Certified Herbologist. She pursued these natural wellness certifications due to her love for herb gardening.

Despite freelancing to make a living, her love is "all things home."

Deborah grew up in a family that grew a large vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, helping her parents pull weeds and can home-grown foods as part of her childhood. In fact, she had no idea that she could purchase veggies and fruits in pre-packed steel cans until she went to college and made a food run.

Today, she lives in Bertie County, North Carolina, an agricultural rural area with more chickens than people. She lives with her husband and two rescue pets a sweet toy fox terrier and a cat who showed up one day and moved into the house. Together, they enjoy DIY projects, furniture refinishing, gardening, and canning.

Primary Sidebar

Click for details on our latest travel deal

book vip cancun travel

Here’s Why You Should Plant Sunflowers in the Garden:

https://youtu.be/ZwvPDTbs9U0

You Won’t Even Notice You Tossed These Cluttery Things:

https://youtu.be/z16ZRMC4wbE

Don’t Suffer, Try This Bath to Soothe Itchy Skin:

https://youtu.be/SUxl9UL7QDw

Footer

Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer

DIY Home & Garden is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

DIY Home & Garden does not constitute or intend to provide medical, health, financial, legal, or other professional advice. This website is for entertainment purposes only.

Quick Links

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Terms Of Service
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2023 · DIY Home & Garden

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

DIY Home & Garden
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.