Artificial grass

Stone Island
Burberry
Big gold necklaces
Tall baseball caps
Saying "Chore" constantly
Fake jewel mobile phone covers
Atrificial Grass
 
I did my lawn (got a landscaper to put it in when I had the patio built) as I have a protected tree that blocks the light at one end and dumps thousands of leaves every year, plus the dog. Went for the best stuff available so not cheap and you have to put in drainage layers and a weed membrane. Blower, pull the odd weed and karcher wash it a couple of times a year So easy to keep up.
 
The amount of people who want artificial grass is infinitesimally smaller than the people that want traditional grass, as evidenced by looking at gardens wherever you live. I'd hazard a guess that under 1% of people have them, so you're appealing to a far smaller pool of people, akin to doing your bathroom without a bath imo, or converting the only garage space into a mancave. It will appeal to those people that don't like baths, or don't want a garage for storage or parking, but its definitely a far smaller pool of people it will appeal to, and the cost of undoing the artificial grass is not insignificant. The people it doesn't appeal to will be looking at costs to undo any work, if I was looking at a house with it, I would certainly factor in the cost of taking it out and replacing it with traditional grass, or look elsewhere (the more likely option). Even if you DO want them, you can still use it as a reason to negotiate. The below link suggests £150 per square meter to take it out, which is probably about right given how much topsoil you'd need and then if you didn't want to grow from seed you would need turf supplying and laying. Artificial grass isn't really that low maintenance either, you still have to weed it, treat it with chemicals, brush it etc to keep it looking "good" (subjective). you just do different things to it. Besides, grass is low maintenance. It takes minutes to mow and very little looking after unless you buy supermarket grass seed.



of course plenty of links suggesting it adds shedloads of value to your home, but seemingly all on artificial grass store websites ;)

Anyone that thinks it looks like real grass is deluded, you can tell right away its artificial no matter how much you spend. Weeds push their way through tarmac, they will handle weed membrane eventually. There is always a way for weeds to grow under it as it will have an edge. The ones I see on my walks have plenty appearing which they must pluck out, but the edge is also bordered by a load of weeds. Once they're under it, they will spread with rhizomes. They treat the soil with incredibly powerful chemicals which are really bad for the environment to try and prevent this, which is why its so expensive for people to take out as you need to dig out that soil and replace with new topsoil to make sure anything put down grows properly, but weeds find a way, as you can see any time you walk down along a tarmac path.

I can count on a fingerless hand how many gardens I've seen with artificial grass that make me say "They've done a cracking job there".

You can train dogs where to go in your garden. If you want a landscaped lawn, just create a small area for the dog to go & train them to use it. It may surprise some people to learn that dogs don't need grass to go to the toilet and many people have dogs and no grass or anything that looks like grass in their garden. Getting artificial grass because of dogs yellowing the grass has to be one of the least cost effective solutions available.
Don't confuse don't have with don't want, or those who would happily take it.

<0.1% of people have a Ferrari, but I bet >50% would have one if they could, even moreso if someone else had footed the cost and not passed that cost on.

AG is expensive, especially for larger areas, I'd love it but don't fancy paying the 10k for it, so I put up with a garden that's like a mud bath and clean the dogs paws 5 times a day 😖 I didn't fancy paying 5k to get it turfed and the drainage sorted, as even then it's still not really going to be usable in winter.

I've been looking at houses and one of the things I've been checking is how wet the grass is, as I'm not putting up with a soggy garden again. I appreciate I'm probably weird in this respect and most would not even think about that.

The cheap AG does look poor though, compared to good grass, but I'd still take that cheap AG over soggy grass (mud). Decent AG looks good I think, but is a premium most can't afford.
 
I've been looking at houses and one of the things I've been checking is how wet the grass is, as I'm not putting up with a soggy garden again. I appreciate I'm probably weird in this respect and most would not even think about that.
spot on, the dog dragging mud through the house and clay causing the ground to resemble a paddy field for 6 months+ were part of my decision to go AG. Ideally I'd have a lovely natural lawn, that I could walk on without leaving a huge footprint that never really goes away, and wouldn't have a huge bare bit near the trees, but the reality is that is that it's a pipedream to have good grass where I live
 
Don't confuse don't have with don't want, or those who would happily take it.

<0.1% of people have a Ferrari, but I bet >50% would have one if they could, even moreso if someone else had footed the cost and not passed that cost on.

AG is expensive, especially for larger areas, I'd love it but don't fancy paying the 10k for it, so I put up with a garden that's like a mud bath and clean the dogs paws 5 times a day 😖 I didn't fancy paying 5k to get it turfed and the drainage sorted, as even then it's still not really going to be usable in winter.

I've been looking at houses and one of the things I've been checking is how wet the grass is, as I'm not putting up with a soggy garden again. I appreciate I'm probably weird in this respect and most would not even think about that.

The cheap AG does look poor though, compared to good grass, but I'd still take that cheap AG over soggy grass (mud). Decent AG looks good I think, but is a premium most can't afford.
I don't think you can equate AG with owning a Ferrari because anyone can install AG with a YouTube video on the cheap so if they wanted it, they would have it. If people could have something that looks like a Ferrari but doesn't have quite as good specs and cost not much more than laying a carpet, they'd have it. The fact that most gardens aren't full of plastic grass suggests it's a minority.

you can spend 10k on AG and it will look like AG. You can spend 30k on it. It's still Instantly spottable even the most premium stuff. If you do it yourself on the cheap people will still have to pay to take it out.m because you'll still have to use the chemicals and sand, which will cost to take out, and it has a useful life so needs redoing at some point.

if your lawn is a boggy mess as grass it will be a boggy mess with AG as you'd have worse drainage than a natural lawn. Just lay a French drain. Plenty of
Guides online
 
I don't think you can equate AG with owning a Ferrari because anyone can install AG with a YouTube video on the cheap so if they wanted it, they would have it. If people could have something that looks like a Ferrari but doesn't have quite as good specs and cost not much more than laying a carpet, they'd have it. The fact that most gardens aren't full of plastic grass suggests it's a minority.

you can spend 10k on AG and it will look like AG. You can spend 30k on it. It's still Instantly spottable even the most premium stuff. If you do it yourself on the cheap people will still have to pay to take it out.m because you'll still have to use the chemicals and sand, which will cost to take out, and it has a useful life so needs redoing at some point.

if your lawn is a boggy mess as grass it will be a boggy mess with AG as you'd have worse drainage than a natural lawn. Just lay a French drain. Plenty of
Guides online
And it's still bad for wildlife and the environment
 
I don't think you can equate AG with owning a Ferrari because anyone can install AG with a YouTube video on the cheap so if they wanted it, they would have it. If people could have something that looks like a Ferrari but doesn't have quite as good specs and cost not much more than laying a carpet, they'd have it. The fact that most gardens aren't full of plastic grass suggests it's a minority.

you can spend 10k on AG and it will look like AG. You can spend 30k on it. It's still Instantly spottable even the most premium stuff. If you do it yourself on the cheap people will still have to pay to take it out.m because you'll still have to use the chemicals and sand, which will cost to take out, and it has a useful life so needs redoing at some point.

if your lawn is a boggy mess as grass it will be a boggy mess with AG as you'd have worse drainage than a natural lawn. Just lay a French drain. Plenty of
Guides online
I could build a car on the cheap with bits, it doesn't mean the end result would be good.

The thing is someone with a small house/ garden probably has a smaller budget (or no budget), so won't want to pay the £1k or whatever it is just for the AG, assuming a 10m x 5m strip 50m2, at £20 a m2. Then there's the removing of the grass, sorting the base out, labour, disruption, mess etc, most just won't want the cost/ effort/ disruption, there's little change from 2k for that (which is a lot of money for most people). It's not the end result they don't want, it's what precedes it and the cost. The "good" stuff is twice that cost, I'd want the good stuff.

I can look out my window and see 200m2 of wet mud/ clay "grass", it looks 20x worse than AG does for 3/4 of the year, it's 1/4 of the usability and much more maintenance. I just wouldn't want to pay the 8k for the decent AG (£40m2), and the 2k to get it put in properly. Although saying that I did consider it, but we're going to move in the next couple of years anyway, so I'll just put up with it, reluctantly.

A lot of my work is as a drainage engineer, I know how drains work, otherwise these new housing estates and roads would all end up flooded :)

My lawn would need fully digging out, have a loads of lateral drains through a layer of stone, a membrane and then sand/ turf, it would cost a fortune, and still be pretty wet in winter. It couldn't just be turfed for £4k or whatever, it would end up a big job digging out the clay and putting a base in, probably costing around £6k, I would rather pay the extra for AG if I was going to do it.

AG on a 1:200 grade, would drain and dry far better than grass on a 1:200 grade, assuming the same base materials, and certainly won't collect water the same, certainly not over clay/ cohesive soils.

I get what you're saying about the look mind, cheap AG looks terrible adn even moreso compared to a well cut/ dry lawn, or even compared to an average lawn. But I'm comparing decent AG with a mudbath. I'd choose the decent AG, fitted properly over most flat lawns I've seen.

I'd gladly move into a place with the crap AG mind, as assuming it was fitted on a good base, pulling it out and replacing it with good stuff should be a relative doddle, and could probably sell the old stuff if it was jet washed down.
 
Last edited:
Not on Teesside but we had artificial grass put in a year and a half ago and it's lasting well. I tried and tried with real grass but it just doesn't cope with the conditions here. We live in a townhouse with another townhouse next door. Our garden is southwest facing and is surrounded by a 7ft wall and a 6ft fence. We have a cat and two dogs. The ground is all clay, from October until March/April the garden gets little sun and grass just doesn't maintain. I had the same reservations about how it would look, how it's not great for the environment, would it drain? Well, it looks a lot better than a muddy, patchy lawn, it has no weeds growing at all and can be used all year. It also doesn't hold water and drains well. Our next door neighbours also tried growing grass and had their lawn returfed twice. Eventually, they also gave up and put gravel down. Our garden looks. a lot smarter than theirs. It was last year when I didn't manage to get the grass regrown until July that I bit he bullet and gave in to the wife. Glad I did now.
 
Artificial grass.

You've bought the wrong house. Move to somewhere with a back yard if you can't be bothered with the natural world. It is terrible on every level from aesthetic to environmental.

If you have a lawn, let it grow long till the grass seeds and the clover blooms your garden will fill with lovely bumble bees. Cut it when it gets beyond that maybe once every six weeks it will cut up less when your dog runs on it as the roots are stronger and the kids can still kick a ball on it, this isn't Wembley you're trying to create. I despair of people buying houses with gardens and turning them into barren deserts. Don't.
 
I've got it, as i am an absolute lazy sod.

It looks great and drains brillinatly.

Obviously the wildlife doesn't like it, but when i have more time i'll put the grass back in;

I paid pretty much (over) but it looks fantastic.
 
No matter what you spend it will always look awful, and is also really bad for the environment/wildlife
 
No matter what you spend it will always look awful, and is also really bad for the environment/wildlife
I think the garden looks loads better for it.

I totally see where you're coming from though.

Ultimately the key to my decision was that I can't be arsed maintaining a lawn that size, full disclosure it is just lazy but there you go.
 
No matter what you spend it will always look awful, and is also really bad for the environment/wildlife
I disagree that it will always look awful, only if you buy the cheap one tone stuff, if you have 7+ different colours in then it can start to look natural.

As for being worse fo the environment, I don't use any harmful grass feed, or gallons of water every year.

The harm is done once when created and thats it, not a constant waste of water, feed etc.
 
I've no skin in the game as our house had it when we moved in and it's not what I would have installed myself. I've never been happy with how it looks to be honest but I'm converted on the sheer practicality of it being usable for the kids for the vast majority of the year.

Within a couple of hours of rain the kids can be out playing outside in the garden. No mess and no torn up garden no matter how bad the weather.

Our neighbours have one of those green thumb type seeding services they pay a decent whack for and worst the grass looks nice it bogs like mad and their kids can't play out in it with the shyte weather we get.

Like I said, it was a happy accident for us
 
Artificial grass.

You've bought the wrong house. Move to somewhere with a back yard if you can't be bothered with the natural world. It is terrible on every level from aesthetic to environmental.

If you have a lawn, let it grow long till the grass seeds and the clover blooms your garden will fill with lovely bumble bees. Cut it when it gets beyond that maybe once every six weeks it will cut up less when your dog runs on it as the roots are stronger and the kids can still kick a ball on it, this isn't Wembley you're trying to create. I despair of people buying houses with gardens and turning them into barren deserts. Don't.
It's not always that simple. We love the natural world. I have 50 bonsai, a growing allotment etc.

For us, we Home educate, it's used daily for playing, crafts, water activities, science experiments, friends visits, pe type activities. Growing bonsais, allotment, etc. And it's destroyed since we moved house in march.

If only leaving it grow worked. We need an area that is usable ( even if it's whilst the rest gets some recovery time) all year round.

That's why a small area will be artificial for us.
 
I disagree that it will always look awful, only if you buy the cheap one tone stuff, if you have 7+ different colours in then it can start to look natural.

As for being worse fo the environment, I don't use any harmful grass feed, or gallons of water every year.

The harm is done once when created and thats it, not a constant waste of water, feed etc.
Taking up a natural product and replacing it with plastic is just wrong on every level. Grass will help with natural drainage, provide food/habitats for wildlife and insects. Plastic grass will do none of this, an when it’s inevitably past it’s best it will be thrown in landfill
Ecosystems are being destroyed everywhere we look, it doesn’t seem right to be to destroy more for the sake of having a perfectly green lawn

With the climate of the uk, no one should have any need to water or use artificial feeds on a lawn anyway
 
I had it installed 2 years ago when I had a sloping garden landscaped and levelled out.
I can’t fault the stuff ! Garden looks pristine all year round it’s low maintenance and never boggy.
 
Agree, no issues at all.
do buy the best possible though . I’ve seen cheaper ones look flat or bare in patches .
and double up on weed membrane, the nylon type not the cheap *****.
I removed a lot of trees in a former waste forest type area, doubled membrane and not one break through
 
They may be aesthetically unappealing and environmentally questionable, but so are the driveways and hard-standing parking areas which, increasingly, are replacing front gardens. At least artificial grass is permeable, unlike paving, tarmac and concrete. For those with young families, I suspect you really want an all-weather pitch - you want the Riverside and you've got the 1970s Baseball Ground. Let's hope you don't end up with QPR in the '70s
 
Back
Top