Artificial grass done properly: what separates a good install from a bad one

Artificial grass divides people more than any other product we fit. Half our customers ask for it by name. The other half wrinkle their nose at the phrase and then, three months later, ring back because they have spent another spring fighting a lawn that will not drain.

Both reactions are reasonable, because both are based on real experience. Most people's mental image of artificial grass comes from a bad installation — and there are a great many bad installations.

Why it has a bad name

Almost every artificial lawn that looks wrong has one of four faults, and none of them is the grass itself.

It has been laid on soil rather than a proper base, so it has settled unevenly and now undulates. The joins are visible as a seam or a stripe because the pile direction was not matched. The pile is too long and too uniformly green, so it reads as plastic from across the garden. Or the edges are not restrained, so it has crept and now there is a lip you catch your foot on.

Every one of those is an installation failure. Good grass laid badly looks awful; decent grass laid properly is genuinely hard to identify from a first-floor window.

The base is ninety per cent of it

Here is the build-up we use, and it is closer to laying a path than to laying a lawn.

We excavate to around 100 to 150mm, depending on ground conditions and what is coming off. A geotextile membrane goes over the formation to stop the sub-base migrating into the soil below and to stop weeds coming up. Then a compacted layer of MOT Type 1 or, on wetter plots, a clean open-graded stone that drains faster. That is compacted in layers with a plate compactor — not raked level and walked on.

On top of that goes a laying course of granite or limestone dust, screeded to a smooth, even surface and compacted again. This is the layer that determines whether your lawn is flat in five years or has a dip where the water sits. Then a second membrane, then the grass, then the infill.

The whole build-up is free-draining by design. Water goes through the perforated backing, through the laying course, through the sub-base and into the ground. If any of those layers is not free-draining, water sits at that level and the whole thing fails.

We have lifted artificial lawns that were laid straight onto turf. The grass was fine. Underneath it was a swamp. Martin, MAE Landscapes

Joins, pile direction and the giveaway

Artificial grass comes on rolls, usually four metres wide. Any lawn wider than that has a join, and the join is where installers are found out.

Every blade of artificial grass leans in one direction. If two pieces are laid with the pile facing different ways, they catch the light differently and you get a visible stripe down the lawn forever. It is the single most common giveaway and it is entirely avoidable — you check the direction on every piece before it goes down, and you lay them all the same way.

The join itself is made with jointing tape and adhesive, with the edges trimmed so the backings butt without overlapping and without a gap. Done properly you cannot find it. Done badly you get either a visible line or, worse, a ridge.

Where the lawn meets paving, it should finish flush and be restrained. Where it meets a border, we use a treated timber or steel edge that the grass is fixed to.

Dogs, drainage and the smell problem

The smell complaint is real, and it is almost always a drainage problem rather than a grass problem.

Urine passes through the perforated backing and into the base. If the base drains, it flushes through with rainfall and there is no issue — this is why the free-draining build-up matters so much in a dog household. If the base does not drain, it sits in the sand infill and in the laying course, and by August you will know about it.

For dog owners we would specify an open-graded sub-base rather than standard Type 1, and we would be honest that a rinse-down every few weeks in summer is sensible. There are antimicrobial infills available as an alternative to plain silica sand and they do help, though they are not a substitute for a base that drains.

Choosing a grass that does not look fake

Three things matter far more than price per square metre.

Pile height. Between 30 and 40mm looks right for a domestic lawn. Shorter reads as sports pitch. Longer flattens under furniture and footfall and never quite recovers, so it develops tracks.

Colour mix. A single flat green is the giveaway. Good grass has two or three green tones plus a brown or beige thatch layer at the base, which is what a real lawn looks like up close.

Blade shape and density. Denser is better and more expensive. Blades with a spine or a C-shape stand up better under traffic than flat ones.

What we would avoid: anything unnaturally vivid, and the very cheapest budget grasses, which tend to be thin, uniformly coloured and flat-bladed all at once.

When we tell people not to have it

We turn this work down more than you might expect, because it is genuinely the wrong answer in some gardens.

If you love gardening. Artificial grass is a maintenance decision, not a horticultural one. If the lawn is something you enjoy looking after, keep it.

If the garden is very large. Cost scales linearly and a large artificial lawn is a lot of money for something that will need replacing in fifteen to twenty years. Above about eighty square metres we would usually suggest a smaller artificial area with planting or gravel around it.

If wildlife matters to you. An artificial lawn supports nothing. If that troubles you, a real lawn — even a rough one — is better, and there are middle grounds worth considering. The RHS has good practical guidance on getting a struggling real lawn to work, and it is worth reading before you give up on one. We would rather you had the right garden than the one with the biggest invoice.

If the problem is drainage. If your lawn is a bog because the garden does not drain, artificial grass on a proper base will help — but fixing the drainage is the actual answer and should happen either way.

What it costs and how long it lasts

Compared against a real lawn, the arithmetic is closer than people assume once you count a mower, fuel, feed, weedkiller, scarifying and the occasional returfing of the bare patch under the trampoline — but nobody buys artificial grass purely on cost. They buy it because they get their weekends back and because the garden is usable in February.

Questions worth asking any installer

If you are getting quotes, these five questions will separate the installers who know what they are doing from the ones who will roll it out over your old lawn.

• How deep are you excavating, and what goes in the base?
• What is the laying course, and is it screeded and compacted?
• How many joins will there be and how are they made?
• What edge restraint are you using?
• What is the pile height, and can I see a sample outdoors rather than in a showroom?

Any installer worth using will have quick, specific answers. Vague ones tell you what you need to know.

What maintenance it actually needs

Low maintenance is not no maintenance, and installers who claim otherwise are setting you up to be disappointed.

A brush through with a stiff broom or a power brush every couple of months keeps the pile standing up, particularly on the routes people walk and where furniture sits. Without it, traffic areas flatten and start to look worn well before the grass is actually worn out.

Leaves need clearing in autumn — a blower is ideal — because organic matter left to break down on the surface becomes a seed bed, and you end up with weeds growing in the debris on top of the grass rather than through it. That is the most common weed complaint we hear and it is entirely preventable.

Infill needs topping up occasionally, every few years, as some is lost to brushing and weather. And if you have dogs, a rinse down every few weeks in warm weather keeps everything fresh.

Total time: perhaps two hours a year, against the twenty to thirty hours a real lawn takes.

How it behaves through the year

Worth knowing what to expect, because a couple of these surprise people.

Winter. This is where it earns its money. Green, usable, no mud. It will frost over and go crisp underfoot, and you should not walk on it heavily while frozen — the fibres are brittle at that point. It thaws unharmed.

Spring. A brush and a leaf clear, and it is ready. No scarifying, no feed, no patching.

Summer. It gets warm in direct sun — noticeably warmer than real grass, though not usually uncomfortable in this climate. Reflected heat from glass can be intense enough to damage the fibres in rare cases; if you have a south-facing conservatory throwing a hotspot, mention it.

Autumn. The only month that asks anything of you. Keep the leaves off.

More on how we install artificial grass, and on the porcelain paving it usually sits alongside.