artificial grass

paulreilly05

just wondering has anyone put artificial grass down in a problem back garden (moss) and did it work out ok? or do they wish they tried to fix the garden

raxy

I put it down in my back garden & think it's great. Just need to sweep it off every now & then. Much easier then dealing with real grass

van_beano

I hoover mine every couple of weeks, but definitely agree it's far easier to maintain that real grass. Don't go for cheap artificial grass as you'll regret it in the end, get good quality one (I paid €32 per square metre for mine).

They seem to have a lifespan of 15 years or so. I'm only 1 year down so far and am very happy with it.

goz83

I helped install this a couple of times. We cut and sprayed the lawn. Put down covering and laid high quality artificial grass. The cheap stuff is like carpet and is horrible. Get plenty of quotes as they vary quite a bit.

Best way to clean is to invest in a power washer with soap intake and a leaf blower. It will cost you now but save you in the future.

Barr

raxy wrote: »

I put it down in my back garden & think it's great. Just need to sweep it off every now & then. Much easier then dealing with real grass

van_beano wrote: »

I hoover mine every couple of weeks, but definitely agree it's far easier to maintain that real grass. Don't go for cheap artificial grass as you'll regret it in the end, get good quality one (I paid €32 per square metre for mine).

They seem to have a lifespan of 15 years or so. I'm only 1 year down so far and am very happy with it.

Where did ye get the grass ? Was there a brand name.

FastFullBack

goz83 wrote: »

I helped install this a couple of times. We cut and sprayed the lawn. Put down covering and laid high quality artificial grass. The cheap stuff is like carpet and is horrible. Get plenty of quotes as they vary quite a bit.

Best way to clean is to invest in a power washer with soap intake and a leaf blower. It will cost you now but save you in the future.

What was the covering? I thought this would need a few layers underneath the artificial grass, hardcore etc?

van_beano

Barr wrote: »

Where did ye get the grass ? Was there a brand name.

Plenty of dedicated places sell artificial grass now, a quick Google search will bring up some companies. Don’t know about brand names however the grass do have names attached to them and I’m presuming the names carry from shops to shops. You can get samples from these places anyways. What I got was called “Real Grass”.

Barr

van_beano wrote: »

Plenty of dedicated places sell artificial grass now, a quick Google search will bring up some companies. Don’t know about brand names however the grass do have names attached to them and I’m presuming the names carry from shops to shops. You can get samples from these places anyways. What I got was called “Real Grass”.

I have got 4 samples from a place called artificialgrass.ie

They have 2 in their range that look decent. One is "Boyne" and the other is called "emerald green"

Both look good but it would be nice to know if anyone has experience of either.

goz83

FastFullBack wrote: »

What was the covering? I thought this would need a few layers underneath the artificial grass, hardcore etc?

One was laid on concrete. An underlay was used.

The other was a grass garden but the grass was patchy and the ground was solid as a rock, so after killing the remaining grass, the ground was covered in plastic and the artificial grass was laid. That was about 4 years ago and it still looks great.

raxy

I took up a patio, spread & flattened the pea gravel underneath it. I put weed control fabric on that & covered it in sand. Ended up needing 2 tonnes of sand to get the level right.
I got the emerald grass from artificialgrass.ie. I would have liked a shorter grass length but the shorter grasses are also thinner so wouldn't feel as nice under foot

Barr

raxy wrote: »

I took up a patio, spread & flattened the pea gravel underneath it. I put weed control fabric on that & covered it in sand. Ended up needing 2 tonnes of sand to get the level right.
I got the emerald grass from artificialgrass.ie. I would have liked a shorter grass length but the shorter grasses are also thinner so wouldn't feel as nice under foot

That is one of the samples I got . It is the most expensive but certainly looks the part.

FastFullBack

Sounds like most people here installed it themselves?
I wonder what the price of install might be? I have a small 6.5m x 6.5m garden that I'm interested in putting down the grass.

raxy

FastFullBack wrote: »

Sounds like most people here installed it themselves?
I wonder what the price of install might be? I have a small 6.5m x 6.5m garden that I'm interested in putting down the grass.

Going by the quotes I got you would be looking at 3 - 5k to get that area done. To have it done properly you looking at the higher end quote.
I went with the cheaper quote who felt glueing the grass to the existing paving was appropriate for the amount charged.

van_beano

raxy wrote: »

Going by the quotes I got you would be looking at 3 - 5k to get that area done. To have it done properly you looking at the higher end quote.
I went with the cheaper quote who felt glueing the grass to the existing paving was appropriate for the amount charged.

Is your grass really glued to the paving? It’ll be some craic trying to get that up if you’re ever replacing it!

raxy

van_beano wrote: »

Is your grass really glued to the paving? It’ll be some craic trying to get that up if you’re ever replacing it!

It was but I made them remove it before doing it properly myself. I asked them to honour the quote they provided but they refused.

blue banana

FastFullBack wrote: »

Sounds like most people here installed it themselves?
I wonder what the price of install might be? I have a small 6.5m x 6.5m garden that I'm interested in putting down the grass.

These guys have a calculator https://pstlawns.ie/quick-quote-request/

Barr

raxy wrote: »

Going by the quotes I got you would be looking at 3 - 5k to get that area done. To have it done properly you looking at the higher end quote.
I went with the cheaper quote who felt glueing the grass to the existing paving was appropriate for the amount charged.

From the guys I have been talking to , drainage/groundworks is a large chunk of the job.

Do you have any issues with water just lying on top of the grass when its raining ?

van_beano

Barr wrote: »

From the guys I have been talking to , drainage/groundworks is a large chunk of the job.

Do you have any issues with water just lying on top of the grass when its raining ?

Nope, the rubber that the artificial grass is attached to has drainage holes in it, all rain water drains into the sand base below. There should never be an issue with water pooling.

raxy

From the guys I have been talking to , drainage/groundworks is a large chunk of the job.

Do you have any issues with water just lying on top of the grass when its raining ?[/quote]

Drainage was an issue before. We'd have water pooling around our back door after it rained. Since I put the grass in we haven't had any problems. We can empty paddling pools on it now & it just drains through.

mdwexford

We got artificial grass installed last week.

Did all the prep work ourselves and just got the guy to supply and lay it. Obviously early days but delighted with it so far, kids are loving it.

FastFullBack

mdwexford wrote: »

Did all the prep work ourselves

At a high level what were the steps involved in this and the cost?

raxy

FastFullBack wrote: »

[

At a high level what were the steps involved in this and the cost?

I framed the area using treated 2*4's then spread out pea gravel that was under the paving I removed. Had to dig out in places to get the right level. I used a garden roller to compress the gravel.
Weed control fabrics was put down & then covered with sand. Sand was levelled out and compacted with the garden roller. Then the grass was laid onto that & held in place with a few masonry nails.
I would say about €250 spent on everything including hire of the garden roller & delivery charges. That was for ~30m2

Will you be replacing real grass if you do it? I don't think the groundwork is all that important once you put down weed control & level off the area.

TheBlock

mdwexford wrote: »

We got artificial grass installed last week.

Did all the prep work ourselves and just got the guy to supply and lay it. Obviously early days but delighted with it so far, kids are loving it.

Could you provide the name of the guy who done this for you? I'm happy enough to do the ground work myself but wouldn't like to take on any cutting.

asteroids over berlin

Hi,

How are you all getting on, contemplating getting artificial grass.... couple of questions.


Is artificial grass safe, i hear part of it is made from recycled tyres? Does it get slippery when wet (more so than grass). Is there a bounce on it (if installed on soild silica sand etc) for small kids to play? thank you

raxy

asteroids over berlin wrote: »

Hi,

How are you all getting on, contemplating getting artificial grass.... couple of questions.


Is artificial grass safe, i hear part of it is made from recycled tyres? Does it get slippery when wet (more so than grass). Is there a bounce on it (if installed on soild silica sand etc) for small kids to play? thank you

It will be fine for kids to play on. As for bounce it would depend on the quality of the grass you get. The cheaper grass would be thin but if you get a good quality grass it will be fine.
I've had mine down about 3yrs with 2 small kids & now a dog & no problems with it.

jmBuildExt

asteroids over berlin wrote: »

Hi,

How are you all getting on, contemplating getting artificial grass.... couple of questions.


Is artificial grass safe, i hear part of it is made from recycled tyres? Does it get slippery when wet (more so than grass). Is there a bounce on it (if installed on soild silica sand etc) for small kids to play? thank you

I think the recycled tyres you are referring to are ground up tyres, used as infill to preserve the life of the grass, you see it on football pitches etc - I believe these have been found to be carcinogenic, and have been banned in some countries.

The good news is that most domestic artificial grasses don't require an infill.

Also, silica sand can be used as infill but don't use it as a bedding layer for your grass. Use paving sand. Silica sand is too fine and will wash through the layer underneath it (although laying a membrane below it will help with that)
Best practice is to use paving sand (aka sharp sand or grit sand), which has small stones in it which helps it all bind together to stop it washing away.

Re bounce etc, I have 35mm grass installed on top of ~40mm of sand on top of a layer of hardcore and the impact of falling on it, for example, is about the same as falling on moderately dried out real grass. My 10 year old does gymnastics on it, plenty of flips and falls.

Needs Must

Can you put down artificial grass on a deck?

raxy

Needs Must wrote: »

Can you put down artificial grass on a deck?

You can. It just gets glued down to the deck. The glue will ruin the deck though so if you take it up you might need to replace it.

purpleisafruit

I had 100m2 of 30mm artificial grass laid recently. We moved into a new build late last year and the grass seed was patchy at best. We've got 2 young boys (6 and 2) and a labrador so needed the garden to be useable all year round.
Ordered grass from the UK which came in at just over 2k. A friend had some installed by a landscaper and we got him to come out and do the groundworks/install for us. Took 3 days and it's been amazing for us.
They dug out about 8 inches of ground. There's 4 inches on hardcore, 2 inches of pea gravel then 2 inches of sand before the grass sits on top.
Really nice finish and no more kids or dog dragging mud in around the house on a rainy day!

jmBuildExt

raxy wrote: »

You can. It just gets glued down to the deck. The glue will ruin the deck though so if you take it up you might need to replace it.

Dont glue it to the deck!!! That'll be a mess
Just screw it down at the edges.
If you have any joins, glue them to the joining tape.
You can get a spongey layer that goes under the grass also. No experience with it though.

Once this stuff is down there's really not much movement in it, even before its fixed.

niallerf

Try this guy. His grass is great https://www.justgrass.ie