Artificial Grass?

[Idlewile]

Costco has some artificial grass options that recieve good reviews.

[Trainwreck20]

A couple of years ago this came up in our neighborhood, and the city pointed out at the time that artificial turf was considered impervious cover unless there was some sort of demonstration made that runoff was not increased. Apparently, after a relatively short period of time, the ground below an artificial turf surface becomes quite compacted and the turf itself 'plugs' up (or at least the mat below the turf) causing additional runoff.

In any case, as a starting point, it used to be counted as 100% impervious so you may be limited in how much you can put down anyway.....

[eirenecat]

I looked into this earlier and decided that the cost of artificial turf wasn't for me. I xeriscaped my front and back yards at our old house and plan to do the same at the new house. It was less expensive overall to do a complete landscape remodel, so to speak, and the end result was really attractive.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

A couple of years ago this came up in our neighborhood, and the city pointed out at the time that artificial turf was considered impervious cover unless there was some sort of demonstration made that runoff was not increased. Apparently, after a relatively short period of time, the ground below an artificial turf surface becomes quite compacted and the turf itself 'plugs' up (or at least the mat below the turf) causing additional runoff.

In any case, as a starting point, it used to be counted as 100% impervious so you may be limited in how much you can put down anyway.....

For anyone who doesn't understand "impervious cover". Impervious cover includes surfaces such as concrete, roofs, paving, even slatted wood decks are counted at 50% impervious. The City ordinance limits the maximum amount of surfaces on your property that are covered by impervious surfaces to 45% for most lots. Anything that increases rain run off and prevents rain from soaking into the ground is considered impervious cover. They regulate this because impervious cover increases the rain run off from your site which will increase the flash flooding problems down stream.

[cp102]

We have artificial grass in our courtyard. It looks beautiful, the dogs like it, its easy to rinse and stays looking nice. We have regular grass everywhere else. Because of the dogs use this area we couldn't keep grass growing. I love the fact it always looks nice, and its easy to care for.

[Return2Paradise]

Originally Posted by cp102

We have artificial grass in our courtyard. It looks beautiful, the dogs like it, its easy to rinse and stays looking nice. We have regular grass everywhere else. Because of the dogs use this area we couldn't keep grass growing. I love the fact it always looks nice, and its easy to care for.

cp102, would you be willing to share the details, such as brand of grass or company that did the install (assuming you didn't do it yourself), approximate square footage and cost? Oh, and pics. Give us some pics!

[Return2Paradise]

Looks like artificial grass installed by the pros won't happen for me. My back yard, which is all I planned on having done, is only 1500 square feet. A relatively tiny, flat, featureless rectangle. I just received my 1st quote.


$14,000 to $26,000, depending on the type of fake grass selected.

[eirenecat]

That was my experience as well--$20K to do my backyard. I completely xeriscaped both the front and back yards in that house for less than half of that.

[JT-3]

Wow - does this include weekly gold flake dusting? You can buy a sheet of this stuff for a few hundred so wondering how they arrive at that inflated cost. (more than concrete I think)