Artificial turf | Imamother

amother

Purple

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 6:50 am

Has anyone installed turf in their backyard? Not the one that you just lay down by yourself, the one that has to be professionally installed. My grass is not growing, & I would love to have turf, so my children can actually play there. but it seems that the. Companies that do it are really far away (I'm in Brooklyn). Places I called don't seem that interested in coming, and would only do the job for a higher price because of the distance. Any ideas?

amother

Purple

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 11:47 am

Not sure, something durable that kids can play on without worrying that it will get pulled up, our grass won't grow bc our kids always play on it, but now it gets them verydirty when they play, and gets very muddy when it rains!

MagentaYenta

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 11:57 am

amother wrote:

I've never known anyone to use artificial turf for a yard. It comes with it's own problems, the yard will need to be graded and drainage installed. Artificial turf can be almost 80 degrees hotter than lawn grass under the same ambient temperature. Artificial turf abrasions are harder to heal and run a higher risk of infection. There are questions too about the VOC emissions of the ground rubber (used tires) that are used as the base. Then there is the whole problem of cleaning the artificial turf.

MagentaYenta

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 12:32 pm

amother wrote:

Wow. that sounds very daunting!

Or you can just buy some phony plastic grass at Home Depot and cover your backyard and see if it works.

My advice would be to call in a professional landscaper and have them offer up some suggestions.

I've seen some really nice yard designs that were mixed materials and incorporated some interesting design elements. There was a swing/play structure area with play yard padding that is used for schools below it. Another was a sand play area. Some of the yard was turf grass and other parts were walkable greenery like creeping thyme. Other spaces were barked.

I live in an area where the grass we use for lawns (rye) dies back in the summer an greens up with the spring and winter rains. Some folks around here use wood chips and or bark for play areas.

Lawn may not be surviving in your yard because of the type of grass that was planted, or the soil or sun exposure. School playgrounds here typically have large areas of grass that survives kids.

BTW kids will get dirty when they play regardless of surface material.

amother

Purple

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 12:59 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

Thank,s. Do u have any suggestions for an alternative?

MagentaYenta

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 1:25 pm

amother wrote:

Thank,s. Do u have any suggestions for an alternative?

Personally I'd go with bark. But you don't want your kids to get dirty and they still will get dirty with bark. Again, you may want to call a good landscaper and see what they can suggest. I don't like total monoscaping so a field of bark would just be brown. If it were me, I'd talk to a landscaper and have half the yard filled with professionally installed sod, and leave it off limits until it becomes established and then have the other half done the next year.

A lot of your choices will be determined by the ages of your children. If you have toddlers, grass is a fine surface for play. I'd also give them a sand pit. The other considerations are how you want to use your yard. Do you want it to be a playground or do you want to use a portion of it to expand into an outdoor living and entertaining area? And you also need to consider what will add value to your home.

amother

Purple

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 3:31 pm

My kids play football, baseball, soccer, etc. & that's how I want my yard to be used. The problem with sod is that it will die the same way graas did. In the meantime, I feel bad for my kids because I really want them to have that space to run around & play. Any ideas? Thanks

celesteno

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 3:44 pm

I have artificial turf in my backyard for the exact reasons you mentioned. I wanted a place for my children to play, but due to poor soil, etc grass would not grow. It's been great for us. They play with no issue. Yes, if it's in the middle of the day at the height of the heat, it can get hot. But if you have shoes on its not bad, just too hot to be barefoot. I would definitely recommend. There are different grades of artificial turf and we got a high end one installed by professionals. there is a company DIG in boreum hill that installs, maybe you can call them and see what they say.

amother

Purple

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 3:47 pm

celesteno wrote:

thanks, it's great to here from someone that actually has turf, did u actually use that company? Do you know what grade you have?

celesteno

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 5:28 pm

Yeah, we used that company. I'm not sure what grade we used exactly, but it's not like the kind you get at Home Depot. I don't think they use a low quality grade at that company, it moves. It's soft. Best decision we made for our backyard

amother

Purple

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 5:55 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

So how do you folks keep your artificial turf clean? Do you hose it down at the end of the season? Rake leaves?

I would think that the Gardner would just take care of it like he takes care of my front lawn, we're already paying, and I doubt he would charge much less to take care of just my front lawn

Frumdoc

Wed, Aug 19 2015, 7:55 pm

I know a few people who have this.

My personal and purely emotional opinion is that it is awful to cover up the natural earth, which we see so little of because we build and cover it up with asphalt and roads and houses, and put fake green grass down. Dirt is good, earth is good and being in nature is great for children.

But it is apparently easier to clean, can even be vacuumed, or raked. Makes me sad.

chickpea_salad

Thu, Aug 20 2015, 2:55 pm

Planting clover seeds instead of grass seeds makes for a healthier lawn. Clover uses less water, has deeper roots to prevent soil compaction, and stores nitrogen, making for healthier soil. It also germinates faster than grass so is great for filling in bald patches in the lawn.

EsaEinai

Thu, Aug 20 2015, 4:15 pm

We installed artificial turf in our backyard and love it! A gardeber comes and blows the leaves, you can hose it down if it gets dirty. When you have it professionally installed the company digs up a few inches of dirt and puts down several inches of crushed gravel before laying down the turf so that it will drain water properly.

My backyard always looks beautiful and the kids love running on it and doing cartwheels etc. best decision we made.

Rubber Ducky

Thu, Aug 20 2015, 4:18 pm

My first thought was that Astroturf isn't easy on the knees or on kids skidding on it, but really it's an interesting idea. We put interlocking foam floor mats under our swing set. In the autumn we use them as our sukkah floor. The ones we use are meant for indoor use: http://www.bjs.com/best-step-c.....00838
but they work well enough for our purposes.

How about something like this? http://www.americanfloormats.c.....iles/