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Replacing real Lawn with Artificial Lawn? Pros and Cons? w/ Pets?

lefty

lefty

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 24, 2002
Location
Menlo Park, CA USA
Moto(s)
'05 ZRX1200
Name
Ed
I have two dogs and my fear is that it will be messy. I will keep the real grass in my back yard, I only want to replace the front lawn. My dogs LOVE going out to my front lawn and doing their business, and so do all of my neighbors dogs.

I have a person that has done it for a couple of other neighbors. He does great work, but I wanted to get the BARF consensus on whether dogs will mess it up?
 
I had fake stuff in front and it will catch some left overs that would otherwise rejoin mother earth.

The biggest deal is it is hot.. but out front I assume they are not chilling.

My take: I don't know. :laughing
 
It gets HOT! Otherwise, low maintenance but not zero. You got to clear leaves and other organic material periodically though. I am inclined to make the old ant joke but will refrain!
 
I've been seriously considering fake grass too. I'm sick of mowing and my water bill is too high and growing.
My neighbors have fake grass but they bought the cheap stuff and it looks like green carpet. The seams show and it looks like crap.

I checked with one company and they wanted $5,000 for 750 sq ft of good-looking fake stuff. Too much for me.
 
Tou can train your dogs to do their business in an area of your choosing.

And yes, your dogs will poop on it unless they’ve been trained oherwise.
 
My wife and I had two beagles. They were trained to do their business in one area, hidden behind our garage. They never pooped or peed on the lawn or in our garden.
 
ST Guy-

I train dogs for friends, but I NEVER have been able to get mine to shit in one spot. Inside the house- they understand. Outside they have free will.
 
I considered artificial for my front yard. But then I found out it will grow weeds, especially if wind can easily blow in seeds. Weeding artificial grass to eke out another couple of years before it gets replaced seems like the worst to me. 🤷‍♂️
 
We had our front and back yards done when we lived in San Jose. As has been mentioned - the turf gets hot when it sits in the sun all day, sometimes to the point of discomfort for doggy paws. And it's not maintenance-free: even though the installation includes a weed barrier you'll be out there pulling weeds that pop up through the barrier AND pop up from airborne seeds that fall onto the turf. We also had a spot in the back yard that developed a small sinkhole after about 5 years - it required pulling up the turf and throwing some sand down to level it off. Animals will still use your yard for their business so you'll have to be handy with a shovel if the animals' owners are not responsible, but any liquid waste can be simply hosed down.

If you're looking for recommendations: when we had it done the most popular company in the area was Heavenly Greens - they were also the busiest and most expensive. Ten years ago they were quoting about 4 months from signing the contract to the actual installation, and they wanted about $12K for an 800 sq ft job. We ended up using Back Nine Greens - we signed the contract on a Monday and they were in our yard on Thursday working. They charged about $8K for the same 800 sq ft job. Both companies included removing the original lawn down about 6 inches, adding their special mixture to bring the level back up to the sidewalk and driveway, laying down the weed barrier and the turf, and adding the sand/mulch stuff to the turf.
 
They always make me think of the toupee of lawns. (not hard to spot) :laughing
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I do see this here in Az, sculpted yards of decorative rock of different colors and textures,
with the centerpiece, a bit of plastic turf, like a practice hole for putting.
Shop Vac. or leaf blower, for the cleaning?
 
GAJ said:
Would you do it again or not?
Click to expand...
If we still lived on a 5000 sq ft lot with eternal water rationing we would probably do it again, but now we've got 5 acres with about 3 of those acres covered with lawn, and our water supply comes out of the ground in our back yard so we're happy to let the property be all natural. We do have a lawn care guy come by every other week to keep the lawn under control.
 
Thank you guys for your feedback. I'm still waiting for a quote from the installer. My neighbors Wife said the cost for the labor was $5K. That, to me, is a bargain. I'm assuming another $5K for materials? I'll wait and see what he tells me.
 
My step son that lives in Hollister has fake grass in the back and I have never noticed it getting to hot to walk on and it is in the sun quite awhile. I think the people that did his sloped the yard so that all the water goes to one spot and they have a drain under there to move it out. His dogs do pee on it but he hoses it down and they have a whole spot on the side of the house to leave solid waste. Have no idea how much he paid as he did it with all the backyard landscaping at one time but it was done many years ago and it still looks fine.
 
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