Artificial grass is the perfect solution to keep your lawn looking neat and green all year round. It has raised its popularity in the UK by being a low-maintenance alternative to regular grass, so we’ve put together a guide that contains expert tips and hints on how to lay your artificial grass as easily as possible.
Tools and materials you’ll need
- A sharp knife with spare blades
- A tape measure or a straight edge tool
- Gloves and knee pads (for comfort)
- Compaction plate or roller
- Turf cutter or a spade
- A stiff broom or motorised power brush
- Weed membrane
- Joining tape (to join multiple cuts)
- Glue for artificial grass (used with joining tape)
- Grass pins
- Type 1 aggregate
- Grano dust
Before you begin, here are a few things to consider:
- Ensure your garden has adequate draining and there is no water retention
- Remove any excess weeds, unwanted plants and obstacles
Preparing a hard surface for artificial grass
You need to ensure that your surface is smooth and levelled so that you can easily install your artificial grass with no hassle. Here are the tips on how to prep your surface:
- If you have a natural turf in your garden, you need to make sure that it is removed. You can use a turf cutter (for a large area) or a shovel (for a small area) to remove it.
- Remove all natural grass and subsoil to a depth of 10cm (if your ground is compacted and free draining, then you can remove only 7cm). Artificial grass should not be installed over topsoil to ensure that the finished product does not stand unnaturally tall over the surrounded areas.
- Compact the surface. You can do so with a roller or a vibrating plate
- To ensure that all weeds are removed, you can use a weed killer spray on the area you’re installing the artificial grass.
- Edge the area. This can be done using timber, metal concrete or brick, ensuring that is in not above the final grass height. Green4Life artificial grass is available in pile heights from 16mm to 38mm, so you should lay the height of your edge accordingly.
- Lay the base. Typically, you will need between 50-70mm compacted and levelled layer of Type 1 aggregate and a 20mm top layer of compacted and levelled Grano dust (also known as ‘Fine Type 1’).
- Compress the material and provide a firm base. The base layer should be roughly 20mm below the top of your edging.
- Cover the base with a weed membrane and pin it close to the edging.
Installing your artificial grass
- Lay the artificial grass over the areas whilst leaving some spare material to overlap the edges so that you will have enough material to trim for a close finish.
- Cut the overlapping edges to create a clean finish around your edging.
- You may need to join two or more pieces together, so roll them all out ensuring that the grass fibres run in the same direction.
- Fold back the edges of the first piece and locate the rolls of stitching. Cut along the backing between the rolls of stitching using a sharp knife (avoid cutting grass fibres). Remove the excess strips and repeat the same process for the rest of the pieces.
- Position the pieces together to ensure that they line up and then fold back the edges (by about 30cm) to place the joining tape.
- Roll out the joining tape (shiny side down) on the ground between the two lengths of artificial grass.
- Spread glue onto the joining tape, you can use a spreader to apply the glue evenly along the tape.
- Carefully, start folding the two pieces together from one end to the other.
- Once both edges are folded over, lightly brush over the join to put pressure on it and firm it down.
- Allow for the glue to dry (from 2 hours to a day, depending on the weather).
Now you can relax and admire your new lawn! Proper maintenance will ensure that your lawn lasts for decades. You can have a look at our tips on how to maintain your artificial lawn. If you’re certain that artificial grass is the right solution for your lawn, you can check out our wide range of artificial grass products.
