Artificial turf has come a long way over the last decade and is a growing trend in our residential landscapes. More and more homeowners are have installed artificial turf for residential uses because it offers many benefits over real grass – and it looks great, too.
What is Artificial Grass?
Artificial turf for yards is just like the turf used in football stadiums. Created using synthetic fibers, this artificial grass looks just like real grass, and there is one main reason that people install artificial grass over letting mother nature take its course: it’s low maintenance.
If you’ve ever had a dry spell where it doesn’t seem to rain for months and your grass turns yellow in the process, you understand the frustration of real grass.
Artificial turf will not suffer the same fate. If it doesn’t rain, no problem. And you won’t need to spend your Sunday afternoon mowing the lawn in the sweltering heat. From a homeowner’s point-of-view, this grass is simply far easier to maintain while also looking better in the process.
But this doesn’t mean that this grass doesn’t have its downsides – it does – and we’ll be talking about these downsides shortly.
Benefits of Artificial Turf for Yards
The pros and cons of artificial turf go hand-in-hand. There is a lot to love about these turfs, and you’ll find that tens of thousands of people are installing them a month in their own yards.
What are the pros and cons of artificial grass? Let’s start with the benefits, or pros, first:
Benefits
There are many benefits to artificial grass – especially for commercial usage. But the same benefits are also experienced in residential settings:
- No Cutting: Your grass will remain its same length all season long. Since this grass is made from synthetic fibers, it will never grow or look out of place.
- No Irrigation: In states such as California, which recently suffered one of the its worst droughts in history, people were still trying to maintain their lawns even though water levels were dangerously low. Artificial grass does not require irrigation.
- Pesticide-free: Dangerous pesticides do not need to be sprayed on your grass. You also don’t have to spend money on fertilizer to keep up with your neighbor’s perfect lawn.
- Low Cost: In terms of maintenance and upkeep, the costs are very low. There are some maintenance requirements to keep this grass pristine, and we’ll be discussing them shortly.
When looking at the benefits of artificial turf, you need to realize that this turf was primarily made for football stadiums. Since many stadiums are closed, there is a lack of proper sun needed to maintain natural grass. Not to mention maintenance costs can be at least $35,000 to maintain even smaller stadiums – it’s very expensive.
Artificial turf allows for the grass to look and feel real while not needing sun, fertilizer, water and nearly as much maintenance as its natural counterpart.
But there are some downsides to artificial turf that need to be considered.
Downsides of Artificial Turf
Artificial turf for yards does have its downsides. While some of these downsides are minor, there are also some hazardous risks (very rare) that you need to be aware of:
- Turf Burns: Grass is forgiving, but people do suffer from “turf burns” when playing sports on artificial grass. These are cuts or lesions that occur to athletes from sliding or falling on synthetic grass. A study showed that you’re 7 times more likely to get burns on artificial turf than on natural grass.
- No Turning Back: For all intents and purposes, there is no turning back once you go artificial. The transition makes the soil unusable and degrades the soil left behind dramatically. If you do want to go back to natural grass, you’ll need a lot of soil remediation done on your yard, which can take years.
- Replacement: While the lifespan of most artificial yards is 15 – 25 years, they all need to be replaced at one time or another.
- Runoff: Real grass will absorb rain water and reduce runoff dramatically. Artificial grass is not forgiving. This material will cause runoff which, if not properly drained and could cause pooling or possibly flooding depending on your geographical area.
As you can see, there are many downsides to artificial turf, but many of them are easily overlooked thanks to the benefits that artificial grass offers.
The Growing Trend of using Artificial Turf in the Backyard
The usage of artificial turfs is increasing drastically in the last decade.
Information from 2009 indicates the following:
- In 2009, there were 5,500 artificial turf fields in the United States.
- Between 2006 and 2009, the amount of artificial turf lawn (residential usage) increased 20% up to 60 million square feet.
Statistics from 2015 show that over 11,000 artificial fields are present in the United States. This shows that the industry has doubled within just a 6-year period.
High initial costs were a major hindrance for homeowners that wanted to install grass and get rid of their traditional lawns. Now, the prices have fallen greatly since the 90s (and 60s for that matter) and artificial turf for residential applications is becoming more prevalent.
While maintenance demands are much lower with artificial turf, the turn does need a power brushing (cleaning) annually to ensure it is clean and maintained properly.
As you can see, artificial grass has made its way from football fields all across the world to your neighbor’s front door. Will you be the next proud homeowner with a synthetic lawn?