Bye Bye Weeds & Stickers: My Backyard Artificial Turf Reveal
When I think about what we want out of our backyard, I always go straight to low maintenance, and our grass was anything but. Weeds and stickers seemed to always pop up no matter how hard I tried to keep them at bay. I wasn’t in love with having the gardeners coming back to mow every other week and the mess that was left behind from the dirt and grass clippings. Not to mention, the leaf blower!! Ugh the leaf blower. How I hate the leaf blower. Every time the gardeners would come, I’d find grass in every nook and crevice of our backyard, and in no time it was popping up in our once beautiful DG. I started to think about an alternative, DG and Artificial Turf were at the top of my list, but I wanted a soft clean space for Coyote to be able to play on and run around with his friends. DG gave me visions of scraped knees and more dust and dirt tracked into the house. So artificial turf it was.
Here are my biggest points of advice when it comes to choosing your company and your turf.
DO YOUR RESEARCH: Read up online about how the install is done, how many inches of dirt they need to dig out, types of turf and drainage for your needs etc etc.
MEASURE YOUR AREA BEFORE HAND: I swear each company gave me a different measurements, but luckily I had already measured, so when the first guy gave me his total square feet, I was able to quickly object and I had the numbers to prove it.
GET 3-5 QUOTES: I had five different companies come out. After meeting with five, I think you’ll have the best idea of who will be the most professional, have the best quality product and do the best job.
KEEP SAMPLES: This one I wish I would have done, because there’s so many brands, colors, flows, thickness etc. And once they leave, if you’ve taken pics, that’s great, but it’s so hard to tell the differences in photos. Its so much better to be able to go back and touch and feel the samples you loved from each company will really help you make your decision.
Making a decision was NOT easy!
I ended up going with a company called BILTRIGHT CONSTRUCTION. I had to wait a lot longer with them, but I also took that as a good sign, because they were super busy. The salesman was super professional and came out twice to go through the product with me and double confirm that I was in love with my choice. They also had by far the best product. The other companies gave me some of the thinnest turf and wanted to charge the same price. The only downside was the communication, I give them a 4 out of 10 on communication. However, once install day finally came, the crew arrived promptly at 7am, were incredibly friendly, communicative, and professional, and knocked it out before 3pm. 10 out of 10 on the install!
I measured 480 sq. feet on our backyard area. I got measurements everywhere from 450-500 sq. feet.
We also have two dogs, one a giant wolf dog, the other a chihuahua. So pet friendly was a must. I didn’t want a product that was going to smell, or not hold up with the dogs.
The prices I got were anywhere from $8.00/sq. foot to $11.20/sq. foot. However, prices have significantly gone up since then. I signed my contract in June and thankfully locked in the cheaper price.
I ended up going with FLOW 98 OLIVE with the max flow backing. Meaning it has the maximum drainage backing (perfect for pets). And we skipped the weed blocker, because if you put that in, the pet waste won’t drain, it gets trapped and creates bacteria and a horrible smell.
Even though I measured 480 sq. feet, Biltright said I had 490, but regardless it didn’t matter because their minimum was 500 square feet, so I got charged for that anyway. My turf cost $11.20/sq. foot, but has since gone up to $13.45/sq. foot.
The other companies I interviewed brought out punch hole backed turf which ran about $8.50/sq foot and would be totally fine if we didn’t have dogs. I think technically you can still use that kind with smaller dogs, but not with Rogue, he’s a beast!
I mean, Rogue obviously approves:)
My total came out to $5,595.80 for 480 sq. feet (but paid for 500 sq. feet), and I used FLOW 98 in Olive. I think it came out beautifully! I honestly can’t believe this is my backyard. My main concern was having it look fake and cheap, but if you spend a little extra and really shop around, I think you’ll be super stoked on the result. If you’re thinking about turf, I highly recommend it! We also have quite a bit left over too, so I’m goings to see if we have enough for the driveway and hire someone to install. Stay tuned!
Oh and they said if the turf starts to get a little stinky after a while from the doggies, use Simple Green Pet or Wysi Wash.
