www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi all,

As the title says I'm toying with the idea of installing artificial grass. We've just bought the house it's our first home and expect to be here a long time, so basically we want to do a good job and make it last. Three dogs that are currently getting filthy every time they go in the garden and driving me mad.

Having never done any landscaping whatsoever it'll be a big job and have to learn everything but I've been doing alot of research on it and just wanted to check if my plans are right.

The fence concrete panels are not all level, they follow the ground which is uneven more so in just one corner, so I was planning on flattening the whole lot except for 1ft around the edges, fixing some sleepers for a border and filling behind those with bark or decorative stone. There is flags down at the moment, we want to keep a small section of them and have the artificial grass meet them level, I'll have to cut some in half to make a new edge of the slabs. Do I need to then remove 5" of soil under the flags I remove and flatten the rest to the same level, fill with 4" MOT type 1 and 1" sharp sand? Inside the sleepers I was thinking about installing some 2"X4"s leaving about an 8mm gap so I could a) use them to fasten the grass down at the edges and took it down inside the gap to give it a better appearance than me cutting it spot on to the border.

Any tips or anything I've not thought of? Will upload some pics after of how the garden is now.

Meant to say I've had a couple of quotes for a company to do it. Ranging from £5000-£7500which isn't affordable for us, certainly not without saving for a couple of years.

Pricing it up if I managed to do it myself the artificial grass we are looking at about £1000, 10 tonnes MOT £300, sleepers £180, hire of a whacker plate, and sand, I'm sure we could do it for under £2000. Just don't want it to look a mess.

It's not hard to do if you take your time and prepare the ground properly.
Only thing I'd say is the all the artificial lawns I've seen where there are dogs living on the property have the problem of the lawn stinking of dogs pish,dunno if this is a problem with all makes of artificial lawn but every one I've come across where there are dogs really stink of pish.

steviejoiner74 wrote:dunno if this is a problem with all makes of artificial lawn but every one I've come across where there are dogs really stink of pish.

I have been reading about that, you put it better than I could.

Seems the "secret" is to buy a very good quality "grass" that has lots of drainage holes, as well as making sure the surface it is laid on has good drainage, otherwise it will "pool" and smell. And when the dog "dumps" you should remove the "dump"

I am currently doing my garden and would never consider artificial grass. My garden is only 45ft x 12ft. Not longer after I moved in I returfed it with meadow grass but never maintained it so over the years weeds, brambles and bindweed took over. This year I have dug it (all by hand) and removed the weed systems I could. At the end of this month I will be having it rotavated (so I can get some more weed root systems out) and then putting some rotten horse manure down and covering it for the next year.

I do believe that too much "hard landscaping" and inherent "human laziness" continues the flooding in some areas, plus I am actually enjoying getting the garden "renovated" and look forward to "landscaping" it next year.

I'd sooner have a grass area where the dogs can't go, more so if you have kids.

You wait till you get some cats doing the biz several times a day, it will quickly become a no go area

Mate has fake grass with a couple of dogs. It STINKS all the time (soil under too) and it's unbearable when the sun is out.

Garden is a no go zone.

Thanks for the replies folks.

Im still digging by hand(trying to do everything on the cheap really and where i can, do it myself). Still thinking of the artificial grass to be honest but have been looking into the smelling with dogs and asking people about it who have it with dogs. We've got two males who pee 'up the fence' every time without fail and with a border of stone i dont think they will be a problem, its the female who squats who might cause a problem, i might even spend some time getting her into the habit of weeing on the patio area so i can just wash it straight away with the hose and into drain.

What im struggling to get my head round as far as the actual doing it is concerned, ive dug up about 5 inches of the soil and removed lots of roots in the process and tried to keep my digging as level as i can, but when i stand back and look at it, can see where ive not kept it that level ie it might be 5inch around the edge and go upto 4" in the middle etc, you know what i mean, its not dead level. What im wondering now is, do i need to spend the extra time now going back over it all making sure its dead flat, or will i be able to do that when i put the MOT down? Will i be able to just put that down and rake it level then meaning ill just have more MOT in places, and use a whacker plate over it? Once thats down and level (which getting to that point is my biggest worry now, getting it flat i dont seem to be digging very level just hope i can fill it in a bit better?) im planning on putting sleepers down for the border similar to how you put fence posts in, knocking three peices of steel rod into each sleeper bent at the end like a hook and concreting those in a hole.

Any advice on the 'getting it level'? If it comes to it, ill get someone in to do that bit, but id rather manage it myself if possible.

Thanks for reading i know its a bit of a rambly post.