The following outlines unfavourable outcomes which may occur, due to environmental factors and due to the type/frequency of maintenance that the artificial lawn receives after installation.
This document seeks to;
- Educate on the routine maintenance requirements of your lawn and surrounding areas.
- Give examples of issues which are infrequent but cannot be fully prevented or foreseen.
- Offer additional/alternative works that could be carried out as part of installation.
Outcomes
Weeds
Occurrence: High
Description: Weeds that grow around the edge of the lawn (more often), and in the middle (less often).
Reduction strategies:
- Install edging e.g. continuous concrete kerbing or a limestone wall to ensure garden beds which border the artificial lawn have a barrier. The best type of border is one that is higher than the artificial lawn.
- Cover garden bed soil with a weed-mat and a woodchip mulch/gravel, particularly where a lower height edging is installed.
- Reduce soil level of garden beds where it is higher than the border/artificial lawn. Ideally aim for the soil level to be a minimum of 20mm lower than the top of the separating border.
- Keep paths, driveways and roads free of sand and dirt by sweeping and blowing them down.
- Where a spare block is next door install a temporary mesh screen to reduce the movement of sand and weeds in the wind.
- Where your street is on the oceanfront or near a regular source of sand that blows along the street and its not possible to put up a physical barrier, blow sand away from your driveway and road kerb weekly to help prevent a buildup on the artificial lawn. It may also be necessary to hire a mechanical groomer a few times a year to brush out the excess sand. It’s best to monitor the sand intrusion and decide on how frequently each year to perform this maintenance, as its easier if the sand buildup doesn’t get too heavy. A row of continuous pavers along the edge of the lawn may help block the sand, but please be aware of causing a trip hazard and local government rules.
- Apply a weed-spray to any weeds, whilst the weeds are still small so that they disintegrate. This is to avoid the need to pull out large roots that will disturb the artificial lawn base.
Steps 1-3, can be completed as an extra to our installation of your artificial lawn, please ask for a quote if required.
Ant/Pest Activity
Occurrence: Very Low
Description: Aggressive breed of ants or spiders that burrow into the base under the lawn and create molehills.
Reduction Strategies:
- Check to see if there is any ant/spider activity in the natural lawn or sand prior to the artificial lawn installation day.
- Monitor for any ant/spider activity once the artificial lawn is installed and apply an ant killer once seen.
Rectification:
- Peel back lawn, apply ant/pest killer, add more base material, level, compact and relay the turf.
Pet Damage
Occurrence: Low
Description: Dogs biting or digging at vulnerable corners of the lawn.
Reduction Strategies:
- Tell us if your dog has displayed digging and/or unwanted chewing behaviour before your artificial lawn installation.
- Install turf pegs at closer spacing around the perimeter of the lawn and joins, place extra pegs in all corners.
- Lay a heavy slab on all vulnerable areas of the lawn, typically the corners.
- Monitor dogs for any errant behaviour and train/dissuade with training.
Steps 2-3, can be completed as an extra to our installation of your artificial lawn, please ask for a quote if required.
Rectification:
- Patch in new artificial lawn with joining tape and turf pins, re-sand and groom. Note there can be a colour variation between batches of lawn where some time has passed since installation.
Pet Odour
Occurrence: Medium
Description: A build-up of urine within the lawn causing an odour. This problem may be more evident where the dogs are confined to a smaller patch of artificial lawn or where there are large or multiple dogs. A lack of rain to flush through dog wee, during summer months can also be a problem.
Reduction Strategies:
- Upgrade to a pet odourising infill in place of silica sand.*
- Choose to leave in some sprinklers in the artificial lawn area.
- Regularly hose over the lawn and apply an approved cleaning detergent.
Steps 1-2, can be completed as an extra to our installation of your artificial lawn, please ask for a quote if required.
*Note: Upgrading to a pet odourising infill after installation will involve significantly more labour time than if completed at initial installation and may not be practical in many cases.
Soak-wells/Drains/Water Outlets
Occurrence: Low
Description: Soak-wells overfill during heavy rains and suck in sand around the lid or pipe entrances causing a depression in the artificial lawn base.
Reduction Strategies:
- New soak-wells: Ensure soak-wells are installed by a professional soak-well installer who installs the right sized soak-well for the roof area being serviced. Ensure soak-wells are flooded around the edge with water and thoroughly compacted. Make sure lids are correctly fitted and there are limited gaps around pipes feeding into the soak-well
- Existing soak-wells: Let us know where soak-wells are and if there have been any dips occurring around the soak-well.
- If you suspect a soak-well has an issue, have the soak-well inspected prior to the grass installation.
Rectification:
Hose over the lawn so the silica sand infill does not fall out, pull out turf pegs, peel back lawn, dig down and inspect soak-well. Find cause and fix or have new larger soak-well fitted. Add base material (Cracker Dust/Blue metal dust from your local soil yard), level, compact, relay turf, repeg and regroom.
Flattening
Occurrence: High
Description: Flattening of the artificial lawn over time, including but not limited to high traffic areas.
Reduction Strategies:
- For high traffic areas such as pathways to gates, sheds, washing lines, seating areas, or vegetable/flower beds you may opt to have us install decorative Freostone ‘Steppers’ that are cut into the lawn to form a walkway between these areas.
- Choose a shorter or firmer artificial lawn to reduce flattening. There is an inherent trade-off between choosing a softer/longer lawn, instead of a firmer/shorter lawn which will flatten less.
- Regularly brush up your lawn with a stiff broom against the grain of the artificial lawn fibres.
- You may also choose to purchase a STIHL MM Multi-tool with a brush head attachment to brush up your lawn (we use this machine to initially install your lawn).
- We also offer a maintenance service, 1-4x per year where we mechanically broom up the lawn, blow off any debris and spray for weeds around the edges. This is supplementary to homeowner maintenance which should still be performed in combination with a periodic maintenance schedule. This service is not available during October to December.
- We strongly recommend not to regularly drive on your artificial lawn.
As part of our installation process we install a thick compacted road-base, but over time the path that the vehicle tyres take will become noticeable through the flattening of the artificial lawn fibres.
Steps 1.2.5, can be completed as an extra to our installation of your artificial lawn or as an aftercare service, please ask for a quote if required.
Notes:
1. All artificial lawn types will experience flattening due to the nature of artificial lawn. Artificial lawn is made of many static plastic fibres that do not grow upwards like a traditional lawn.
Traditional lawns experience the issue of mud/loss of grass in areas regularly tracked by pets or people.
2. Brushing little and often is strongly recommended. An artificial lawn that receives traffic but is not brushed up for an extended period will not brush up as effectively.
Reflective Surfaces/Heat
Occurrence: Very Low
Description: Surfaces that magnify the sun and overheat the artificial lawn, causing a melting effect.
Reduction Strategies:
- Do not place glass bowls or container on the lawn
- Do not park vehicles with solid dome shape car tyre rims on the lawn
- Installation near glass pool fencing: We will apply the silica sand lawn infill at a heavier rate in the immediate area next to the glass.
- Do not leave enclosed cubby houses on artificial lawn during hotter parts of the year unless shaded or have checked the artificial lawn underneath.
Rectification:
- Patch in new artificial lawn with joining tape and turf pins, re-sand and groom. Note there can be a colour variation between batches of lawn where some time has passed since installation.
Bore Water Staining
Occurrence: Very Low
Description: The artificial lawn turns a cloudy white/orange colour where overspray from garden sprinklers occur (much like what you would witness on walls and pathways on some properties).
Reduction Strategies:
- Change positioning of nozzles of garden sprinklers to remove chance of overspray
- Convert garden sprinklers to use main water instead of bore water or have a bore water filtration system installed.
- If paths, plants or fixtures in the gardens already have cloudy white/orange staining, let us know if you would like us to complete the above changes as part of our grass installation.
Steps 1.2.5, can be completed as an extra to our installation of your artificial lawn or as an aftercare service, please ask for a quote if required.
Please let us know if you would like to make any additions to the quote we have provided, to include any of the tasks listed in this document. We have compiled this list from our ten years of experience, in artificial lawn installation. Please note, the afore-mentioned occurrences are intended as a guide only and do not represent an exhaustive list of unforeseen circumstances; they outline the most common factors which customers seek to address prior to installation. We hope you find it helpful.
If you have any questions about any of the above, please contact us.
Kind Regards
Simply Synthetic Turf Team
