Landscaping services
Artificial turf installation: a base job with a surface on top
How turf is installed, which layer each failure points to, what belongs in the written scope, and what the water numbers do and do not show.
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Written by HyreYard Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The short answer
Artificial turf is sold like a lawn and built like a patio. Under the surface sit a compacted subgrade, a compacted stone base and a drainage path.
Ponding, dips, wrinkles, open seams and pet odor trace back to one of those layers more than to the turf itself.
Judge a turf quote as you would a paving quote: by the layers you will never see.
What should you know before replacing a lawn with turf?
Water that used to soak into the lawn has to go somewhere once the surface changes. Where it goes should be designed, not discovered.
Synthetic surfaces in full sun run hotter than living grass, and turf has a replacement cycle. We publish no temperature or lifespan figure because we hold no sourced one.
14 of the 18 open programs in our turf rebate study do not pay for synthetic turf.
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Which layer does a turf failure point to?
Turf is flexible, so it shows whatever the base beneath it is doing.
The base is not draining, the fall is wrong, or more water arrives than the design allowed for.
The base settled: uneven compaction, one deep lift instead of several, or loose fill beneath.
The turf was not stretched and secured, or it moved with heat.
Seam preparation and fixing, the most visible workmanship failure.
Perimeter fixing or edge restraint, the same failure as a patio spreading at its edge.
Infill worn thin or never enough. Infill holds the fibers upright.
Drainage through the system, and the infill choice. Liquid has to pass through and rinse away.
Windblown seed sprouting in the infill. Turf is low maintenance, not no maintenance.
What else could replace the lawn?
Turf is often quoted against one alternative. These are the real options, and they answer different questions.
| Option | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Artificial turf | A synthetic surface on a compacted base. No mowing or watering, but rinsing, grooming and eventual replacement. |
| The same lawn, watered well | EPA WaterSense ties outdoor waste to overwatering and inefficient systems. A controller, a schedule and repairs can cut use without removing anything. See irrigation. |
| A better-suited grass | Replacing a grass that is wrong for your climate keeps a living surface and fixes a struggling lawn’s cause. |
| Planting and mulch | Converting lawn to low-water beds. Most of the rebate programs we read are written for this. |
| Hardscape | A patio, path or gravel area. It is impervious, so drainage must be designed. EPA: “much of the land surface is covered by buildings, pavement and compacted landscapes. These surfaces do not allow rain and snow melt to soak into the ground which greatly increases the volume and velocity of stormwater runoff.” |
What should a company check before quoting turf?
A quote built from square feet and a product name has priced the surface. These decide the installation.
Now, after rain, and once the surface changes.
The Web Soil Survey shows drainage class and shrink-swell rating, and both matter under a base.
How much to cut or fill, and the patio, threshold or drive edge the finish must meet.
Dogs, children and furniture change the drainage and infill specification.
A south-facing area in afternoon sun behaves differently from a shaded courtyard.
Digging a base over structural roots can harm a tree slowly.
Whether a rebate covers synthetic turf, and whether covenants or ordinances restrict it.
Call 811 before anyone digs, so lines are marked.
How is artificial turf installed?
The first five steps decide the outcome. By the time the turf is rolled out, the job has already succeeded or failed.
Strip the existing surface and dig to the depth of the base plus the turf. The spoil leaves by truck.
Set the fall away from buildings. Where the ground below does not drain, design a subsurface path and an outlet.
Compact the dug ground before any stone goes on. ICPI calls for 98% of standard Proctor density, ASTM D698 under pedestrian paving, the nearest published analogue.
Place and compact stone in layers. ICPI’s paving guidance uses 4 to 6 inch lifts, because a deep single layer does not compact through.
A finer layer screeded flat, since every dip in it shows through. Add a weed or separation layer where the system uses one.
Roll out, let it relax, keep the fiber direction the same on every piece, then seam and stretch before fixing.
Secure every edge to a restraint or into the base. Loose edges lift and curl.
Brush infill into the pile at the stated rate, then groom the fibers upright.
What do the water numbers actually show?
EPA WaterSense’s figures are the strongest sourced numbers in this decision. They are about irrigation, not about turf.
| Figure | What it means |
|---|---|
| Outdoor use | EPA WaterSense: households use “nearly 8 billion gallons of water each day, mainly for landscape irrigation.” |
| Waste | EPA WaterSense: “as much as 50 percent of this water is wasted due to overwatering caused by inefficiencies in irrigation methods and systems.” |
| What that shows | Irrigation is a large household use, and much of it is lost to inefficiency. Less irrigated area, or better irrigation, reduces it. |
| What it does not show | How much water one turf install saves. That depends on what you watered, how well and where. We publish no saving figure. |
What belongs in the written scope for turf?
Product name, pile height and color are what you compare online. The lines below decide whether the surface is flat and dry in five years, and they are hidden the day it is done.
In inches, and where the spoil goes.
A method and a target, as a paving scope states it.
Compacted inches, and the lift thickness.
Material and thickness, and the slope as a percentage and direction away from buildings.
Where water goes after it passes the surface, and whether a collector and outlet are included.
Product, pile height and backing, plus the infill named and its rate. “Infill included” is not a specification.
Seaming method, one fiber direction, and what the edges are fixed to.
Product and workmanship warranties separately, with exclusions, and the maintenance you must do.
The buried-work argument on the base specification applies here in full. Its figures are ICPI’s for concrete pavers; no comparable published standard for turf bases was available to us.
What moves the price of artificial turf?
Turf is priced per square foot, which hides how much of the job is excavation, base and disposal.
| Factor | Why it changes the number |
|---|---|
| Excavation and disposal | Stripping a lawn and digging to base depth makes a truckload of material with a disposal fee. |
| Base depth and soil | A deeper base on poorly drained ground means more stone, more digging and more hauling. |
| Drainage work | Where the ground will not take water, a collector and outlet. A drainage job inside a turf job. |
| Access | Wheelbarrowing stone and carrying rolls through a side gate is a real labor line. |
| Product and infill | Pile height, fiber, backing and infill type. The line you can shop, and the least tied to whether it stays flat. |
| Shape and edges | Curves, trees and beds create cuts, seams and waste. Where no hard edge exists, one must be built. |
| Replacement | Turf wears and is eventually replaced. A lifetime comparison that treats it as permanent is incomplete. |
HyreYard publishes no national average price for this work. Regional labor, material and disposal rates, access and soil move it far enough that a single figure would mislead.
Read a turf quote as a base quote.
Two installs of the same product can differ widely in price and both be honest. The difference is underneath: dig depth, subgrade compaction, base thickness, lifts and drainage. If a quote names a product and a square-foot price but not those five, ask for them in writing before comparing anything.
What to ask a turf installer
And in what lift thickness?
To what standard?
As a percentage, and in which direction?
Is there a collector and outlet?
And how often does it need topping up?
Is edge restraint included?
Product and workmanship, separately, with exclusions.
And does the HOA or city allow it here?
What to check before anyone quotes
Where water stands is where the drainage design starts.
Note the direct sun. Heat is easier to judge before installation.
Many fund planted conversions only.
If the case for turf is water, get a real quote for fixing the irrigation too.
Where does artificial turf go wrong?
The comparison that matters is between two base specifications, not two turf products.
Turf backing passes water; the ground below may not. On slow soil, the area ponds from beneath.
Stone compacts from the top. A single deep layer keeps settling, and the flexible surface shows it.
Fibers catch light by direction. Pieces laid at odds show as panels no grooming hides.
Your inquiry
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Questions
Does artificial turf save water?
How long does artificial turf last?
Does artificial turf get hot?
What is infill, and do I need it?
Can I get a rebate for replacing my lawn with turf?
What maintenance does artificial turf need?
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HyreYard Research Desk
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