Did We…….?

a) politely explain to our client that we wouldn’t be able to install the lawn because there was no access available

b) get ladders and climb over the 8ft wall at the back of the property, along with all our equipment

As you can see from the pictures, the answer is b) – we scaled the rear wall, with no fuss and no extra expense to our client.

Here you’ll see us in action, digging up the existing turf, levelling the ground, infilling with sand and laying a geo textile membrane to prevent weeds.   There is a lot of work involved in an artificial grass install!  All that preparatory work must be done before we even think of laying the new lawn.

The key to long lasting, hard wearing, attractive artificial grass is in the preparation and the materials used. Get this right and it’s extremely unlikely you’ll have any issues with your new lawn.  If the ground isn’t level the grass is extremely difficult to position and fit.  Without a sand infill, the grass can move around, it therefore gets weaker and is more likely to tare.  The right type of sand must be used; so you don’t get any problems with drainage and undergrowth.

This is why we don’t recommend DIY installs, there is a lot more to it than you may think.  Plus by the time you’ve bought the equipment and materials, the cost difference isn’t much different.

The truth is that after heavy use every artificial grass product will go flat unless it is well maintained and “brushed up” with a stiff broom to bring back the fibers to there original state, but if left to long then no amount of brushing will bring your grass back to life!

The problem has been with the materials used in the construction of the products. When out and about showing different products to various clients we hear the same things over and over, “We need a grass that is very soft but also will last a long time” but there has never been a product that could perform this well, until now!

At the start of the year we at Leisure Tech Lawns look at all the new products and prices from the various manufacturers. We choose which grasses look the best and give the most value for money to our customers, and this year has been no exception. While sifting through the various samples sent through there was one grass that stood out head and shoulders above the rest. This new grass was soft yet stood bolt upright (new grass usually needs to be brushed with a power broom to stand the fibres up) and was so full of fibres that it stayed upright even when being used as a door mat all week!

Today we laid our first lawn using this new grass and wow, in the 10 years that we have been laying artificial grass there has never been a product this good straight out of the box, no brushing needed, just rolled out and lightly sand dressed and we were done. The customers was over the moon that his garden was finished in time for this hot spell, and how good the grass looked and how soft it felt. The product was shown to three customers over the previous weekend and out of the six samples they were shown all decided on this new wonder grass to be used in there installations.

The new “Ultimate Grass” will be detailed on the site over the next week or so

New “Ultimate Grass”

Our first post is to answer a question that we are being asked all too frequently “CAN I LAY THE ARTIFICIAL GRASS MYSELF? And the first answer is that we wouldn’t advise it, the second answer would be why would you even try to install it yourself? Over the 10yrs that we have been laying artificial grass we have seen more D.I.Y disasters that you can imagine, even from supposedly professional installers! With so many new Artificial Grass companies springing up weekly, so the posting of even more useless information grows.

D.I.Y

The cost of the grass together with all the additional tools and products works out the same as if you had a professional installing the whole job from start to finish while you sat with your feet up watching the TV. You might be able to save a few pounds but as I have seen before, even a very good landscaper following the installation instructions to the letter can cock things up in a very expensive way!

Materials

The materials used for installing the artificial grass can all be brought from the net i.e. grass, tape, glue with the exception of the sand, ask many on line grass companies and they will tell you to use kiln dried silica sand available from any good D.I.Y store, the problem with using this product is it’s not free draining and will clog up after time leaving you with a moss and weed ridden lawn that will need expensive treatment to remove. The correct sand to use is s4 sports sand or synthetic sports dressing sand, this has no fine particles but instead uses grains ranging from 1mm down to 0.5mm, this will ensure rain water is free to pass through the sand without becoming clogged up and turning into the ideal environment for unwanted moss and weeds  too start breeding in your new lawn.

Problems you will get when using the wrong sand!

The roundabout that we sponsor at Warners farm roundabout on the A130 Chelmsford was installed using s4 sports sand dressing, this was installed two years ago now and we have never had any trouble with weeds or moss growing in the new grass, the same cannot be said for various other roundabouts across Essex that used the cheaper inferior product! But again that comes down to experience and R+D and knowing the right products to use for the job