Lone Wanderer

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Converting Backyard to Artificial Turf/Grass

Jian Lu

Disclaimer:  this is only meant to document my own process as an absolute yard work newbie, thus by no means anywhere close to being complete or professional. 

Why?

Maintenance of a small lawn (330 sqft) for a rental home in a different state became an unsustainable headache that’s no longer worth it:

  • Weed. Freaking weed grasses everywhere.

  • Hiring and paying mowers while living in another state is sometimes difficult.

  • Without a built-in sprinkler system, I relied on some automatic timer for irrigation. The timer leaks from time to time even after a replacement.

But mostly, I decided to make it happen because it seems a fun and manageable DIY project, so why not?

My dad used to be very good and enthusiastic about building things on his own. I remember him laying out bricks to build the stove in our kitchen, sawing woods to build the dinning tables and chairs etc when I was a little kid. But he always kept me out of his work area for safety reasons obviously. Growing up, as most of Chinese city kids, I didn't have such opportunities to practice these things, but I'd always hoped that I could learn those skills, and maybe teach and work with my own kids together some day in the future. 

Preparation

0. Deciding between DIY v.s Hiring Synthetic Turf Installation Services

  • Cost:

    • $11-15/sq.ft from various installers' quote in the area, $3800-$4300 total for a 330 sq.ft.

    • $1500 if DIY. (See breakdown below).

  • On the other hand, of course, installers are much more professional and claim they will provide 8-10 year warranty.

  • DIY is more fun with lots of learning opportunities.

1. References

2. Measurement

3. Materials

TODOs:

  • Infill ($100 ~ $600 + delivery)

    • Not in stock anywhere nearby. Ordered online but didn't arrive in time. Had to cancel the order and postpone it next time when I am back in town. Lesson: place the order early and leave enough buffer time.

    • Suggested usage: 2-3 lbs/sqft (400 - 600 lbs for 300 sq. ft)

    • Options

  • Sand
    In theory, there should be a layer of sand on top of the crushed stones. In most cases, they can be ordered from the same place as the crushed rocks. In my case, I barely use the yard, so I skipped it for now.

4. Tools

  • Sod Cutter
    Rented from Sunbelt Rentals. Note: heavy (a few hundreds lbs).

  • Wheelbarrow ($19 / day)
    Rented from Home Depot. Note: large. Barely fits into my compact SUV.

  • Manual tamper ($10 / day)
    Rented from Home Depot.

  • Shovel

  • Long Lever

  • Utility Knife

  • Measuring Tapes

  • Gloves

  • Tarp

  • Hammer

  • Rake

Steps

Note: most of the time and price estimates below are proportional to the yard size (~330 sq. ft in my case), so YMMV.

1. Mow the lawn (10 minutes)

From this picture, it doesn't actually look too bad after mowing. But if you look closely, there are lots of weed grasses.

2. Cut and dump sod (~ 6 hours)

  • Sod cutter is heavy, thus difficult to operate.

  • Investigate where to dump the sod in your neighborhood BEFOREHAND!

  • Some trimming by hand is still needed for the edges.

It took 3 trips to completely dump all the removed sod for my yard. 

After sod cutting, I also used rake and shovels to smooth the dirt layer a bit before moving onto the next step. 

Total Cost: $365: 

This is the only step that I had to hire someone for help, because I need their truck for dumping the sod.

  • Labor: 35 * 7 hours

  • Sod Dumping Fee: $20 * 3 trips

  • Sod Cutter Rental from Sunbelt: $60

 

In progress

After sod cutting

3. Laying Weed Control Fabric (1 hour)

This is fairly straightforward. 

4. Edging

I chose a relatively simple edging kit, because it looks minimum (almost invisible after laying the base rock layer) with decent level of support. There are many other options such as edging rocks and logs, which looks much classic, but I didn't bother. 

 

5. Moving crushed rocks from driveway to backyard (9 hours)

Note: This is the most labor intensive step. It is only necessary if your yard is not reachable by the rock/sand delivery truck, which is fairly common though. 

Folks from smallerdeliveries.com arrived around 9am in the morning, and dumped 3 cubic yards of 5/8" on my driveway. I had to shovel them and transport them one wheelbarrow at a time into my backyard. 3 cubic yards of crushed rocks is about 3.6 tons weight-wise. Shoveling 3.6 tons of rocks all by myself is no fun.... Towards the end, my back was sore and left arm cramped a bit, and had to take breaks more frequently.

Tips:

  • A layer of tarp at the bottom makes final cleanup much easier.

  • Choose a layer of

  • A small part of the path required pushing the wheelbarrow upwards. Laying down a smooth ramp with the rocks upfront helps with the uphill push.

Animated progress.

6. Making a base layer out of crushed rocks (5 hours)

There are two aspects of this step:

  • Compact the rocks to make a solid base layer
    Since my yard is small, I only rented a manual tamper to do the job. You should definitely consider using a powered compactor like these if 1) your yard is large and 2) your neighbor won't mind the noise...

  • Rake the rocks to make a smooth base layer
    This is more complicated than I expected, because I need to ensure there is a natural slope for water drainage, while maintaining a relatively smooth surface. I used a long 3-ft long level to measure the surface back and forth, and I am still not entirely confident that I did a good job. We will see how it performs in Seattle rain season :) Finger crossed.

Forgot to take pictures of this step.

Raking the rocks to smooth it.

7. Laying and cutting the synthetic grass

This step is actually relatively easy if you've done necessary calculation during design phase and executed according to the design in previous steps. 

  • Most synthetic grasses have grid pattern on the back, which makes cutting in a straight line much simpler either horizontally or vertically.

  • Utility knife is great for cutting the grass comparing to a few pairs of scissors I tried, but this might be because I didn't have the right scissor for the job. Most of the tutorial videos used utility knives as well.

  • I had do stitch multiple pieces in a few spots due to the 6ft width. The seaming tape does the job fine and was easy to use, so far so good.

Cutting

Stitching.

Done! Well, yes... I'd like to get rid of that dead tree at some point. Next time.

8. TODO: Infill

Supposedly, the last step is to broom a layer of infills into the grass (2lbs/sq.ft). However, because the infill sand wasn't shipped in time, I had to postpone this step till next time when I am in town. Hopefully it can hold until then... 

9. Testing

I let my hose and sprinkler ran for 15 minutes to simulate a light rain. Drainage seems fine. 

10. Monitoring

Well, my tenants agreed to keep an eye on it :)

Please ignore the dirty socks... :)

Overall Thoughts and Lessons Learned

(some of them in a hard way...)

  • Plan ahead. Lots of these materials are not stocked in store and had to be ordered a few weeks in advance to avoid unexpected delay.

  • Similar to software engineering, sufficient design, and testing goes a long way.

  • Don't be intimidated by something new and unknown. You will make mistakes for sure, but that's OK. I am pretty sure I need to go back and fix a few things here and there, but the process itself is fun, satisfying and rewarding.

 

Acknowledgement...

  • Minhao Yu, who showed up at my last shovel after 9 hours and brought me a bottle of Gatorade... and provided emotional and labor support throughout the last few days....

  • The friend of friend I hired for sod cutting (kept anonymous because I hadn't asked for consent yet...). Very helpful with lots of advices. Highly recommend, ask me for contact information if you need yard work services in Seattle area.