Artificial Grass Installation

You don't put any sand under artificial grass, as the sands are too loose, if you use sand in your sub base, you will lose the solid integrity. Instead, we recommend using sands on top of the turf as infills which will hold the turf down with extra weight and also help turf blades to stand up better. For your base under artificial grass, you will need to have 2-2-1/2" drain rock, on top of which you need to use 1-1/2" decomposed granite or equal, compacted at 90% so you will have a solid yet smooth base to work on. Again, we don't recommend to use any sand under artificial grass. For installation details, please visit this link: https://www.globalsynturf.com/installation/

In short, you need seaming tape and glues to join two pieces of artificial turf together. The seaming application is very similar with how carpet seams to be joined which clearly needs experiences and skills. Typically there are two different types of turf joins: side by side and end to end. All our turf products come in at 15' width, to join two pieces together next to each other (add 15' next to another 15' wide piece) named side by side joins: you will see most of the seams are side by side seams in reality as most of our turf comes in at 100' long which is more than most of yard length configurations. The main requirement for the side by side joins from manufacturer standpoint is that when you bring two pieces together, you need to have the fibers on each piece to face the same directions. 

The other joint called end to end joins: such joins are not as often, we also call it "butt joint". For an example, your yard is more than 100' long, you will need to do a butt joint to connect two pieces of turf from end to end. Such joints can be more difficult to work on as you need to make sure that all stitch lines to be lining up properly otherwise the joining seam can be rather more visible. Again, the seaming work is probably one of the most difficult aspect of installing artificial grass lawns, you always want to get professionals to do it. For many installations companies, they will put their best and most experienced guys working on seams. 

Well, this is a very good question. We will recommend the ground or prepared base to be smooth and compacted, but not necessarily leveled. People install artificial grass on slope areas all the time, so ground doesn't have to be level for installations. Actually sloped areas can be a good thing for some installations as it will drain water side ways, in certain cases of slopes to be steep, you might not need much of sub base to be built for the drainage concerns as water will fallow the slope the runs away. However, regardless the level or slope grounds, you always need to have the ground or sub base to be smooth and properly compacted for artificial grass installations.

Yes, you can cut or trim your artificial grass by using either a carpet knife or scissors when needed. When we make artificial turf products, we use a technology called "variable height cut" to make the surface of the grass less even, by doing so, the finished products will look much more realistic and close to the real lawn in overall appearance. At installation, carpet knives and scissors are necessary tools for professional installers, from time to time, they will need to cut and trim off grass. I don't see any possibilities of doing cut or trim on grass at a large scale, rather than cutting or trimming a few fibers if needed.

The answer is yes. There are two main purposes for having a sub base for artificial grass:

1. To have a proper drainage system underneath the grass

2. To provide a solid (compacted) and smooth surface to lay grass

In the turf industry, there is a saying: Your turf is as good as its base gets. So building a good sub base for artificial turf is considered one of the most important steps. Laying turf on soil or unprepared bases can cause a lot of problems such as water not draining well, turf wrinkles, bumps and dents throughout the turf surfaces: such results make your lawn look terrible and people might blame artificial grass itself without understanding those are installation related issues. 

To learn how to prepare a good sub base for artificial grass, please visit this link: https://www.globalsynturf.com/installation/

The reasons for preparing the ground before laying artificial grass are to provide proper drainage and smooth solid (compacted) surface. In order to achieve that, the followings needs to be done as a summary:

1. Excavate the existing lawn or ground by about 3-4" 

2. Lay drain rock and compact

3. Lay decomposed granite or similar and compact

4. As options, you can add weed barriers or gopher wires or even zeolite materials (for neutralizing pet urine)

You can always find the detailed installation information at this link: https://www.globalsynturf.com/installation/

There are two main technical reasons for putting sand in artificial grass:

1. To help the turf standing up better.

2. More importantly to hold the grass down with weight: Law of physics, the artificial grass carpet expands and contrasts at temperatures changes. Certain areas in the United States, the temperature difference between day and night can be dramatic, up to 30-40 degrees F. To prevent or minimize the artificial grass from moving, adding sands or other type of infills will help a great deal.

There are products on the market called themselves infill-free which is more a marketing approach than a practical statement, most of our products won't need sand infill to stand up nicely and resiliently, but the grass itself won't be able to manage the expansions and contractions well regardless.

There are also other reasons for adding infills such as antimicrobial which prevent germs from growing, and zeolite which have to neutralize the pet urine smells. A direct upgrade of regular sand will be green color coated sand which will be less visible and blends in well with the artificial grass than regular brown color sands, other than that, the green sand works the same as regular brown color silica sand.

You can always find the detailed installation instructions on this link: https://www.globalsynturf.com/installation/

To summarize an answer to your questions:

For drainage and surface preparation purposes: you need to have a couple of inches of drain rock, on top of the drain rock, you should have 1-1/2 inches of decomposed granite or equivalent which need to be compacted only for the purpose of providing a perfectly smooth surface to lay turf on.

As options, you can always add gopher wire, weed barrier, lawn pads or even zeolite underneath the turf, again, these items are meant specific purposes and at your choice of using them or not.

The answer is Yes and No. Here are my explanations:

1. Yes, our artificial grass can be laid directly on the soil, by doing so, you won't cause any harm to the turf product. However, you need to know why we don't recommend installing artificial grass directly on soil:

2. The reasons for us to recommend installing turf on a prepared base are mainly two: Turf won't look right if installed on an uneven and not compacted surface, you might have seen some very poor installations most of which are because of bad base preparations. In order to have a perfect turf installation, you need to have a perfect base to start with. The second reason for having a good base prepare is the drainage concern. In order for water to drain properly, a good base is required. Some types of soil can be very dense and sticky and won't drain well. The turf won't drain well if the bottom is solid, water will go through turf quickly and then has nowhere to go unless the area is properly sloped for drainage purposes. 

To summarize above, if your soil is perfectly smooth and even, not sticky, not too loose and your installation area has a certain slope for water to go, you can install turf on it directly. Otherwise, we always will recommend you prepare a good base for your artificial grass. Here is the link for how to install artificial grass properly: https://www.globalsynturf.com/installation/