We've just had a plastic lawn put in. AMA

[Imdunfer]

As title.

If you're going to raise climate issues please make sure you have your facts right before you post. There is a lot of incorrect PR and social media comment about plastic turf going around at the moment.

All that matters is that you like it, OP. It's no different to people driving big fuel-guzzling cars, using lots of single-use plastic, or even having lots of kids. None of these things are good for the environment. And yet only a few get criticised like this.

I have seen nice fake grass gardens although I didn't take a magnifying lens to them - and who would? If you like it and it works for you, that's all that matters. Enjoy :-)

Leaving aside the fact that it looks awful and the environmental issues, does it bother you how it's perceived by others? It's become code for "tasteless thick people live here".

Here we go, this is the most expensive one that came up.

I disagree, I think she is fielding questions with hearty good humour. And good for her.

I wish I had your balls OP, I'd start an AMA on why I enjoy vaping 😁

Trying again to attach the pic..

🤣🤣🤣

If this doesn't work I give up 😅

Am surprised by people mentioning the impact on house values - there are many £1.8 - 2m houses in SW15/16/17/18 [where I was looking] that all have a little bit of patio and a little bit of artificial grass, I assumed because the art-grass drains if laid properly and doesn’t hold cat/dog pee smells. I know a few people who have it for the same reasons as you - small, north facing/shaded garden where their lawn was mainly mushrooms in the winter - and they also have pets so felt that being able to pick up poop and hose down meant it was a more hygienic way to maintain their outdoor space.

Am sure there will be ways in 15-20 years to recycle the lawn when lifted, just as we recycle other plastics, and make it into something practical like shed roof tiles etc. Am also sure those yammering on about the carbon footprint all source their food from local farms to ensure no import carbon impact, and probably have their own sheep in the garden to harvest wool to make their clothes from.

The only thing that comes to mind is why?
It will be extremely hot to touch in summer when you want to use it.
It still needs to be cleaned regularly.
In an era when we actually want to have greenery around us to lower the temperatures underneath (look at the difference between a sgree with no trees and one lined with trees)

Not a great photo. The uniform colour would give that away immediately.

The best has brown undergrowth and variability in the top colour.

Ouch.

We don't want to use it we just want it to look good all year round with little maintenance. It does not need cleaning, the rain does that.

Are you sure about that? Any new owner who wanted to replace it would need to remove the astroturf, most of the soil, and pay to dispose of that, buy literal tonnes of living soil, and then the turf itself.

How long have you had the plastic lawn OP?

It could narrow the pool of potential buyers. I would be much less likely to buy a house with any artificial grass. But maybe for every person who dislikes it there are some who like it?

It doesn't look like regular grass, the photos online of expensive artificial grass still look artificial to me.

If you like it then you like it I guess, but it's worth being aware that a lot of people don't. It would be interesting to know from an estate agent whether a house does actually become harder to sell with artificial grass, probably it varies a lot depending on the type of house.

This stuffs looks pretty indistinguishable from ‘real’ grass.

Best not show my DH as he is well hacked off with spending every weekend mowing and as soon as we have a few hot days and a hosepipe ban it goes brown and takes a year to reseed and grow back properly. He has been begging for this stuff for years… but our lawn is huge!

https://www.artificiallawnsupply.co.uk/product/supreme-lawn-45mm/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21754434920&gbraid=0AAAAA9cdfGkMDYntWnGDHsR_pEPbPVjyC&gclid=CjwKCAjw0o3SBhBVEiwAh28-jcY_gmj8mnmfbysbMMIrMSBy6l0cxjij3r4H1PslfXXqwwhTDRVyphoCacsQAvD_BwE

It's been down through both the hot spells and absolute downpours.

I’m sorry OP but that looks tacky as hell

Does it?

It's also pretty easy to dig out poor quality grass and replace with something else. Not so easy to remove the artificial grass.

It looks lovely in our garden. The most enormous improvement on what was there before. It makes me smile every day.

If that’s your garden in the photo then you’ve ruined it

Replacing 100sqm of art-grass with turf would cost approx £3500. They could deduct that from their offer price? And you really wouldn’t buy your otherwise dream house because of 2 days work with a labourer and £3000 outlay? Would the kitchen and bathrooms have to be perfect too?

I don't think it looks very similar to real grass. Maybe it depends how much time you spend looking at, walking on, sitting on etc real grass.

The only time I can ever see the point in plastic grass is in a shaded garden where it's a real struggle to get grass to grow, not even low light ones.

I do dislike it immensely, there's a little eco system going on in lawns and insects are struggling as it is. Plus, they look like living in lego land.