Experience with artificial grass esp if have children

[RealOrFake]

I have a North facing garden with a nice lawn but only mid-summer when we’ve spend hours removing moss and feeding etc etc. Right now it’s patchy mud and squidgy even after few dry days here. Rest of garden is paved. I’m seriously considering putting artificial grass down having previously been very against it so would appreciated any thoughts from anyone has experience of it.

I’m not especially looking for the environmental side as I’m aware it’s bad for wildlife/insects etc compared to real grass and it does look a bit fake too etc etc. It’s more practical experience I’m looking for. Eg: my children often paint outside in summer although they’d put a mat down it’s inevitable paint gets on the grass which never bothered us - would this ruin artificial grass? Paddling pools go on grass in summer - does artificial cope with this? Does it get hot in warm weather like paving stones might? My kids have camped on our lawn before - I assume they can’t do this with pegs etc or artificial grass? Does it smell or is it chemically? Is it nice to sit in and picnic and would it cope with food and drink spills?

I can’t “feel” any right now with covid restrictions so trying to build up fair picture of what it’s actually like. In my head it will be like my lawn when it’s lovely and proper grass rather than patch moss/mud except we will be able to use it all year around rather than just a few weeks in summer.

Thanks

We had this at our last house and honestly I hated it. It got scolding hot in the summer, you couldn't walk on it without shoes; the kids skinned their knees every time they fell over on it; between paint and snacks it was really hard to clean, brushing doesn't work as the blades only go in one direction so I actually ended up vacuuming it which just felt ridiculous. It was actually one of the reasons we moved. Our landlord loved it though, used to come over and spend ages waxing lyrical about how practical it was etc. He was a cheap bugger though so it was probably really shitty cheap grass, you might have a better experience if you pay for something top of the range.

Oh and you couldn't use it all year round either, in winter the rain turned it into a swamp. Obviously it didn't go muddy but there would be pools of rain water standing on top of it after heavy rain, or water would squelch up around your feet as you walked on it. Absolutely vile stuff that's impractical for every season.

My sister has it and it's been good. Dries very quickly, doesn't (obviously) get muddy. Means her son can play outside more often, especially in winter etc.

Don't get a cheap one, they're shit.

If you get good quality fake grass and have it installed properly with drainage, you shouldn’t have any issues with pools of water or it getting hot in summer. We have a north facing garden and gave up on real grass after several years of a boggy, muddy lawn which was impossible to cut and never dried out properly. We’re really pleased with the look of the grass we got.

First, you can get samples sent to you by post and I would definitely advise this before getting any.

In answer to your questions:

• Yes it does get hot if it’s in direct sun for a long time in summer. This is the main downside for us but we have a very small lawn so a minute with the spray hose cools it down and it’s only an issue in heatwaves. We are S facing so may be less of an issue for you with N facing.

• You would have to be careful with tent pegs. Very slim pegs would probably be ok and go through the grass mesh backing but fatter ones would make a hole.

• Paint: if it’s water soluble it will wash off with hose/heavy rain and drain away, same as on normal grass. Same for food/drink spills. You would want to pick up any lumps of food though as there’s less likely to be insects who’ll come and carry it away.

• Paddling pool: yes fine, the grass gets a bit flattened but if you brush it back the other way afterwards it will stand up again. If you left a full paddling pool out for weeks on end you might find it’s permanently flattened though.

• Drainage: we’ve never had a problem. Drains much better than our old lawn in fact. We can use it 5 minutes after rain and it’s pretty much dry. We use the garden so much more now. We did spend quite a lot getting it laid by a pro though so has proper layers of drainage underneath.

• Never had any skinned knees

• Don’t have the ants nests we used to have! Major pro for us.

Thanks for all the replies. Mixed bag but sounds like depends very much on quality. I’ve a landscaper who’ll do it for us and they previously put kids of drainage into our garden which has worked really well (no longer swamp but grass does still get muddy and wet in winter of course).

I’m in two minds now. I do stop the children playing on it as much as they’d probably like at this time of year and obviously winter/autumn too due to mud issues. Plus we spend hours every year raking moss and feeding. The heat aspect of artificial would be worrying as although north facing in summer we get a lot of direct sun mid afternoon on and it’s a wee heat trap in our garden so likely artificial would be hot then just when we looking to use after school etc.

Thanks for tip re samples. I’ll check which one landscaper would be using also. He’s giving us quote this week.

I forgot about ants!! We had kids last summer traced to side of the path so potentially was neat under grass. I wouldn’t mind them going!

It'll get roasting hot in the summer and you won't be able to walk on it in bare feet or let kids on it.

Also can't run on it, it's really slippy and you get 'burns' if you fall on it - from my own experience of falling on my face when trying to move too fast on it.

Oh that doesn’t sound good

We have artificial grass in our garden as do most people where I live in the Middle East.

• Gets really hot in the summer (although our summer is a bit different to an English summer admittedly!) As in 'can't walk on it for more than a second' hot

• Is great for when the kids have been painting or doing anything else mucky, as I literally just hose it down

• Ours drains well so when I do things like empty the paddling pool, the water disappears within minutes and we don't get a horrible boggy mess like you would with real grass

• Some is softer than others. Ours was pretty cheap and it can feel quite coarse and plasticky so if you fall over on it, you can get friction burns.

• It needs to be laid well. Ours was a budget job (thanks DH....) and it has shrunk at the seams so looks a bit shit and my toddler really enjoys peeling it back and playing in the sand-y crap underneath.

Weird to hear all these comments about it getting hot. Our garden is south facing and gets glorious sunshine all day during the summer and it’s never felt particularly hot so maybe it depends on which type you get.
If it’s a fairly sizeable area I’d recommend a separate hoover to just use outside. It does feel weird to be hoovering your lawn but much less hassle than having to cut it.
Personally I love ours, the only draw back is that with our gazebo we have to use sandbags to stop it blowing away as we can’t put spikes in the ground

Your grass is looking tired and crap because it's the end of winter. Give it a few weeks, a bit of aeration and maybe scatter some more grass seed and it'll be lovely, lush, soft grass feeding butterflies, bees and birds. Plastic grass looks awful all year round!

Maybe look into drainage if that's an issue - as noted above, astroturf won't solve that, so if your ground isn't draining it needs sorted anyway. I prefer a 'meadow cut', rather than a very lawn-y lawn, and letting the wildflowers grow. Our garden is full of life in the summer.

We have had artificial grass for 5 years now and it’s the best thing we’ve done to the property.
The kids can go out all year long and use the garden in all weathers. It does get hot in the summer but can walk across it. We had the paddling pool out this year for a number of weeks and no issues. It dries out really quickly and no worries about coming in and out of the garden and trailing mud.

@SylHellais

If you get good quality fake grass and have it installed properly with drainage, you shouldn’t have any issues with pools of water or it getting hot in summer. We have a north facing garden and gave up on real grass after several years of a boggy, muddy lawn which was impossible to cut and never dried out properly. We’re really pleased with the look of the grass we got.

Completely agree, if you get good quality grass installed correctly it will not be muddy or boggy or anything. I loved mine at my previous house and will be doing it again at my new house when we get the chance. Was never scorching even in the summer, it's all about the quality of grass you choose. And after it rained, 20 mins later my boys could go play again. Proper installation and good grass is the solution but I think it's absolutely brilliant with kids.

If you are still having to take out moss, you’ve got a drainage issue. I know you said your landscaper has addressed this and it has improved, but there is more to do there if you still have moss and it feels ‘squidgy’. I would revisit that. If you’re going to spend a fortune on an artificial lawn (and you need to spend a lot; the cheap ones are truly awful!) then at least consider spending that amount on a thorough drainage job instead to get a real lawn.

On the flip side, a friend had an artificial lawn installed because her football mad boys were destroying the grass. It was quite a small garden, so there wasn’t space to move goals around to give the grass a rest. She had top of the range stuff installed and loved it.

She said the only drawback was that it was high maintenance - on real turf, leaves, bird poo, crumbs and all the other bits and pieces that end up on it are dealt with by nature. Artificial grass on the other hand is like a carpet, devoid of natural processes, worms and insects and so has to be swept/hoovered daily or it looks a mess.

I have the same issue with my grass (north facing, gets boggy & patchy in winter etc) but wouldn’t dream of seeing it as a problem if the kids want to play on it in the winter, as I don’t fear them getting muddy. I have a washing machine which id prefer to use rather than destroying yet more of the natural environment & removing habitat for worms/birds/butterflies.

Mowing lawns - nope that's just wrong

I've had it for about 10 years now and it's one of the best decisions I ever made. Couldn't grow a decent lawn despite reseeding and returfing 3 times. If the astro turf is laid on a solid base such as concrete I can imagine it would get hot, but if it's laid on soil/sand, no problem. One thing I would recommend is getting a membrane put down between the astro turf and any soil base to stop weeds growing up through. Never had a problem with the paddling pool, yes it flattens it, but only temporarily. It's been like having another room to the house.

Our NDN has it, so I'm only speaking from experience of occasionally popping over to his garden rather than having it 'full time' but it does get noticeably hotter than our natural grass in summer. Not unbearably hot, but bordering on uncomfortable if you're sitting/standing on it for a while. Like a PP said, it needs regular sweeping or hoovering too, we wondered what was going on the first time we saw him out there with a vacuum but of course it doesn't absorb or have insects to deal with any debris like a natural lawn.

Okay I’m torn now but leaning back to my previously long held thoughts that I prefer grass to artificial. We had whole garden done around 6yra ago and we’re very firm in having real not fake then. There is LOTS of drainage under our garden (we have a wild area behind our property - trust me water is being removed from our garden!) so I don’t think spending more on drainage would help.

Perhaps I need to reinvestigate the actual real turf and get a professional in. I think it probably needs aerated as it feels more compact that before and parts look sunk. We do a basic job of this but maybe that’s the issue. I think wel always have moss as basically have no sunlight half the year (lots lovely sunshine rest of year though!)

I feel I need to investigate it all more now. It’s so expensive I’d hate to make a costly mistake.

Try Green Thumb or another lawn care service. DF got them in and they have transformed his mossy bog into a decent lawn. I think they visit three times a year.

Also, don’t cut your grass too short as this encourages moss.

I love mine. Doesn't get too hot. Its really soft underfoot and it drains really well. We have a dog and 2 dc and I would never go back to a real lawn. It is a good quality one. That does make a difference.

Ripped up ours last week. Ghastly stuff. Seagulls make a mess of it and I'm not washing the lawn! Previous owners had kids

Ps properly laid it drains fine, just bird poo is an issue