Fake Grass / Dog wee!

[Dottypom]

Hi all - I made a mistake and put fake grass in my small garden. When I bought it I was told I could clean it with Jeyes to get rid of dog wee smell. After nearly 3 years of trying that and a million other options I’m giving in and getting rid of it as nothing stops the smell. If I pull it up and put some gravel/slate down do I also need to remove the sand that is underneath or will that also hold the wee smell? Just trying to work out the cheapest way to have a stinky free summer 😂Thanks!

Op I’m afraid that the gravel or the slate paving will hold the stench of dog urine as well…
Your best option would be in my opinion just ordinary higher durable grass.
Also gentle to your dog’s paws.

My parents did this because of their dog and it's honestly the worst. It gets hot and stinky in the summer but at least it stays green 🤢 my dad has some scented antibacterial cleaning stuff that he uses but nothing beats actual grass imo

Agree with pp - the only way I've known the smell to (finally!) go away is to take up the turf and a good amount of the underlying sand and then top dress with soil and seed real grass.

Thanks for replies. I’m massively regretting removing the turf I originally had a few years back. I was trying to stop having muddy house but I’d rather have that than the smelly fake lawn 😭 Sounds like I’ll go back to the real stuff!

Agree with PP and gravel will smell too. We had cats and gravel at one point and it was like a giant litter tray that stank over the summer. It is even harder to clean than the fake grass.

A good lawn is a good lawn. For the time and money you probably spend cleaning the fake grass, you could probably weed, feed remove moss and mow throughout the year.

I only allow my dog to toilet on the concrete and gravel part of the garden. The gravel part is on top of a thick weed membrane and is her favourite place to go. I can honestly say there is no smell at all and it's in full sunshine all day.

Its not the fake grass causing the issue. I have had it for 20 years and not once has it smelled of urine.

Its the base layers you have when installing the fake grass thats the issue. Think about it, if you have a lawn its grass, then soil and the grass, worms, natural irrigation will ensure you dont get urine smells as it will soak down and disappear. You need that with your fake grass.

All fake grass is permeable to an extent. If you lift it up you will see it has thousands of holes in the matting so the urine WILL 100% soak through. Its what you have underneath that is causing the issue. We were given the choice of the next layer being these fibre boards that meant the lawn felt softer when our last one was installed. We rejected this as it meant it would soak up and hold the urine. That solved the first issue. Then its sharp sand as the next layer. This will happily allow the urine to soak through. Then its a nice thick layer of aggregate. It needs to be deep enough to take away any liquid (Zero puddles even on a heavy rain) and thick enough aggregate not to cause a blockage. Think of it a bit like a huge soakaway. The rain will of course give your artificial lawn a nise rinse every so often too.

Finally maintenance is key. We prepare our lawn once or twice a year. Hoover up any debris. Spray with scented cleaner and rinse. Then a brush.

Trust me, myself and my partner are about as anal as it gets about smells and keeping our house clean. Artificial grass is not the issue with dog wee.