Does astroturf put you off?

[GingerBeverage]

If you're looking at family houses, would astroturf (fake grass) put you off viewing/buying?

I'm seeing it a lot in city terraces and semis these days. There seems to be a resurgence from being out of fashion decades ago.

For all the people saying they ‘judge’ people with artificial grass - what are you judging exactly? The only people I know where I live in London who have fake grass in their garden have kids and it’s primarily for them to play football on. Literally no-one I know has it because they think it looks better than real grass.

Most schools and some of the parks here have muga pitches with artificial surfacing too so they clearly haven’t found any better solution either. Do you judge them too? It’s a hard wearing surface that withstands hours of running on it and is soft when you fall on it.

It’s obviously important to give kids somewhere safe and comfortable to play outside - residential roads here are way too busy for young kids to play outside. I just wish there was a solution that was better for the environment 🙁

@daisypond

How is 7m square super tiny? Do you mean 7 metres squared or 7 square metres?

I'm not good with dimensions! It's the width of the house so 7m max wide and as deep as a normal reception room 5 or 7m or so.

LivesinLondon2000

For all the people saying they ‘judge’ people with artificial grass - what are you judging exactly? The only people I know where I live in London who have fake grass in their garden have kids and it’s primarily for them to play football on. Literally no-one I know has it because they think it looks better than real grass.

100% this. Everyone I know you including myself who has Astro doesn’t have it because they love Astro it’s because they’ve got kids who play football outside 24/7 and can’t keep a lawn going. It also means the garden can be used by said footballing kids all year round.

I judge the fact that they obviously put their own personal convenience ahead of the environment and garden / bird wildlife.

It's different with schools and those kind of places as the use / wear they get are totally different to a domestic garden and likely it will last for a very long time whereas grass pitches can't be used year round and aren't really fit for purpose for those venues.

I judge the fact that they obviously put their own personal convenience ahead of the environment and garden / bird wildlife.

But this applies to so many things. Car journeys, flights, a new kitchen, a new sofa, plastic toys for Christmas, seasonal decorations, imported food, individually wrapped food, online deliveries, having children especially several children. All of these things are people putting their own convenience and enjoyment above the environment. Why don’t threads on these things attract the same environmental protests ?

I don’t judge, I just think it looks shit. And no doubt I’ve got things in my house that people with artificial grass would think looks shit too.
I wouldn’t buy a house with a red high gloss kitchen (for example) unless I had room in the budget to immediately replace it. Same with artificial grass.

@ThePoisonousMushroom

I don’t judge, I just think it looks shit. And no doubt I’ve got things in my house that people with artificial grass would think looks shit too. I wouldn’t buy a house with a red high gloss kitchen (for example) unless I had room in the budget to immediately replace it. Same with artificial grass.

Red gloss! They're amazingly common when you start noticing. Like red car spotting.

@JacquelineCarlyle

I judge the fact that they obviously put their own personal convenience ahead of the environment and garden / bird wildlife.

It's different with schools and those kind of places as the use / wear they get are totally different to a domestic garden and likely it will last for a very long time whereas grass pitches can't be used year round and aren't really fit for purpose for those venues.

I apologise for being disabled

@Rummikubfan

LivesinLondon2000

For all the people saying they ‘judge’ people with artificial grass - what are you judging exactly? The only people I know where I live in London who have fake grass in their garden have kids and it’s primarily for them to play football on. Literally no-one I know has it because they think it looks better than real grass.

100% this. Everyone I know you including myself who has Astro doesn’t have it because they love Astro it’s because they’ve got kids who play football outside 24/7 and can’t keep a lawn going. It also means the garden can be used by said footballing kids all year round.

My son plays football and badminton on real grass in our garden. I had no idea you children could only play football on fake grass in gardens.

I'd factor in the cost of ripping it out and improving the garden when deciding if I'd spend the money. I'd not want to pay a premium because someone else has designed a neat plastic covered garden.

Like another poster, I'd do the same process for a kitchen that would be a lot to replace.

It’s a scourge. We have a crisis with our loss of insect life and plastic grass is removing habitats for them. Without insects the planet will not be able to support any life.

I really don’t like fake grass. So if I were considering a house that had it I’d -
Wonder if there was some bigger flooding issue it was masking.
Have to factor in the removal and redoing of whether it was
Would look at photos really carefully - I’d suspect a seller who put down fake grass may well have done other things external or internal just not to my taste and possibly expensive to undo.

It would depend how much cost and effort would have to go in to re-lawning the garden as to whether it would put me off.

I'd knock the price down by double the cost of removing and replacing. The world does not need more plastic.

when we were house buying my dh was very practical. We wanted a garden to grow stuff in and a lawn. We saw several houses with gravelled/paved/concreted gardens in some way or another. (although no actual astroturf)

We went outside and had a good look at them, and then went home and calculated the cost of replacement (eg gravel laid over that black light excluding fabric is easy to remove, concrete is expensive)
As dh said, if it will cost £2,000 and 3 weekends hard work to remove it, then you factor that in to the cost of the house and the work you want to do.

Same with anything, from avocado bathroom, to red gloss kitchen - can I live with it, if not how much to change it, and can I afford it, and can I be bothered to do the work?

But dh and I have a very practical approach, we are buying the structure and we are not bothered by things which seem to bother others, eg coloured walls etc.

Better than concrete, but it wouldn't be staying there

The price of the house would have to reflect the not insubstantial cost of removal of the plastic/hoggin/sand/sour subsoil and replacement with decent quality topsoil and turf/plants. But as it would all be a lot of faff and hassle, I’d have to really love everything else about the house in order to take that on.

Same with anything, from avocado bathroom

Now I love an avocado bathroom! I don't have one, everythings white these days. Avocado though, it's a period bathroom. I think it's much worse that people RIP them out of there 1980s houses and replace with fake Victorian.

Those with shitty ugly fake grass because real grass is too much hard work, have you thought of a moss lawn?

@Daftasabroom

I'd knock the price down by double the cost of removing and replacing. The world does not need more plastic.

Ha! Well, I wouldn't sell my house to you

It would put me off but wouldn’t stop me buying a house if I loved it in every other way. I would get rid of it though, I have dogs and astroturf can get really hot in the summer so ripping it out would be the first thing I would do. From a distance it looks ok but as soon as you get near to it I think it looks awful. Would rather have patchy grass like I do now because of the dogs.

@Daftasabroom

I'd knock the price down by double the cost of removing and replacing. The world does not need more plastic.

And sellers at the moment have an abundance of potential buyers so I doubt most would be bothered by this.

Everyone saying that it’s the same as ripping out a bathroom

It’s not.

Ripping out a bathroom and putting a new one in….

1. You can tailor it to how you like it. Put your design on it. The colours, the fittings.

Replacing Astro with turf

1. Ripping up plastic and putting in grass. Not particularly exciting and no opportunity for personal design, taste

Prospect of ripping out a bathroom and putting in one to my taste excites me

Ripping up plastic and laying turf bores me

@Milkbottlelegs I'm sure you are right, but it is just environmentally awful, it's made from plastic which comes from oil, it's provides no habitat for creepy crawlies that birds feed off, AFAIK it is dual material so very difficult to recycle and can only go to landfill.

Would turn me off completely.