Has anyone swapped fake grass for real?

[JamesMacGill]

We are due to move house in a few weeks and the new place has fake grass. The garden is smallish - probably about 30sqm. If you’ve done this, was it easy? How much did it cost? How did you go about it? Thanks

Anyone? 🤞🏻

No but watching with interest. So many houses we’ve viewed have fake grass and we definately want a real lawn.

Also watching with interest. I have a fake lawn that I want to replace with real..

I guess it depends on what is underneath, but assuming it isn’t over concrete or similar, it would be relatively simple to pull it up and replace with turf. You might have to remove a bit of the top soil and replace with new before rolling out new turf. But quite an easy diy job.

Someone on here did it a couple of years ago. IIRC she did it on a whim and the grass grew quite quickly. It was lovely. I'll see if I can find it.

Here you go, www.mumsnet.com/talk/gardening/4834516-artificial-grass-help?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

Thanks Dorothy!

Im going to be doing this when I get the time. Real grass is much nicer and cooler in the summer to walk on.

Look at your neighbour to get an idea. All the houses in my row have taken up their grass- not for fake, but for other things. The builder didn’t prepare the ground well, and there isn’t much light. It struggled to thrive.

I have patio with deep flower beds around it, which works better than lawn for us. Next door has patios with shrubs in deep bark mulch beds between them. The next one has patio and a garden office. I think you start getting lawns after that- the gardens are bigger, the houses more spread out and more light gets in.

My partner did this to his house. It was a lot of physical work but so worth it. He had to buy lots of top soil and compost, mix it up and spread it out evenly, then lay the grass turf on it. It grew easily.

Edit: wrong thread!

Good to hear it’s a job we could potentially do ourselves and that it wasn’t too complicated for anyone who has tried it. DH keeps fear mongering about how the grass will inevitably die.

If done properly it will have a free draining stone underneath which will be topped with either Sharp Sand or Grano Dust. These will all need to be removed back to the original subsoil. There is also the cost of disposing of the AG itself as it can't be recycled, only reused.

Sell it on Facebook or similar or offer it free if they remove it themselves. Will save you some cash either way.

Grass seeds grow really well when it’s warm and you can keep it well watered. Didn’t take long for half our garden to grow in when we took out a load of bushes and stones when we moved here.

Yes.

mine had sand, then a weed proof membrane then just sort of rubble underneath.

i needed to buy topsoil