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A beautiful green lawn is combined with a neat courtyard and planted plants. However, such a lawn is subject to temperature changes, it is not resistant to wear, and is damaged by insects and animals. Having laid an artificial lawn, you can not be afraid of frosts, locusts or traces of car wheels. Moreover, the artificial lawn requires almost no maintenance.
Characteristics of artificial turf
To make beautiful artificial landscaping, high technology comes to the rescue, since this pile is obtained from special polyethylene or polypropylene fibers.
If polyethylene is used in the production, then the resulting product will have a thin soft pile, it can be easily used in areas where frequent falls are possible, on playgrounds, on the football field.
Polypropylene – more durable. These lawns are laid out on tennis courts, golf courses and other sports areas.
If you look externally, you can hardly distinguish an artificial lawn from real grass. This is why synthetic grass has become so popular.
Video “Laying artificial grass”
This video will show you how to properly install artificial turf.
Types of artificial turf
Landscape designers divide synthetic lawns into several types. You can put such grass with your own hands, improving the look of a summer house or a country house.
Nezasypnoy
This herb is very similar to natural. But she has one important drawback that needs to be taken into account: non-filled lawns are quickly damaged, you can’t run on such grass. But there are positive aspects – it does not need to be covered with quartz sand.
Semi-filled
This type of fake grass can be easily used in playgrounds or sports fields. The lawn is soft, aesthetic, but when laying it, it is necessary to use quartz sand. This sand is poured into the space between the villi in order to increase wear resistance.
Zasypnoy
This synthetic grass is made from special polypropylene. The hard and beautiful material gives the coating increased resistance to abrasion, so it is used in high-traffic areas, such as lawns near cafes, offices, and also on football fields.
The gaps between the villi are filled with quartz sand and a special rubber substrate. All this increases the life of synthetic grass while maintaining the aesthetic component.
Grass lawns can be dyed a variety of colors from classic green to original designer colors. All this brings originality to the design of the site.
flower artificial turf
A flower lawn is considered a special option. For its manufacture, non-filling polyethylene grass is used. Beautiful artificial flowers are organically added to it. All this improves the appearance of the site.
Pros and cons of artificial turf
Such a decorative material has both its advantages and disadvantages.
The benefits of coverage are:
- The grass looks beautiful and well-groomed for a long time.
- It can be used all year round regardless of the season.
- This grass is durable and will not roll out from the soles of football players or children running on it.
- Weeds do not grow in such grass, it does not need to be weeded, watered or cultivated.
- Rain is not a hindrance to such a coating, water quickly leaves through the villi into the ground, so there will be no foul-smelling puddles here.
Such unnatural lawns also have weaknesses:
- This cover is quite expensive. Cheap grass won’t last long.
- In the sun, this grass begins to heat up and emit an unpleasant plastic smell.
- This material is not environmentally friendly as it is not easily recyclable.
- In the case of laying a fake lawn, it is not possible to radically change the appearance of the lawn in the future, as it would be in the case of natural plants.
Recommendations for selection
Before laying the lawn, you need to make the right choice.
If the lawn you buy is inexpensive, it means that it is made of cheap plastic, therefore it is more rigid and has a specific luster. Such a grass cover should be taken only for laying on the street. The cost of coating directly depends on the length of the villi. The shorter the pile, the cheaper the grass.
Buy synthetic grass with a denser pile. If the coating has flaws or defects, then the abundance of villi will easily hide them.
Author’s advice
Don’t forget to buy filler. These include quartz sand and crumb rubber. All of them are needed to strengthen the coating, protect it from abrasion, and also to prevent injuries to people falling on this grass.
Do-it-yourself coating laying
If you have never laid synthetic grass yourself, then you will have to try, because this installation has a lot of tricks.
To begin with, the surface must be carefully prepared. The entire site must be level, free of moisture and dust. A good master will easily do this.
It is necessary to take into account the number of rolls to the area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe future decoration of the site. It will be bad if there are not enough rolls or if there are extra ones. Measure everything carefully, and then calculate. After all, a beautiful green lawn will please you for a long time, and a bad one will annoy you.
Substrate preparation
Before you start laying synthetic turf, prepare the area where it will lie. The site must be level and tight, free of dirt and debris.
Be sure to get rid of old weeds and last year’s live grass, because these plants can grow through the artificial nap and ruin it.
Then it is necessary to make the ground of the site dense. To do this, you can use mechanical or manual methods. Check the level of the plot using a level. It is best if the lawn is laid with a slight slope, this will allow rainwater to drain without stagnation.
It is best if you lay the synthetic coating on dense concrete, then the canvas will be placed tightly and will not spread over time. For the same reason, the use of sand for these purposes is not recommended.
Drainage facility for water drainage
Even at the production stage, special drainage holes are made in the lawn to drain rainwater. But getting under the synthetic lawn, water can accumulate, rot and emit an unpleasant odor. Often, with improper drainage, even mold damage occurs. Therefore, competently make a drainage system.
If you are laying grass in your backyard, then use ordinary gravel of medium and small sizes. To check the area can be sprinkled with water – this will show whether the water is leaving or not.
Professional turf laying uses other ways to create drainage, but regular gravel is just as good.
Installation of canvases on the site
How to properly lay lawn:
- All rolls must be untwisted in the same direction. Blades of grass lying apart are unacceptable.
- Rolls must be laid exactly end-to-end or slightly overlapped, no more than 10 cm.
- After all the rolls are rolled out and stacked, they need to be kept for one day. During this period, all bruising of the pile will be removed, and the grass will look beautiful.
- At the next stage of installation, connect the edges of the panels using a special tape or stapler.
- Do not forget to use filler – quartz sand or rubber granules. However, this procedure is not always applied.
- The last stage of installation will be fixing the side edges with staples or nails.
The adhesive will not seep through the grass if applied using a specialized notched trowel. And so that the filler lies evenly, level it with a garden rake or broom.
Lawn care features
If you think that after laying the false lawn it will be possible to relax, you are mistaken. Of course, a living lawn will require much more maintenance. However, synthetics also need to be monitored.
Remove debris from your lawn regularly. Branches and leaves can easily damage the plastic pile of the product.
Kill weeds that grow from the edges, because they can also cause the green carpet to become completely unusable. It is best if you use a chemical weeding method.
From time to time it is necessary to disinfect the false lawn. Use the chemicals recommended by the manufacturer for this. This is especially recommended when using weed in playgrounds.
In winter, it is forbidden to remove snow and ice with shovels and scrapers. All of them will quickly destroy the beautiful green pile.
If it is very dry and hot outside, then periodically water the synthetic lawn with water so that it does not deteriorate.
To keep your yard beautiful and tidy, get artificial lawns. Children will be happy, and neighbors will look with respect.