Generally, maintain your artificial grass as you would natural grass - of course without the mowing, watering, fertilizing and weeding.
If you currently remove fall leaves and dog droppings, continue to do so once you install artificial turf. Get a good idea of what your personal turf maintenance needs will be by assessing the environmental conditions in your yard.
Fall Leaves
Just as you would remove fall leaves and branches from your natural grass, you’d do the same with artificial turf. Except with turf, you can more easily use a blower. You can also sweep the leafs off your turf with a push broom.
Lawn Furniture & Accessories
Kid swimming pools and lawn furniture left on your synthetic lawn for a sustained period of time will flatten your turf. Once you remove whatever has flattened your turf, simply rake your turf against the grain to get it standing again.
Foot Traffic
Foot traffic by you, your kids, and others will usually have a minimal impact on your turf. Exceptions are around swimming pools where traffic is generally higher. Simply rake your turf ‘against the grain’ to undo turf that’s flattened by foot traffic.
Dog Traffic
How much dog traffic will your turf experience? You’ll want to pick up your dog’s ‘droppings’, the same as you would on natural grass. The rest (along with the urine) you can wash away with your water hose. Or have rain water take care of it for you!
Odors
If you experience a lingering smell, you can periodically wash your turf with a mixture of a few drops of liquid dish soap per gallon of water. Consider investing in a Cleaning Gun that you can attach to your water hose. A cleaning gun will allow for rapid cleaning of your entire lawn.
Note: Prior to using any soaps or other chemicals on your turf, check with your turf supplier or turf installer to make sure that it does not hurt your turf.
Extreme Dog Traffic
One doggie daycare has 50+ dogs running and playing on its turf for 1-hour every 2 hours. As you can imagine, the amount of hair that accumulates on the turf's surface, and thus the amount of maintenance required for the turf, is much more than yours would be with 1-3 dogs in your backyard several times a day.
Still, most dog hairs can be periodically raked. In most cases, you'll only need to rake up your dog's hair only once or twice per year. To be sure, check with your turf supplier, turf installer or other homeowners who have artificial turf in their yards.
If you currently remove fall leaves and dog droppings, continue to do so once you install artificial turf. Get a good idea of what your personal turf maintenance needs will be by assessing the environmental conditions in your yard.
Fall Leaves
Just as you would remove fall leaves and branches from your natural grass, you’d do the same with artificial turf. Except with turf, you can more easily use a blower. You can also sweep the leafs off your turf with a push broom.
Lawn Furniture & Accessories
Kid swimming pools and lawn furniture left on your synthetic lawn for a sustained period of time will flatten your turf. Once you remove whatever has flattened your turf, simply rake your turf against the grain to get it standing again.
Foot Traffic
Foot traffic by you, your kids, and others will usually have a minimal impact on your turf. Exceptions are around swimming pools where traffic is generally higher. Simply rake your turf ‘against the grain’ to undo turf that’s flattened by foot traffic.
Dog Traffic
How much dog traffic will your turf experience? You’ll want to pick up your dog’s ‘droppings’, the same as you would on natural grass. The rest (along with the urine) you can wash away with your water hose. Or have rain water take care of it for you!
Odors
If you experience a lingering smell, you can periodically wash your turf with a mixture of a few drops of liquid dish soap per gallon of water. Consider investing in a Cleaning Gun that you can attach to your water hose. A cleaning gun will allow for rapid cleaning of your entire lawn.
Note: Prior to using any soaps or other chemicals on your turf, check with your turf supplier or turf installer to make sure that it does not hurt your turf.
Extreme Dog Traffic
One doggie daycare has 50+ dogs running and playing on its turf for 1-hour every 2 hours. As you can imagine, the amount of hair that accumulates on the turf's surface, and thus the amount of maintenance required for the turf, is much more than yours would be with 1-3 dogs in your backyard several times a day.
Still, most dog hairs can be periodically raked. In most cases, you'll only need to rake up your dog's hair only once or twice per year. To be sure, check with your turf supplier, turf installer or other homeowners who have artificial turf in their yards.