With a synthetic lawn, the grass doesn't always have to be greener
next door or over the septic tank. Artificial grass looks great, but
it can be pricey. Now, Saving You Money has found a way to get the
green stuff without spending a lot of that other green stuff.
It may look like a giant roll of carpet at first, but what Ron and
Shannon Sweeney are really rolling out is big savings. The Sweeneys
cut their bill to install artificial grass in their backyard almost in
half by taking on the project themselves.
The average cost to have a synthetic lawn installed is about $7 a
square foot. Buying from a supplier such as Artificial Grass Direct
costs $3 a square foot. The Sweeneys did have to spend another $350
for the rest of the supplies. Then, to save even more money, they took
advantage of the rebate program the Water Authority is running.
"I took out all the grass so I get a dollar back per square foot from
the Water District," explains Shannon.
There's a lot of prep work to be done before the new grass goes in.
Ron already pulled out his real grass with a sod cutter and he's
laying down an underlayer of crushed granite for the synthetic lawn to
rest on.
"Any high or low spots that we see, we'll fill them in; compact that," says Ron.
The toughest part of the job is getting the rolls of grass from the
front yard to the back. It's heavy, and definitely not a one person
job. With a few adjustments, Ron set his new lawn in place and all
that was left to do was anchor it. "You don't really have to kill it
to get it in there, just tap it until it's flush."
The job took about four days, but once it's done there's nothing else
they'll have to do.
"It's supposed to stay green year round for me, so I don't have to mow
it anymore. So now I can play more golf or whatever else she wants me
to do around the house," says Ron. "I'm hoping to save some money on
the watering, you know, cost efficiency.
The bottom line is it will definitely save you money, but there's a
lot of sweat to put into it. Before you even consider a job like this,
you should have a list of good friends with good backs signed on to
help you.
Posted by Bay Area synthetic lawn lead supplier grassestimate.com