16 Feb How Much Does Artificial Grass Cost?
How much does artificial grass cost?
Hi, I’m Emma, and as the owner of Top Dog Turf, I get asked 20 times a day, ‘how much does artificial grass cost, and why is it so expensive?’
My main responsibility is working out these costs for dog owners across London, the home counties and the south of England.
I recently met with a lovely lady who had had 5 artificial grass companies to quote for her 50m2 garden.
These costs ranged from £900 to £6300 (Our price was £4,299.60 inc VAT)
How can there be such a huge price difference for the same 50m? It seems crazy! The lady was understandably perplexed.
Let me try to explain how much artificial grass costs
An artificial grass installation is made up of 3 main components:
- The grass
- The groundwork
- The labour
The quality of all 3 can vary wildly.
An enjoyable investment, or a stressful nightmare.
The grass
Artificial grass has changed dramatically since the abrasive, strange looking stuff on 1960’s sports fields.
Since the 1990’s it’s been gaining popularity in our gardens, and the domestic market in the UK has grown 50% year on year since 2010.
Most of the grass in the UK comes from China and has a black latex rubber backing, and like most things that come from China can vary greatly in quality.
Latex backing on cheap artificial grass will degrade quickly and start absorbing dog wee, causing a nasty niff after a few months. You can find out more HERE
In the trade, we call artificial grass ‘carpet’, and just like carpet, you can buy the thin, flimsy, scratchy stuff at £4.99 a metre, or the fancy, fluffy, stain proof one at £49.99 a metre. It’s up to you.
For a really good quality artificial grass, you should expect to pay in access of £30 per m2 retail, and ideally chose one that is latex free. (to minimise urine odour)
For this 50m2 lawn, a good quality grass alone will set you back £1200 – £1500.
The latex free / polyurethane backed grasses we use in our installations are expensive to manufacture, and would cost us approximately £1300.00 to buy at discounted trade rates.
A good grass isn’t cheap, and a specialist grass polyurethane backed product like Top Dog Turf is expensive!
The groundwork
Excavation, waste removal, material costs, access problems, and delivery dramas all add up.
The standard practice for an artificial grass installation is to lift the existing turf, create a base with a thin layer of type 1 mot, level the surface with sand and then lay the grass.
Some installers will lift the grass, and lay sand directly onto the soil, then lay the grass carpet onto the sand.
This is cheap solution if you don’t have energetic kids, you never ever plan to get a dog and will move house in a couple of years. It’s not how we do things!
When you’re considering the cost of your new lawn, you need to remember a good installer will need to hire a skip to remove the old lawn, and ideally several tonnes of soil, possibly with a mini digger.
The excavated area will need refilling with aggregate, and with a Top Dog Turf lawn, a full limestone and ZeoStop urine filtration system will be compacted into place.
Stabilising membranes, volcanic infill, sleepers or composite timber for creating the external frame, pins, screws, glue, tape and bacon sandwiches for the lads, they all cost money. Oh, and don’t forget we have to pay tax!
I don’t believe the company who quoted £900 for this 50 square metre garden, including the grass, would be doing it properly. It just isn’t possible.
With Top Dog Turf, the specialist ground work for this 50 metre squared garden would cost us approximately £760.00
Labour
Artificial turf installation teams are usually made up of 3 or 4 chaps. An experienced installer, his right-hand man / woman, and 2 lads on the wheelbarrows.
This team will general cost £450 – £650 per day, in wages, unless there are serious access problems, and the soil and every grain of sand has to be carried through the house in buckets (it happens).
A 50m lawn would usually take 1.5 – 2 days to install with the full Top Dog Turf system. If the weather is grim, and the grass is wet, we may have to return another day to brush in the ZeoStop odour reducing infill, adding to our costs.
So, lets add up the Top Dog Turf price for this 50 m2 installation
- Top Dog Polyurethane Backed Artificial Turf – £1300
- Groundworks – £ 760
- Labour £750
- Marketing / business costs / vans / fuel / samples / surveyor wages etc £350
- Profit if you don’t mind… £423 (we’ll pay tax on that) = £3583 + £716.60 VAT (don’t blame us)
- Total of £4299.60 or £85.99 per m2
If you look at the website www.quotationcheck.com you’ll see the regional price differences
How much does artificial grass cost?
Top Dog Turf offer a unique odour reducing system for dog owners, using a premium latex free, polyurethane backed grass designed for dogs, and a subterranean stone and mineral filtration system, as well as our amazing, odour reducing infill ZeoStop.
So, if you’ve been wondering how much artificial grass costs, and why it seems so expensive, I hope this has helped.
We think that £85 a metre squared is good value, for a great odour free lawn that’ll look and smell great for years!
If you’d like to find out how much artificial grass costs in your garden, for your dogs, just fill out a form, and we’ll be in touch.
