Why hiring the pros matters, and why Southwest Greens Flagstaff is the industry leader for installation practices.
You may be asking yourself, “Can I install artificial grass myself?” Yes, it’s possible for you to install artificial grass by yourself, but it isn’t easy. The equipment and tools needed are costly, it takes a long time to do it yourself, and you could run the risk of voiding the warranty. Now, let’s take a look at why you need to have your artificial golf turf professionally installed and the best practices for artificial turf installation.
WHY PROFESSIONAL ARTIFICIAL GRASS INSTALLATION
Whether you are interested in adding an artificial golf green to your yard, or you manage a commercial golf course, having artificial turf professionally installed will save you time, money, and headaches — and, in the long run, provide a better-looking green.
Saved Time
Even ”easy” DIY projects can often turn into a big to-do. We’ve all been there. Multiple trips to the big box store for tools or supplies we didn’t realize we’d need, plans not going to plan, days and days of back-breaking work? By having your turf installed by a pro, you’ll save time, and be able to enjoy the greens sooner.
In order to properly install artificial golf greens, must level the ground, add a base of crushed aggregate, add padding, place the turf, add infill, and roll the turf to have the best playability and to make it look like real grass. Cutting edges for clean borders is difficult and requires a lot of experience to get just right. All of this means you need some certain tools and knowledge to execute correctly to avoid wonky sections and edges that end up peeling up creating a terrible looking green.
Difficult Soil/Landscape
Perfect soil is rare. Most property owners can vouch for this. It’s very rare to be able to push your shovel into the ground easily. Instead, we deal with rocky soil, clay, or soil overrun with roots from plants and trees nearby in many locations. Just digging can be tiring work. Plus, if you’re hacking into roots, you could be damaging surrounding trees you want.
On a lot of our installations, we have had to deal with obstacles such as large boulders, old (or new) irrigation lines, stumps, to name a few. Every one of these obstructions need to be repurposed or removed. Excavation also produces tons of soil you may not need — what will you do with it? We often have to transport this unwanted soil offsite.
A professional artificial turf installer can arrange all of this for you. So if you don’t want to do very difficult manual labor or you do not know how to handle your excavated soil, hiring an installer for your project is your best choice.
Large Areas
When golf green is installed in a large area, seaming is among the most difficult elements of the turf to install correctly. This is the process of binding two or more pieces together. Very similar to carpet installation, when turf seams are joined the right way, they are not noticeable. Seams that aren’t blended correctly will be noticeable and yield a terrible looking finished product.
Imagine this: rolling a sheet of paper or a poster. Have you always gotten it perfectly aligned when trying to pull-off a good roll? Sometimes instead of a clean edge, end up with paper sticking out on one side. This same effect is possible when seaming artificial turf. One minor misstep in the beginning will ruin the whole project and look terrible in the end. Professional installers will have tons of experience installing seams and they’ll make certain everything looks fantastic before they’re finished.
THE SOUTHWEST GREENS WAY
There are three distinct things that differentiate Southwest Greens Flagstaff from the rest in the turf industry — craftsmanship, guarantees, and customer service. We do not believe in one-size-fits-all artificial turf installations, and because of that, we’ve perfected the art and science of Flagstaff artificial turf installation. We’ve honed our process with over 6,000 golf greens worldwide under our belts.
Have a quick look at how our artificial putting green installation process works.
- A base made of crushed aggregate, which can be moistened and molded to build up challenging breaks and undulations, unlike concrete.
- Then we install a cushion pad, at a minimum, to help the ball roll and shot absorption, then we bring in our state-of-the-art polypropylene turf material that’s used to mimic the lush green color, softness, and playability of natural grass.
- Then we in-fill the turf with a formulation of fine-coated silica sand that gives it the touch and feel of real grass.
- Finally, roll the tops to give the effect of real bent grass green. Options include installing first and second cuts fringe, bunkers, sand traps, roughs, and fairways.
You can watch our installation process video here.
READY FOR YOUR GREENS?
Make sure you take a look at our grass collections. We are here to help when you’re ready. Contact us for a quote for your project — whether or not it’s a backyard putting green or a full-blown golf course, we’ve got you covered.