I was surprised when the roll of turf arrived a couple days ahead of my estimate. The trucking company did a good job keeping me posted.
The material came wrapped and in good condition. Let people know to have a couple of helpers available and to position the roll as close to the installation site as possible. MichaelI made some notes for a friend of mine. Use them however you want. mc
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D-I-Y Installation of Artificial Turf
Considerations –
Site and site prep
Tools
Labor & abilities
Materials
My thinking on stuff
Site and site prep
I decided to install turf (650 sf.) in my level yard in California –
Annual rainfall about 20 inches;
Max. one day rainfall about one inch.
No winter freeze.
The area is an irregular shape with curves and straights.
There are sprinklers and some low-voltage lighting installed.
Tools
I had most tools but found the following to be most helpful.
One wheelbarrow/cart – I have a medium size Scotts cart with four wheels
One sand tamper – about 10 lbs.
One decent corded drill with assortment of good quality bits.
One earth auger/drill bit
One workmate-type vise table
One of those 36″ picker-upper things to reduce bending.
A magnet on a stick helps with recovering dropped screws.
One good adjustable hose nozzle
One banged-up pick-up truck
Labor & abilities
I am semi-retired, 57, overweight and not very flexible (knees especially).
I count myself as 1/3 of a laborer & much of the brainpower.
I hired two day-laborers for about five days.
Communication is important – make sure at least one of the laborers speaks your language.
I speak Spitalianglish – English mixed with Spanish and Italian – quite comical at times.
Time & schedule
Be realistic – as a first time effort, my 650 sf. took about 5 full days.
Now that I have some experience, I could probably do a similar job in 4 days.
The time can be split up, but anything less than 4 hours at a time doesn’t accomplish much.
Watch the weather – I hit a heat wave which has an impact.
Materials
I used five 16 2×6 pressure-treated boards for the long runs. These are HEAVY.
Smaller 2×4 pressure-treated boards made up cross pieces.
I used fill of 3/8″ pea-gravel and #2 Olympia sand.
I bought these at Lyngso in Redwood City, CA in self-fill bags. About $5/bag
Lyngso has the bags. Save by reusing bags and tell them BEFORE you pay.
It took 80 bags (60 gravel, 20 sand). These are heavy too, 4 trips.
The total weight per square foot is 8-10 pounds – near 5 tons total.
I bought the medium weight turf with curly thatch (it really hides the screws).
Wafer headed screws for the turf – #6, 8, & 10 for wood and metals
12″ wooden gardening spikes (for lateral clamping).
Weed barrier fabric
Colored painters tape
35 feet of one-inch manila rope
40 metal connector plates (4″ x 7″)
My thinking on stuff
I decided to create a grid of pressure-treated 2x4s and 2x6s tied together with thin metal plates. No nails – everything screwed for strength and safety. I did not want anything popping up later, so I used lots of screws.
This allowed workable areas of about 70 sf. each with level boundaries for screeding.
After the lumber was installed, I drilled about 50 nine-inch deep holes with the earth auger.
These holes were filled with nine-inch lengths of manila rope and will allow water percolation.
Then position the gravel – water and tamp over and over.
Don’t be stingy, this stuff will settle over time but the lumber will not.
Bring the gravel level with the boards.
Add sand, water and tamp over and over.
Make the wood and materials as even as possible.
Edges butting up to concrete should be about ¼” lower to allow the turf to sit right.
Backfill with a bit of sand as needed
Used colored tape to mark board positions on concrete. Use these later with a taut line when screwing.
Cover everything with weed barrier before laying turf.
I overbought on turf a little to ensure that I reduced seams to one long straight one.
Measure twice or more before cutting.
When I did cut, it was not the final cut immediately.
I did a progression of trimming as I positioned and fastened down the turf.
The progressive trimming reduced weight and allowed progress tightening.
Lots of double-checking while trimming – costs nothing extra to check.
The wafer head screws did a good job securing the fabric to the wood.
If I need to I can unscrew areas for more sand, etc.
Make sure the turf orientation on abutting pieces is the same.
The butt seam shows and I am working on that.
I think the two pieces pressing against each other causes the darker color by pushing two blades against each other.
I plan on waiting a few days and then doing some fine scissor cutting to remove some individual blades.
I think this approach will do the trick
I oriented the whole area so that the best looking angle faced the part of the backyard most used (South).
I used bags of gravel/sand instead of a dumped delivery because I didn’t know how much would be needed.
I made sure to top them off at the material yard since the charge is for the bag and not by weight.
The bags were useful as pre-measured units for estimating additional purchases and for filling the cart.
Using bags instead of a bulk dump allowed me to keep my driveway open.
Doing the job myself let me make changes on the spot like using the overage material to push up under trees and bushes. If later I don’t like the look, I can re-trim back to the original line.
I pay my guys $15/hour (cash at the end of each day) – they work hard and do a good job.
I work alongside doing small stuff that speeds things up.
Two was a good number for me to work with. I wouldn’t go with more than three.
They will save you a lot of money versus having a contractor do the job.
I tried to have some other jobs (watering, minor gardening) ready to utilize time gaps.
I also provide lots of cold drinks, sometimes cold watermelon.
I usually provide early lunch (hamburger/burrito) to ensure the guys had eaten that day.
These guys don’t have much and some food and drink helps.
I don’t want to be concerned that a missed meal will be a problem.
The turf ran about $4 a sf. delivered. I figure another $5 a foot for everything else.
Final cost was $6,000 for the job versus about $10,000 using a contractor.
Questions?
Michael Cohn
Cohn1600@aol.com
