Synthetic Lawn a Natural Choice for Bob Vila Home Project

When Bob Vila was helping a young Massachusetts family add usable space to their suburban Boston home without adding on to their property, one solution they found was replacing their natural sod backyard with a NewGrass™, one of the new generation of synthetic grasses.

The result was a backyard the family could truly enjoy, a solid rebuttal of the old perception of synthetic grass as fake-looking and unattractive, and a first for the Bob Vila show – the use of synthetic grass as a landscaping component.

“We planted sod three years ago,” said homeowner Sarah Monzon, whose two-story 1921 home in Melrose, Mass., casts a shadow over the small backyard. The yard also suffers from poor drainage and plenty of wear and tear from Monzon’s two young sons.

“The first year, we had dead spots,” Monzon said. “The second year, it was worse. The third year, it was nearly all dead. It looked terrible.”

Worse than looking bad, the backyard gave Monzon’s boys, ages 4 and 6, nothing but hard and scruffy dirt to play on. That also meant they were tracking dust and dirt – or mud - into the house year-round.

“Now, they have a lawn to play on, and they love it, even though we’ve had snow and it’s been cold lately,” Monzon said. “So I think they’re really going to love it this summer, when they can be out there all day long.”

She also said that NewGrass™, the synthetic grass selected for the project, is standing up to the test of daily wear and tear by her boys.

“Their bicycles don’t hurt it, and, neither do their scooters,” Monzon said. “They’ve brought the big guns out to play on it.”

And, it looks great, too, Monzon said. “It really sort of brightens your day to look out there and see a bright green grass outside the window,” Monzon said. “That was wonderful.”

The project was featured earlier this year on Bob Vila, the nationally syndicated home improvement and remodeling show. The episode marked the first time synthetic grass was used as a landscaping alternative on Bob Vila.

Based in Scottsdale, NewGrass™ features three varieties of synthetic lawns that have the look and feel of natural grass, without the maintenance or need for watering. Company president Greg Goehner oversaw the installation of Monzon’s 500-square-foot backyard.

“We were very excited about this, to be a featured product on Bob Vila,” Goehner said. “And we’re thrilled with the family’s reaction to their new backyard.”

Re-landscaping was one strategy to create more useable space for the Monzons, without adding on to their home. Monzon’s landscape designer suggested synthetic grass for the backyard.

“I pooh-poohed it,” Monzon said. “But she told me that a natural lawn really is one of the highest maintenance things you can have. And ours hadn’t worked.”

Still, Monzon was skeptical. Her idea of artificial grass was of something from the ‘70s or ‘80s, the old- style short, stiff and unnatural-looking products that were more like “outdoor carpeting” than natural grass.

“But then I saw samples – they showed me NewGrass™ - and I was surprised at how real it looked,” Monzon said.

That didn’t end her skepticism, however. She’d heard rumors that artificial grass could be unhygienic.

“I did a lot of research, looking at all the pros and cons, and that was the one thing that I was concerned about - about sports teams that had had problems because of artificial grass,” Monzon said. “It turned out that the problem wasn’t the grass, it was the hygiene of the players. So, I was totally comfortable with it.”

Then, when the grass was installed, “it was incredible,” Monzon said.

Today’s Artificial Lawns Have Benefits Beyond Looking Good, Saving Water

After years of being credited at best with giving homeowners a green yard year-round, synthetic lawns are now proving benefits that go quite a bit further.

Schools, businesses and home owners are finding that today’s modern artificial grass provides attractive landscaping in areas that haven’t supported natural turf, reduces dirt and dust tracked into buildings and adds perceived value to a home or business.

Melissa Lidberg, an owner of Boulder Falls Pet Resort, near Phoenix, Ariz., said her staff is proud of showing off the facility to visitors and potential customers since she had synthetic grass installed in its 4,000-square-foot play area.

“People see a bright green patch of play area for their dogs, and that’s a lot more attractive than a big dirt bowl out there,” Lidberg said. “We saw the benefits of the synthetic grass immediately.”

For years, the upscale pet resort had been unable to keep grass growing in the play area. One reason was the hard soil. Another was the effect on the natural grass of up to 90 dogs romping three times a day.

Lidberg also has found that her new faux grass landscaping is keeping the floors of her buildings cleaner—no more mud and dirt tracked in from outside. That’s an unexpected benefit that one elementary school discovered after replacing a hardscrabble play area with artificial grass.

“Before, we always had dust and dirt coming in, just because the schoolyard was so bare,” said Laurie Ocampo, principal at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School in Casa Grande, Ariz.

Because the school’s terrain has high and low elevations, the children tracked mud into the school whenever it rained or if the yard was still wet after the school had watered the bare patches of natural turf it had tried to maintain before.

“That’s just not a problem now,” Ocampo said.

Homeowners whose terrain has poor drainage or difficult elevations are also finding that synthetic lawn does more than just provide an attractive alternative to natural grass that’s been difficult to grow and maintain.

“One of our customers had a large, beautiful home and a huge lawn, nearly 5,000 square feet, but the front yard had odd elevations, and it had raised grades that retained drainage and made the front yard often unusable,” said Chris Harlien, operations manager of STC (Synthetic Turf Company) in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The synthetic lawn that STC installed (by NewGrass™) requires no watering other than to occasionally knock of accumulated dust. Its perforated backing allows for steady drainage of whatever water does fall on it.

Synthetic Grass: The Perfect Solution for Problem Areas

Anyone who has a natural grass lawn knows the irritating problem of trying to get the stuff to grow in places where it just doesn’t seem to want to grow or the hassle of maintaining hard-to-reach areas.

Problems like those are among the strongest reasons why people switch to synthetic lawns like NewGrass™ or other of today’s high-quality artificial grasses.

Hard-to-Access Areas
Some yards have natural barriers to easy lawn maintenance. Maybe it’s a natural depression in the yard. Or, in the Southwest U.S., you’ll find a wash or trough that runs through a homeowner’s property. These terrain features make it difficult to run sprinkler systems to cover the entire lawn. They can also make it even more of a chore than usual to get mowing and maintenance equipment to the area.

“One of our customers hand a natural wash between her house and her lawn,” said Chris Harlien, with Synthetic Turf Company, in Scottsdale, Ariz. “It was about 10 feet foot across, and it turns into to a river when it rains. They simply couldn’t get to the lawn easily to maintain it.”

With artificial grass installed, the homeowner no longer worries about how she’ll maintain her lawn.

Some homes have lawns that are accessible only through a gate, maybe of to the side of the house. These areas are often neglected simply because it’s such a chore to get the lawnmower and other equipment to the space. With synthetic grass, once it’s installed, you can forget about all of that.

Steep Terrain and Undulations
Water conservation agencies and cities are in fact urging homeowners not to plant natural grass on steep slopes or on areas with deep undulations. This type of terrain is not only very difficult to mow and keep maintained, it requires huge amounts of water to keep green and wastes just as much. At least half of the water used on these types of terrain – and the pesticides and weed-killers used on them – simply run down the hill or into the troughs of the land.

Small, Tight Spaces
For small areas or odd-sized areas, homeowners often need to cut their grass with a weed trimmer, instead of lawn mower. It’s a time-consuming way to get the job done. But it’s often the only choice, if the space is an odd size or simply two small for the lawnmower to make two passes side by side.

Swimming pools often have small narrow strips of lawn beside them that also often require a weed trimmer instead of a lawnmower. These kinds of spaces also often need to be watered by hand or with a manual sprinkler or strip hose, because it’s not feasible and too expensive to extend a sprinkling system to them.

Synthetic grasses can be installed to fit any spaces of any size or shape.

Under the Shade of Trees
It’s a fact of nature: Natural grass can’t grow under most shade trees or over the roots and dry earth of many larger trees. NewGrass™ and other of today’s synthetic lawns can not only fit nicely into these kinds of areas, but they look perfectly natural against there, too.

Low-Lying Areas That Hold Water
Areas that are below the natural turf line often tend to hold water. At best, these areas are simply difficult to get lawn maintenance equipment into and to keep in nice shape. At worst, they become a breeding ground for insects and mosquitoes.

Synthetic lawns do not attract pests and insects and require none of the maintenance that natural turf on low-lying areas need.

Synthetic Grass Studied as Conservation Alternative

TEMPE, Ariz. – After years of being ignored as a serious water conservation measure, synthetic grass is being studied alongside other landscaping options to determine its practicality in the battle to curb water use.

A long-term water conservation research project sponsored by the country’s third-largest public utility company has put synthetic grass side-by-side with natural local grasses and xeriscaping. The Salt River Project (SRP) is sponsoring the research as part of its ongoing efforts to help give consumers new and better information about water conservation alternatives.

After more than 1½ years of observing, testing and evaluating several plots of artificial grass, the SRP says it can give synthetic grass the thumbs up as a genuine water conservation alternative.

“I think it’s probably a good niche product for a lot of people,” said Marc Campbell, a water planning analyst with SRP and director of the research project.
“It seems durable. It hasn’t faded. It needs a little maintenance, but really next to none,” Campbell said. “You need to rake it from time to time to keep the blades looking full. And you need to hose it off to remove the dust that inevitably lands on it, with the winds and dust we get here.”

Several reputable companies make the types of artificial grass the SRP is using in its demonstration project. Among the nationally recognized companies are SynLawn, and NewGrass, Inc.

Campbell said the SRP had a few very basic questions it wanted answered about artificial grass that led to the research project.

“We wanted to know, how it would perform in our extreme summer heat?” Campbell said. “Would it fade? Exactly what kind of maintenance does it require?”

The decision to research artificial grass along with other landscaping options was a direct response to what SRP was hearing from consumers about what they liked – and didn’t like – when it came to changing the way they landscape their homes to save water and reduce energy consumption.

Campbell said an estimated 60 percent of residential use in the Valley – Phoenix and its surrounding cities – is used on outdoor landscaping and swimming pools.

“We did consumer focus groups, asking people about water conservation supplies, landscaping, conservation measures and possible new programs,” Campbell said. “We asked them what they’d like to know about grass options and about landscaping alternatives.”

“We learned that despite our efforts to push xeriscaping, there were a majority of people that just wanted to have a natural grass landscape,” Campbell said.

SRP said the agency’s surveys identified three primary reasons that homeowners in the greater Phoenix area that SPR serves want a yard landscaped with a lawn:

• They want it for their children to play on
• They prefer the look of a green lawn compared with the drier, more native look of xeriscaping
• They are from the Midwest or East Coast and are accustomed to having natural grass as a residential landscape

SRP also wanted to study synthetic grass as a conservation measure because it is gaining acceptance as a landscaping alternative in general, and an increasing number of cities are “starting to consider it a little more seriously” as well, Campbell said.

“Generally, people are looking at synthetic grass a little more seriously than they did a couple of years ago,” he said. “We want to give the general public and the cities here in the Valley the information they need to make their own decisions about whether to use it and if it’s right for them.”

Campbell has been keeping tabs on several plots of synthetic grass that the agency installed at a park in Tempe that SRP owns and maintains for use by its employees.
The downside to synthetic grass so far, when compared against natural grass, is that the surface of a synthetic lawn will get hotter under the sun than natural grass, Campbell said.

The good news, however, is that synthetic grass cooled off quickly underfoot and has never gotten so hot that it’s burned anyone’s feet, Campbell said.

“It cools down immediately in the shade,” Campbell said, “It doesn’t retain heat.”

On a 110-degree day in Tempe this summer, the surface of the synthetic turf grasses reached 155 degrees. That compared with 145 degrees for asphalt, 135 degrees for a xeriscaped plot and 98 degrees for natural grass.

“You couldn’t stand on that 145-degree asphalt without burning your feet, but the synthetic turf cooled down rapidly under the foot,” Campbell said.
Questions remain, however, before the SRP can accurately assess the total savings in energy consumption that a synthetic lawn could bring.

“For example, because of its increased surface heat, does it increase the cooling costs around a house?” Campbell asked. “Does it cause plants nearby to need more water because of its increase surface heat? Those are questions I haven’t been able to answer.”

Sifting through the deluge of artificial grass companies

There are a lot of companies out there selling artificial grass. Some of the trademarks include AstroLawn®, SotfLawn™, SYNLawn™, NewGrass™, and WaterLess Grass™. Others don’t have trademarks but still offer artificial grass products, these companies include FieldTurf, ProGreen, SouthWest Greens, XGrass, AllProGreens, and ForeverLawn among numerous others. They are all competing for what looks to be a very fast growing market. In fact, according the the Synthetic Turf council the market for synthetic grass is already over half a billion a year and growing very quickly. They do admit, however, that the true numbers for the industry are not known because the members are very tight lipped. They also suggest that the artificial lawn segment accounts for only about 20% of the overall number but it is the fasted growing segment at nearly 80% a year. SYNLawn Inc. let their sales figures out in an article in Orlando Sentinel as they admitted their sales topped $30 million last year.

Looking under the hood, however, makes for interesting viewing. What you will find is that all of these products are essentially the same. That is because they all use the same manufacturing base in Dalton Georgia. There is in fact, only a hand full of companies in the US that can even produce synthetic grass, companies like Crystal Products and Challender Industries, and the vast majority of them use the same material from Thiolon Industries.

If you are considering buying artificial grass for your lawn it is hard to decide. Some of the things to consider are:

1) How stable is the company? Are they just a fly by night operation? This is important because of the warranty the grass carries. You have to be sure the company will be there tomorrow to service the lawn if need be.
2) What is the position of the company in your market? Sales stats suggest that NewGrass Inc is the largest supplier of artificial lawns in Arizona and SYNLawn is the largest supplier in Nevada the top two markets respectively.
3) How does the price compare? Ask for the price of the grass up front separate from the installation costs. The installation costs are what should vary and if you have multiple installers installing the same product then you can get the best quote.
4) Do they have the grass in stock? This seems like a simple question but its not. There have been numerous situations in the past where customers have complained that they paid for grass but did not receive it up to 90 days later. Hence, it is always better to go with a company that has the grass ready to go.
5) What is the service like? Ultimately, your buy will come down to the service that is supplied. How many installs have the installers done? Can they show examples of their work? How committed are the sales people to the job?

Artificial lawns are a new and exciting product that is certainly going to be a topic of discussion for years to come. All you have to do is read the various company sites about the advantages for it. The disadvantages are still to come, since that is harder to establish in such a new industry.

What to Look For in a Synthetic Lawn Grass

With the growing number of companies selling synthetic lawns and the new generation of products to choose from, it’s important to know what to look for when you decide to replace your traditional lawn with artificial grass.

If you want a high-quality, long-lasting synthetic grass, look for:

 Grass blades that are parallel fibrillated blades, not honeycomb fibrillated

 Backing that is thick and durable, preferably one that is multi-layered and dimensionally stable (sometimes the most important piece of any product is the part you don’t see)

 Fibers manufactured to stand upright, preferably using a special "heat crimped" fiber design

 A synthetic lawn that needs a limited amount of infill, so it keeps a natural feel and doesn’t cause infill to track into your home, but still lets the blades stand upright

 A variety of grass that fits your landscaping needs and geography (www.NewGrass.com, for example, offers rye, Bermuda and fescue varieties, as well, www.SYNLawn.com offers variety as well)

 A warranty that is honest and specific

 A sales person or distributor who is available to answer any of your questions about the product, its application, installation or maintenance

Equally significant is choosing the right installation company. Some companies, such as NewGrass™, Inc., of Scottsdale, Ariz., only distribute their products through selected companies that have experienced and professional design and installation teams.

The inaugural post, ah yes, well, the plan for this blog is to discuss the burgeoning market for artificial lawns. Pretty basic, the pros and cons the players and the non-players and the companies that are making the difference.