Why you should hire the professionals, and why Southwest Greens of Southern California is leader in the industry for installation practices.
Maybe you’re asking yourself, “Can I install artificial grass myself?” While it’s possible to install artificial grass by yourself, it is not an easy feat. The equipment and tools you would need cost a lot, it’s time-consuming to do it yourself, and you risk voiding any warranties. Let’s take a look at why you really should have your synthetic golf turf professionally installed and artificial turf installation best practices.
WHY PROFESSIONAL ARTIFICIAL GRASS INSTALLATION
Whether or not you are looking to add a golf green to your yard, or you’re managing a commercial golf course, having artificial turf installed professionally will save you time, headaches, and money — and, long-term, give you a better-looking green.
Saved Time
Even seemingly small DIY projects can often turn into a big problem. Haven’t we all been there? Excessive trips to the home improvement store for tools or supplies we didn’t know we needed, plans not going to plan, multiple days of hard work? By having your turf installed by a pro, you’ll save so much time, and you’ll enjoy the greens sooner.
In order to install artificial golf greens properly, must level the ground, add a base of crushed aggregate, add padding, lay the turf, add infill, and roll the turf for the best playability and to make it look realistic. Cutting edges for clean borders is also tricky and needs a good deal of experience to get just right. All of this necessitates some very specific tools and knowledge to execute correctly to avoid wonky sections and/or edges that start peeling up creating a terrible look.
Difficult Soil/Landscape
An ideal soil is rare. Most property owners will agree to this. It is very rare to be able to push your shovel into the soil without problems. Instead, we must work with rocky soil, clay, or soil overrun with roots from trees and plants nearby in many places. Even digging can be tiring work. Plus, if you are digging into roots, you could be damaging surrounding trees you want.
We have encountered obstacles like boulders, old (or new) irrigation lines, and stumps on many of our installation projects. All of these things need to be removed or repurposed. Excavation results in tons of soil you do not need — what is your plan to deal with it? Frequently we have to transport this leftover soil offsite.
A pro installer can arrange all of this on your behalf. So if you don’t want to do very difficult manual labor or don’t know how to dispose of your excavated soil, hiring a professional installer for your project is your best bet.
Large Areas
When you install a golf green in a large area, seaming becomes among the trickiest aspects of the turf to do correctly. Seeming is the method of combining two or more pieces together. The process is similar to carpet installation, when turf seams are blended right, they are not noticeable. When seams are not done the right way, they will be noticeable and provide an unattractive finished product.
Imagine this: rolling up a poster or sheet of paper. Have you always gotten perfect alignment when trying to get 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 tiny mistake at the start of the process will throw the whole project off and look awful when finished. Professional installers will have tons of experience doing seams and will ensure everything looks amazing before they are finished.
THE SOUTHWEST GREENS WAY
There are three specific things that differentiate Southwest Greens of Southern California from everyone else in the turf industry — craftsmanship, guarantees, and customer service. We do not believe in one-size-fits-all artificial turf installations, and because of this, we’ve mastered the art and science of Los Angeles and Southern California artificial turf installation. We’ve honed our process with at least 6,000 golf greens worldwide under our belts.
Have a quick glance at how our artificial putting green installation process works.
- A crushed aggregate base, 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, next we bring in our state-of-the-art polypropylene turf material that is used to replicate the bright green color, softness, and playability of regular grass.
- Then we in-fill the turf with a formulation of fine-coated silica sand which gives it the touch and feel of traditional grass.
- Finally, roll the turf to make the effect of real bent grass green. We offer options including the installation of first and second cuts fringe, sand traps, bunkers, fairways, and roughs.
You can watch our installation process video here.
READY FOR YOUR GREENS?
Be sure to investigate our grass collections. We are here to help you when you are ready. Contact us for a quote for your project — regardless of it’s a backyard putting green or a full-scale golf course, we’ve got you covered.