Artificial Grass vs. Real Grass: Which is Right for your Landscape?
Landscaping is among the most effective ways of transforming the look and purpose of domestic and commercial property spaces. However, the world of landscape reshaping is fast-evolving. Landowners often cross paths when choosing between artificial grass and natural grass for their landscape redesign.
Artificial vs. Natural Grass: Comparison
Both artificial grass and natural grass turfs have distinct benefits and drawbacks. Thus, your choice will largely depend on the nature of your landscaping project, your precise preferences, and your budget.
When contrasting the two types of grass, we’ll focus on these significant factors:
Nature and Composition
Resilience and Lifespan
Installation
Maintenance and Care
Drainage Properties
Flexibility of Use
Cost
Comfort
Safety
Aesthetic Properties
1. Nature and Composition
Natural grass grows naturally on soil in different forms, including exotic and more contemporary hybrid varieties. It typically grows on the ground, although technological advancements enable it to thrive on different surfaces, such as balconies and terraces.
On the other hand, artificial grass consists of layers of artificial components, mainly plastic polymers like nylon, polypropylene, and polyethylene, forming its backing, adhesive, and infill substances such as rubber pellets or sand grains. Cutting-edge technology empowers fake grass to mimic natural grass in structural and functional properties.
2. Resilience and Lifespan
Natural grass needs substantial care and maintenance almost immediately after installation to keep it lush and healthy. Moreover, it requires more attention during the hot summer season and in high foot traffic and intense-use settings to retain its glow and pristine state. It hardly endures heavy and persistent use, such as consistent trampling common in sporting spaces, digging by pets, and heavy traffic in commercial and industrial settings. Nevertheless, it’s ideal for landowners who love the thrill of frequent lawn maintenance, and it can last exceptionally long under optimal conditions and maintenance.
In contrast, high-quality artificial grass is highly robust and long-living. It needs minimal maintenance after professional installation, sustains heavy use without degrading, and remains verdant year-round. Still, simulated grass has a limited lifespan as most brands require replacement after 12-20 years.
3. Installation
The installation procedures for natural and artificial grass require exceptional proficiency to guarantee the efficiency of use, optimal lifespans, and top-class visual appeal, although they differ in many ways. While most professional natural grass turf installations can take a few days, laying artificial sod often takes shorter timespans, depending on the size and complexity of the landscape.
4. Maintenance and Care
Natural grass typically requires a lot of care and maintenance regarding work, equipment, time, and cost, while artificial lawns need ultra-low upkeep. To keep a natural grass sod pristine, you need to frequently mow, trim, water, weed, aerate, overseed, apply fertilizer, and control pests. Conversely, you only have to remove debris, occasionally remove stains, cross-brush, restock the infill occasionally and rinse sometimes to dislodge dust, grime, and pollen from synthetic grass to keep it in immaculate condition.
5. Drainage Properties
While natural grass often drains water and other fluids naturally, it floods and gets muddy after a heavy downpour. In contrast, most artificial grass brands feature multiple-layer backing, unique adhesive, and infill that drain fluids quicker and prevent flooding and soaking.
6. Flexibility of Use
Both natural and fake grass are exceptionally versatile so that they can serve effectively on diverse landscaping projects depending on the maintenance requirements. Then again, artificial grass exceeds natural grass in the flexibility of usage due to its sturdier build, superior drainage, UV conditioning, and safety measures such as antimicrobial treatment.
7. Cost
Installing natural grass costs relatively less upfront than artificial grass. However, maintaining natural grass is much more expensive due to the costly, complex, and recurring upkeep processes such as pest control, mowing, watering, and fertilizer application.
Conversely, artificial grass has high installation costs but comparatively lower maintenance costs than natural grass due to the minimal upkeep requirements.
8. Comfort
Natural grass that has been painstakingly maintained is exceptionally comfortable to sit, walk, or play on. It’s also more relaxed than faux grass in the hot summer seasons but tends to dry out and flood more easily, rendering it uncomfortable or unusable in extreme weather conditions. It’s also more susceptible to grass and pollen allergies.
Imitation grass is also comfy but retains more heat than natural grass, making it less cozy in the peak summer seasons. Still, innovative pile designs make high-grade artificial grass remarkably comfortable.
9. Safety
A well-manicured natural grass lawn prevents injury by muffling falls and trips. It’s also remarkably safe for human and pet use, although fertilizer and pesticide application can increase toxicity and cause allergies.
Conversely, superior hygiene and antimicrobial treatment make fake grass hygienic for humans and pets. Further, adequately laid-out synthetic grass eliminates the risk of stumbling, toxicity, and allergies.
10. Aesthetic Properties
Both impeccably maintained natural grass and carefully installed artificial grass present outstanding landscape charm property value enhancement. However, natural grass takes much more time, energy, money, equipment, and resources to boost landscape aesthetics than fake grass.
Conclusion
Both artificial grass and natural grass offer outstanding landscaping perks. However, they have many distinct structural, visual, and functional differences. Thus, the ideal choice for your landscape relies on your particular landscaping project, budget, and the level of maintenance you’re prepared to give to your turf.
Contact Premier Grass to buy artificial grass in Brisbane.