Why you should hire the professionals, and why Southwest Greens Ontario is the best in the industry for installation practices.
Perhaps you’re asking yourself, “Can I install artificial grass myself?” Yes, it’s possible for you to install artificial grass by yourself, but it isn’t an easy feat. The tools and equipment you’d need are expensive, it’s time-consuming to DIY, and you could run the risk of voiding any warranties. So, let’s learn why you should have your golf turf installed by a pro following the best practices for artificial turf installation.
WHY PROFESSIONAL ARTIFICIAL GRASS INSTALLATION
Regardless if you’re looking to add a golf green to your yard, or you manage a commercial golf course, having artificial turf installed by a professional will save you time, money, and headaches — and, long-term, give you a more attractive green.
Saved Time
Even seemingly small DIY projects can easily become a big deal. We’ve all been there. Excessive trips to the big box store for tools or supplies we didn’t know we needed, plans not going to plan, days and days of hard work? By having your turf installed by a professional, you will save time, and be able to enjoy the greens sooner.
In order to install artificial golf greens properly, must level the ground, add a crushed aggregate base, add padding, place the turf, add infill, and roll the turf to have the best playability and to make it look realistic. Cutting edges to have clean borders is challenging and needs a lot of experience to get it just right. All of this means you need some certain tools and knowledge to do correctly in order to avoid goofy sections and/or edges that end up peeling up creating a terrible look.
Difficult Soil/Landscape
An ideal soil is rare. Many property owners will agree to this. It’s rare to be able to sink your shovel into the soil without problems. Instead, we deal with rocky soil, thick clay, or soil filled with root systems from plants and trees nearby in many locations. Just digging can be excrutiating work. Worse, if you’re digging into roots, you could be killing surrounding plants and trees you might want to keep.
On many of our installation projects, we’ve dealt with obstacles like boulders, old (or new) irrigation lines, tree stumps, to name a few. All of these obstacles need to be repurposed or removed. Excavation itself also produces tons of soil you may not want — where would you go with it? Frequently we have to move this unwanted soil offsite.
A professional installer can coordinate all of this on your behalf. So if you’re not looking to do very back-breaking manual labor or don’t know what to do with your excavated soil, hiring an installer for your project is your best option.
Large Areas
When you install a golf green in a large area, seaming is among the most challenging parts of the turf to do correctly. This is the method of combining two or more pieces together. Seeming is similar to carpet installation, when the seams of artificial turf are done right, they are not noticeable. When seams are not done the right way, they will be noticeable and give an unattractive finished product.
Imagine rolling up a sheet of paper or a poster. Have you always gotten the alignment perfect when attempting to pull-off a good roll? Rather than a clean edge, you sometimes end up with paper sticking out on one side. This same effect can happen with seaming artificial turf. One small error early on will mess up the whole project and look bad in the end. An installation professional will have a lot of experience doing seams and they’ll make certain everything looks great before they are done.
THE SOUTHWEST GREENS WAY
There are three specific things that differentiate Southwest Greens Ontario 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 this, we have perfected the art and science of Toronto artificial turf installation. We’ve perfected our process with over 6,000 golf greens across the globe under our belts.
Here’s a quick look at how our artificial putting green installation process works.
- A crushed aggregate base, which can be moistened and molded to make challenging breaks and undulations, unlike concrete.
- Next, we install at least a cushion pad to assist the ball roll and shot absorption, then 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.
- We then in-fill the turf with a formulation of fine-coated silica sand which gives it the touch and feel of natural grass.
- Finally, roll the turf to make the effect of true bent grass green. Options include installing first and second cuts fringe, fairways, roughs, bunkers, and sand traps.
Watch our video on our installation process here.
READY FOR YOUR GREENS?
Make sure to take a look at our grass collections. We’re here to help you when you’re ready. Contact us for a quote for your project — regardless of it is a backyard putting green or a full-size golf course, we’ve got you covered.