Why you should hire the professionals, and why Southwest Greens of Western Canada is the industry leader for installation practices.
Perhaps you’re asking yourself, “Can I install artificial grass myself?” While it’s possible for you to install artificial grass by yourself, it’s not a simple task. The equipment and tools you’d need cost a lot, it takes a while to DIY, and you risk voiding the warranty. Now, let’s learn why you should have your golf turf installed by a professional who follows the best practices for artificial turf installation.
WHY PROFESSIONAL ARTIFICIAL GRASS INSTALLATION
Whether or not you are adding an artificial golf green to your personal property, or you are managing a commercial golf course, having artificial turf professionally installed will save you time, headaches, and money — and, long-term, provide a better-looking green.
Saved Time
Even small DIY projects can quickly become a big to-do. We’ve all been there. Repeat trips to the big box store for tools and supplies we didn’t realize we need, plans not going accordingly, days and days of hard work? By having your turf installed professionally, you’ll save so much time, and be able to enjoy the greens sooner.
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. Trimming edges so you have clean borders is also tricky and needs a good deal of experience to get it just right. All of this necessitates some very specific tools and knowledge to execute correctly to avoid messy sections and edges that peel up creating a terrible looking green.
Difficult Soil/Landscape
An ideal soil is rare. Many property owners can vouch for this. It is quite rare to be able to push your shovel into the dirt without issues. Instead, we deal with stones, clay, or soil permeated with roots from trees and plants nearby in many locations. Even digging can become grueling work. Worse, if you’re digging into roots, you could be hurting surrounding plants you might want to keep.
On many of our installation projects, we’ve faced obstacles like huge boulders, old (or new) irrigation lines, stumps, to name a few. All of these things have to be removed or repurposed. Excavation also produces tons of soil you do not want — where would you go with it? Frequently we have to transport this unwanted soil offsite.
A pro turf installer can arrange all of this . So if you’re not wanting to do very back-breaking manual labor or don’t know how to handle your excavated soil, hiring an installer for your project is your best choice.
Large Areas
When installing a golf green in a large area, seaming becomes among the most challenging parts of the turf to get right. Seeming is the process of binding two or more pieces together. The process is much like carpet installation, when artificial turf seams are done right, they aren’t noticeable. When seams aren’t done the right way, they’ll stand out and provide a disappointing finished product.
Imagine this: rolling up a piece of paper or a poster. Have you always gotten perfect alignment when trying to execute a good roll? Sometimes you don’t get a clean edge, but end up with paper sticking out on one end. This same thing is possible when seaming artificial turf. One small mistake at the start of the process will mess up the whole project and look awful when finished. A professional installer will have plenty of experience installing seams and they’ll make sure everything looks fantastic before they are done.
THE SOUTHWEST GREENS WAY
There are three things that separate Southwest Greens of Western Canada from everyone else in the turf industry — craftsmanship, guarantees, and customer service. We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all artificial turf installations, and because of this, we’ve perfected the art and the science of Edmonton artificial turf installation. We’ve built our process with at least 6,000 golf greens across the globe under our belts.
Here is a quick glance at how our artificial putting green installation process works.
- A base of crushed aggregate, which, unlike concrete, can be moistened and molded to make challenging breaks and undulations.
- Next, we install a cushion pad, at a minimum, to assist the ball roll and shot absorption, next we install our state-of-the-art polypropylene turf material that is used to mimic the vibrant green color, softness, and playability of real grass.
- Then the turf is in-filled with a formulation of fine-coated silica sand that gives it the touch and feel of organic grass.
- Finally, roll the turf to give the effect of real bent grass green. Options include the installation of first and second cuts fringe, bunkers, sand traps, roughs, and fairways.
You can watch our installation process video here.
READY FOR YOUR GREENS?
Make sure you take a look at our grass collections. We are here to help you when you’re ready. Contact us to get a quote for your project — whether it is a backyard putting green or a full-scale golf course, we’ve got you covered.