How much does artificial turf cost?
Artificial turf runs about $8 – $20 per sq ft for the turf itself, which is ten to twenty times the price of sod, and it wants a base under it that costs as much again as a paver patio's. It then costs nothing for fifteen years. Here is what is inside the number, why a lawn a foot too wide costs a whole extra strip, and when the sum comes out in turf's favour.
Artificial turf cost calculator
What will artificial turf cost for your lawn?
Working out a whole yard rather than one bed? Sketch it to scale in the planner and every area is measured, costed and totalled together.
What is in the price
The turf. Most of the spread is the pile: a short, thin, single-colour turf sits at the bottom of the range, and a tall, dense, multi-tone one with a thatch layer woven in at the top. The middle of the range is what most lawns get and what most people cannot tell from the top. Pet turf, with a permeable backing that drains straight through, costs a little more again.
The base. Turf is laid on three to four inches of compacted crushed stone at $40 – $85 per cu yd, topped with a thin layer of fines screeded flat, exactly the base a paver patio gets. It is what keeps the surface flat and draining, and skipping it is the one mistake that cannot be fixed later without lifting the turf.
The rest. Weed fabric under the base, a nailer board or bender board around the edge to fix the turf to, seam tape and glue where two strips meet, and infill, which is sand or coated sand brushed into the pile at a pound or two per square foot to hold it up and hold it down. Together they add a dollar or two a square foot.
Why the roll width matters
Turf comes off a roll 15 feet wide and is cut to length, never to width. A lawn 14 feet across takes one strip; a lawn 16 feet across takes two, and the second one is mostly offcut. The calculator runs the strips the long way and tells you what you actually buy, which for an awkward width can be a third more than the lawn measures. If the shape is yours to choose, make one side a multiple of the roll, or a little under it.
Seams are the other reason to want fewer strips. A seam is glued, taped and hidden, and a good installer makes one disappear, but every seam is a place the turf can lift, and the pile has to run the same way on both sides of it or the two strips will never match in the light.
By size
Turf and base in materials only, at the national range, with the strips bought whole. Installed, the same lawns commonly land at two to three times the materials figure: the excavation and the base are most of the labour.
| Lawn | Strips | Turf to buy | Materials |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small, 15 × 20 ft | 1 | 300 sq ft for 300 | $2,548 – $6,315 |
| Typical, 25 × 30 ft | 2 | 900 sq ft for 750 | $7,570 – $18,787 |
| Large, 40 × 40 ft | 3 | 1,800 sq ft for 1,600 | $15,190 – $37,679 |
Turf or sod
The same lawn in sod is about $0.40 – $1.10 per sq ft laid over topsoil, and the sod cost guide has it worked through. Sod is a tenth of the price on the day. Then it is mowed forty times a year, watered all summer, fed, and patched where the dog runs, and in a dry climate the water alone can be a few hundred dollars a season. Turf is swept and rinsed.
Across ten to fifteen years, which is what a good turf lasts, the two often come out close, and in places where water is metered and expensive the turf wins. Where rain is free and someone enjoys mowing, sod wins by a mile. Turf also runs hot in full sun, hot enough to matter for bare feet and dogs in July, and it does nothing for the soil under it. It suits a small lawn that is walked on hard, a shaded strip where grass never took, and a dog run; it does not suit a big open yard, where its price is multiplied by every square foot.
Quick checklist
- Price the turf on what you buy, in whole strips off the roll, not on the lawn's area.
- Add three to four inches of compacted base, fabric, edging, seam tape and infill.
- Make one side of the lawn a multiple of the roll width if you can, and keep seams few and all running the same way.
- Double the materials figure, at least, for an installed price.
- Compare with sod over ten years, water included, not on the day.
Paint the lawn with artificial turf and the planner costs it by the square foot for your state, with the gravel base as a layer under it. Paint it with sod instead and the two totals sit side by side on the same shape.