This article here, I’m going to break down the costs for Synthetic Grass Vs Natural Grass. So much speculation out there saying real grass is more cost effective or fake grass is more cost effective. After you read this, it should all make sense.
Cost for Real Grass
Now, I’m going to base this off of a thousand square foot yard to kind of give you an idea. So let’s start off with real grass. Most people hire landscapers to handle all of this because there is no time or they simply do not want to deal with it.
- 1000 SQFT.
- Sprinklers
- Maintenance
- Mowing
- Water
- Irrigation
- Edging
- Weed Control
- Re-Seeding
- Fertilizer
- You get the point….
We will calculate all the above on a monthly basis over the course of 15 years. I say 15 years because of the manufacturer’s warranty on artificial turf. At bare minimum for just watering and paying a landscaper to mow the lawn every 2 weeks, you’re looking at 125.00 per month. That is $1500.00 per year. At 15 years you’re looking at $22,500. Let’s drop it down a little. Let’s say you have 1000 sqft. yard full of grass and it costs you $85.00 a month for upkeep. Each year the cost for natural grass maintenance would be 1,020.00. In a fifteen-year period you’re at $15,300.00
Cost for Artificial Grass in a 15 Year Period
If you were to install Artificial Grass on a thousand square foot yard. Let’s base if off the top of the line turf for the brutal Arizona sun.
- 1000 square feet of top tiger turf
- Ground prep; removal or existing grass, rock, tree stumps is any, compact quarter minus, etc
- Cap off sprinklers
- Installation
- Infill
This is more or less the install process. If you paid $8.00 per square foot, and this is at the high, the cost for Artificial Grass installation is $8000.00 (we normally charge between $6.00 and $8.00 per square foot depending on turf quality). You have to water it down every so often to keep it clean so maybe you’ll spend an extra ten dollars a month on water at most. This is based on if you have no pets. 180 months is fifteen years. The price per month would be $44.44 on synthetic grass install if you were to calculate it out in a 15 year period.
Cost for Artificial Grass in a 15 Year Period with Pets
Same as above, 1000 sqft., $8.00 per sqft. at the high. We also need to add pet infill to help protect the turf from smelling and to kill bacteria. With the added infill, the cost for Artificial Turf Installation is $8,300.00. With pets you want to try to flood your yard about 2 times a month to clean out and drain urine. On average you’ll spend $25.00 month on the water to spray it down. If you calculate this out you’re spending 71.11 per month for 15 years.
It’s pretty obvious synthetic grass is a much better investment.
