Fake grass ?

To those who are sure their fake grass doesn’t get too hot.
According to the experts

Temperature Differences
Real Grass: Stays cooler, usually measuring between 25°C and 35°C (77°F to 95°F) even on warm days.Artificial Turf: Can soar 20°C to 40°C (40°F to 80°F) hotter than real grass, sometimes exceeding asphalt or concrete temperatures
Thermal Images: Infrared and thermal camera photos display real grass in cool blues and greens, while fake grass glows in bright, intense oranges and reds
.Why Fake Grass Heats Up
Materials: Synthetic fibres and rubber infill absorb solar radiation instead of reflecting it
No Moisture: Lacking root moisture and cellular water, fake turf cannot transpire or cool itself
Heat Retention: It holds onto thermal energy long after the sun shifts, creating localised heat-island effects.
It’s a no-brainer even apart from the environmental and aesthetic implications.

MT62

They can recycle fake grass now.
I am currently looking for a company that has fake grass made from this method.

Maybe it can be recycled now, but the point is that whilst it is down in place of natural grass, it is doing untold damage to the soil and wildlife underneath it and making life difficult for any foraging animals above it.

nanna8

We have some fake grass in the cat’s run. I looked at it in puzzlement the other day because real grass was growing in tufts on top of it. It is under a huge tree so I suppose the leaves have formed mulch. Strange.

Ha ha! This made me laugh. Mother nature is wonderful. She's showing us how it should be done. Plastic doesn't self seed!

We moved into a house with a very unsightly courtyard garden 7 years ago. It was paved over with weeds growing everywhere. We have 2 dogs, one of whom will only toilet on grass. We had top of the range artificial grass laid. It still looks good now, although we have to sweep up moss which falls from the roof. It is never overly hot underfoot, I can easily walk barefoot out there. The dogs toilet out there, solids are easily picked up, it does not smell.

Sarnia

If you have a puppy then the last thing you need is fake grass. Any urine or faeces is extremely difficult to remove and the smell will permeate to the underneath where it will smell. My DD had to remove all her fake turf because of this and her dog is house trained and regularly walked but accidents happen. It was an expensive mistake.

No no pets.
Next door had fake grass which she would hoover, then take inside & hoover her carpets. She had a dog who was never walked & obviously did it’s business on the fake grass 😩
We have kept our very old Dyson now that we have finally finished with diy. Cleaned it & that will be used to hoover the grass if needed. I did wonder if it would suck up the sand they put down.
The grass company do come out & maintain the fake grass once a year.

If you have a puppy then the last thing you need is fake grass. Any urine or faeces is extremely difficult to remove and the smell will permeate to the underneath where it will smell. My DD had to remove all her fake turf because of this and her dog is house trained and regularly walked but accidents happen. It was an expensive mistake.

They can recycle fake grass now.
I am currently looking for a company that has fake grass made from this method.

vegansrock

Plastic grass is unnecessary and terrible for the environment. It should be banned. So what if a lawn doesn’t look like plastic perfection?

"It should be banned."

I agree. The sooner the better.

I'm pretty much in tune with most posters here, I don't like fake grass not only for the aesthetic, or lack of it, but also the effects on wildlife. I'd rather look at my parched lawn, it'll return to a green state eventually. My son's got the fake stuff, I was dismayed when he told me they were intending to replace their lawn, gravel it if you must, were my thoughts. A graveled garden with a thoughtful layout in the surrounding planting can look really great. However, none of my business. I think the clue's in the adjective "fake" is fake ever nice? particularly when plastic is a component

MawsRosie

No, no and no
Lethal for pets (gets way too hot), lethal for wild life, imagine a little bird pecking at fake grass hoping for food, let’s face it, it’s plastic in whatever form, so not biodegradable when it’s past its best, and frankly who wants emerald green «carpet»
I imagine you would have to hose it down, especially with a dog or it would get very smelly and that’s a no-no with a hosepipe ban.
Enough reasons?

I agree.

The Earth will be destroyed by plastic.
Dreadful stuff.

"No, no and no"
And No again. Please 🙏

Your lawn is looking so much better than ours, Shinamae. Only the weeds and some self-set herbs are flourishing in ours but it will recover when the rains start.

Your neighbour has found an ideal solution WW2.
Real grass - proper grass for all the reasons already mentioned- then the rolled out fake grass for protection when the boys are having a kick around !

I have fake grass in my front garden. After years of mowing a moss filled lawn, trying to get rid of the moss and myriad weeds that blew onto it from my neighbours "wild" ( aka unkempt) garden I decided that I didn't want to that any more. I don't need to use chemicals to keep the weeds and moss down, so I think it balances itself out. I find it takes no work to keep it looking good. My neighbour almost needed smelling salts when she saw it being laid. I don't think these people who give their garden over to nature realise what work and how many chemicals are involved for the rest of us who prefer a more orderly garden. Horses for courses I say.

Some people use it round the edge of a pool where they can’t grow grass. We don’t do that, we just have bricks but it actually looks quite attractive. .

Plastic grass is unnecessary and terrible for the environment. It should be banned. So what if a lawn doesn’t look like plastic perfection?

We have some fake grass in the cat’s run. I looked at it in puzzlement the other day because real grass was growing in tufts on top of it. It is under a huge tree so I suppose the leaves have formed mulch. Strange.

Artificial grass is suffocating to all the underground ecology. Blackbirds and thrushes pecking on strands of plastic in a hopeless effort to get earthworms is so sad. As the RHS says it should be banned.

Hmmmmmm….. Plenty to think about here, thank you all for your advice,much appreciated
I have been in this house 23 years and in the first 10 years I had it turfed,twice
You can’t see it from photo I added but just beyond that is another area that is being sorted out it’s got shrubs and gonna have some sort of gravel on it
I might think about having turf again..
This is Duke he’s nearly 5 months old now I think he was about three months old when that photo was taken….

Next door has a lawn but also two boys mad on football. So dad rolls out the fake grass when they are kicking around, then rolls it back up when they go to bed.

The real lawn stay fine except this year of course.

We have some on our small front garden, it is on a slope and was difficult to mow, nobody walks on it so I don’t know if it gets hot.

He's doing really well MarvaTaurus. He's tiny so his wees and deposits are tiny too . I'd say 90% are outside where we want them with the other 10% on training pads.

Fake grass is awful - for the environment, for appearance [ugh] and it does need caring for [sweeping, washing etc.], apart from being hot in summer, smelly if dogs pee and poop on it, no decent, natural drainage, killing the worms and insects and structure of the soil underneath, not wildlife friendly etc.etc.

I wouldn't touch the stuff and I don't like the feel of it walking barefoot either, doesn't compare to turf. I don't know what it's got going for it actually. I dislike man made materials in general anyway.

At a friends house a cat had left a dead pigeon on their fake lawn, dried bloody feathers stuck to the fibres and 100's of feathers everywhere. Try cleaning that up.

Fake grass is not maintenance free - it needs raking etc. A couple down the road have it. I think they had it down, mainly because they go to Canada twice a year to see their daughter and family, for a couple of months each time.

I was listening to a programme, the presenter was talking about hose pipe bans and said ..”Oh just think how bad fake grass must smell in when the ban is in place”. I don’t like fake grass but that thought hadn't dawned on me! Add in pee and poo….not pleasant!

I have a landscaper who us going to do some work for me. He told me he laid fake grass for a family that had a couple of dogs. They asked him to pull it up and lay real grass 6 months later. He said it was revolting especially when one of the dogs peed on it.

Fake grass is generally not a good idea. As others have said it is hot for little paws also it is no good for wildlife. Birds cannot peck for worms and insects, hedgehogs and other small mammals could ingest it and die. If it degrades then bits of plastic will get into your soil and could cause damage to all the creatures and the environment for hundreds of years. If grass is no good then have you thought about a layer of bark or gravel? You could grow plants through those and they wouldn’t harm the environment.