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Calculators / Lawn and turf

What artificial turf should you get?

Tell us what it’s for. You’ll get the pile height, face weight, fiber and infill to look for on a spec sheet, and whether you need a specialty turf like pet turf, putting turf or a playground system.

Updated · How we check our numbers

These are example numbers. Put in yours.

The turf

What’s it mostly for?
Will dogs use it too?

Regular turf works

Landscape turf

Longer, softer blades look most like a lawn. SYNLawn’s SYNBlue is 1½ in at 55 oz; SYNFescue 1¾ in at 80 oz.

Pile height
1¼ to 1¾ in
Face weight
50 to 80 oz/sq yd
Specialty?
No
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Estimate for planning only, not professional advice. Check the manufacturer’s instructions, your local code and a licensed professional before you buy, build or install. Use at your own risk. Terms.

How much turf, infill and base?Rolls, seams, infill and base rock for your area.

What to look for on the spec sheet

Landscape turf
  • Pile heightBlade length above the backing
    1¼ to 1¾ in
  • Face weightYarn per square yard
    50 to 80 oz/sq yd
  • FiberPolyethylene, often with a thatch layer
    Polyethylene
  • InfillSand: 2.5 to 3.5 lb/sq ft at 1½ to 1¾ in pile (Envirofill); 1 to 2 lb (Home Depot guide)
    Yes
  • Products like thisSYNLawn SYNBlue 545, SYNFescue 80
    Spec sheets below

Ranges across maker spec sheets, not one brand.

Dogs too

Dogs change the turf: look for a flow-through backing and a fast drainage rating, nail the edges every 4 to 6 in instead of 8 to 12 (SYNLawn), and skip weed cloth (Home Depot guide). SYNLawn recommends zeolite to control odor. If dogs are the main use, pick pet turf.

Reading face weight

Face weight is ounces of yarn per square yard; higher is denser. TigerTurf notes its figure includes the yarn woven into the backing, so compare within one maker’s sheets.

How we work it out

Every artificial turf has a spec sheet. Four numbers on it matter most: pile height, the blade length; face weight, ounces of yarn per square yard, so higher is denser; the fiber; and the infill it's meant to have.

The ranges here come from maker spec sheets across each kind of turf: SYNLawn and Southwest Greens landscape and putting turf, ForeverLawn's K9Grass and SportsGrass, TigerTurf's field turf, and Dollamur gym turf. Landscape turf runs long and soft, 1¼ to 1¾ in. Pet turf is short and dense, ⅞ to 1¼ in, often nylon, with a backing that drains thousands of inches an hour and sometimes no infill at all. Putting turf is ⅜ to ½ in.

Under a swing set or climber, the turf isn't what protects a child; the pad under it is. CPSC's playground handbook lists grass as not protective and accepts any surface tested to ASTM F1292, with a rated critical height at least as high as the tallest equipment. Ask the maker for that test data.

Face weights aren't always measured the same way, so compare them within one maker's line.

Where the numbers come from

Then

Real grass instead?

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