5 Ways to Prolong the Lifespan of Your Artificial Lawn

5 Ways to Prolong the Lifespan of Your Artificial Lawn

Artificial grass is an excellent investment in your property and there is a whole host of benefits that an artificial lawn will bring to your garden.

But to get the most from your investment, it’s very important to ensure that your fake grass lasts long into the future.

If properly maintained and used correctly, a good quality artificial grass will last somewhere between 15 and 20 years, even with frequent use.

By far the best way to ensure that your artificial lawn has the longest lifespan possible is to ensure that it is properly installed in the first place.

Assuming you have chosen a good quality artificial grass, you’ll find that some of the problems that can occur a few years down the line are not due to the artificial grass itself, but to the installation.

Therefore, you should be sure to choose a good installer from the outset or, if going down the DIY route, make sure you learn about the installation process before attempting to lay an artificial lawn.

Lets see how the 5-ways-to-prolong-the-lifespan-of-your-artificial-lawn work –

1. Regularly Maintain Your Artificial Lawn

The most important way to ensure your newly laid artificial grass remains in top condition well into the future is to keep it properly maintained.

Some artificial grass manufacturers and installers claim that artificial grass is ‘completely maintenance free’.

As much as we would all like it to be, unfortunately this is not entirely true.

Anything that is exposed to the elements will have a certain degree of maintenance involved.

However, fear not, as maintaining an artificial lawn will take a fraction of the time it takes to maintain a real lawn.

The days of trudging up and down the garden mowing the grass will be a thing of the past.

Remove Leaves and Debris

It’s inevitable that leaves and other garden debris will find their way on to your artificial lawn.

This is certainly no cause for concern as it will not damage or discolour your fake grass in any way.

However, it is advisable to remove debris on a regular basis as leaves and other dead matter can cause weed growth on the surface of your artificial grass.

Debris can be removed either with a broom, plastic rake or leaf blower/vacuum.

Should any airborne seeds land on your lawn and grow into a weed, these can be very easily removed by hand.

So long as a weed membrane has been installed underneath your fake lawn, weeds will not be able to grow up through your synthetic grass.

Keep It Clean

When it comes to keeping your artificial lawn clean, generally nature does a pretty good job of this for you when it rains.

However, during extended periods of little rainfall, it may require the occasional hosing down.

There is also a range of specialist artificial grass cleaning products available that can be used on your fake lawn and, although these products aren’t entirely necessary, you may find them useful, particularly if your artificial lawn receives heavy use.

Brush Your Lawn Regularly

To ensure the plastic fibres of your artificial lawn remain in the best condition, it’s important to brush your artificial lawn occasionally with a stiff broom.

If you look closely, you’ll notice that the fibres on your artificial lawn are all leaning slightly in one direction.

This is completely normal and we advise you to brush against or into the fibre direction. This will lift and reinvigorate the fibres.

For larger artificial lawns or those that are in particularly bad condition, you may want to consider hiring a mechanical brush.

However, for most fake lawns a stiff broom will more than suffice, but you should make sure that you do not use any form of brush that has metal bristles as they will damage the synthetic fibres.

2. Rotate Heavy Equipment to Ensure Even Wear

Artificial grass is great for a wide variety of activities, including sports, garden parties or just relaxing in the sunshine with a glass of wine.

To prolong the life of your artificial lawn it’s important to ensure that your AstroTurf wears evenly.

Football mad children will love playing football on their artificial lawn as they’ll feel like they are playing on the perfectly manicured turf at Wembley. Because of this, football goals are a very popular feature for artificial lawns.

You’ll need to bear in mind that goalmouths are high impact areas and it therefore stands to reason that the artificial grass in this area will wear quicker than other parts.

Therefore, it’s important to ensure that football goals are moved around on a regular basis to ensure even wear.

The same also goes for any item of garden furniture, such as sunloungers.

Its normal for the fibres to lie flat after a heavy object has been placed on top of them. However they can be brushed back to an upright position using a stiff broom.

If your lawn is going to have objects of garden furniture on it or receive heavy foot traffic, we highly recommend that you choose an artificial lawn with Instant Recovery technology.

This will mean that your artificial grass has been manufactured using nylon fibres (the strongest type of synthetic fibre used in artificial grass manufacturing) and has been specifically designed to withstand heavy items of garden furniture and frequent usage.

3. Remove Stains When They Occur

The best way to deal with stains on your artificial lawn is to treat them as soon as they occur. This gives you your best chance of avoiding permanent staining.

Some of most common causes of staining are:

• Ketchup
• Tea and coffee
• Red wine
• Fizzy drinks
• Ice cream
• Paint

Fortunately, these types of stain can be easily dealt with.

Again, be sure to treat any spillages immediately after they have occurred.

Excess liquids can be blotted with kitchen towel, a clean cloth or a dry absorbent, such as cat litter, which can then be vacuumed off the artificial lawn afterwards.

If a stain has dried or hardened, it can be removed with a plastic spatula or knife. Never use any metal objects as this can damage the plastic fibres.

Household detergent, such as washing up liquid, will be more than sufficient when dealing with any of the above stains and should be applied using a clean cloth.

Oil-based stains, such as sun cream, cooking oil, chewing gum or nail polish, will need to be treated with a small amount of white spirit applied using clean a cloth, after which you should wipe the affect area.

Be very careful with white spirit and be sure to use it sparingly.

4. Prevent Burn Marks

To ensure you artificial grass is fire-resistant it should be tested to Cfl-s1 standards

When choosing an artificial grass it is always important to choose one that is fire-resistant.

However, just because an artificial grass is fire-resistant, it doesn’t mean that fire or hot objects will not harm your artificial grass.

If a fire-resistant artificial grass is subjected to heat it will not catch fire, but the heat will melt the synthetic fibres.

Should this happen to your artificial lawn, it will cause permanent damage. This damage can be repaired, but it’s best to avoid it happening in the first place.

Although there are many things that can cause your artificial grass to melt, there are three main culprits within a garden environment:

Cigarette Burns

Cigarettes should not be smoked on artificial grass. Burning tobacco and ash can fall from cigarettes, which can then melt the fibres.

BBQs

BBQs should be kept well clear of artificial grass.

We recommend that they should be kept at least 10 feet from your artificial lawn as accidents can happen and the last thing you want is for your BBQ to be knocked over and the hot coals to land on your synthetic grass, causing permanent damage.

The best place for your BBQ is on a patio or other inflammable surface.

Window Reflections

With a good quality artificial grass there will only be minimal colour fading over the years.

However, when artificial grass is exposed to sunlight reflected off windows and other shiny objects, it can cause the colour of your artificial grass to fade rather quickly and, worst case, the magnification effect also has the potential to melt the plastic fibres.

To prevent this from happening, make sure that shiny garden objects do not reflect any sunlight on to your artificial lawn..

5. Apply a Sand Infill

We recommend that a sand infill is applied to all our artificial grass products.

You may have heard of some fake grasses that claim to be ‘non-sand-infill’ products.

However, there are many reasons why you should install a silica sand infill to your artificial lawn; those that recommend you don’t bother are usually only doing so to save on installation costs.

For the purposes of this article, the take home message is that applying a sand infill to your fake grass will ensure that your artificial lawn will not only perform better, but also look better.

Here are some of the many reasons why you should install silica sand infill on your fake grass:

• It will protect the fibres and ensure they remain upright
• It will prevent rippling
• It will increase fire-resistance
• It will improve drainage
• It will keep your lawn cooler
• It will increase security
• It will protect the latex back
• It will help prevent static

5 Ways to Prolong the Lifespan of Your Artificial Lawn – we can help you learn more by contacting us

Or see our other grass ranges at Eligrass