HOW TO INSTALL SYNTHETIC GRASS // DIY Artificial Grass

[Music] brent here with bring your own tools on today's episode if you want to learn how to install your own beautiful synthetic lawn from start to finish we'll keep on watching let's get started now i know what you're asking yourself brent why would you ever want to change out this beautiful grass yeah i know it's pretty rough it's the summer it's hot i don't water my grass and in all honesty it does turn green once it starts raining again however i just don't want this ever to be an eyesore so therefore i decided to do a turf lawn now the first step to take on when trying to transition between grass to turf is to remove the grass now there's a number of different ways to do this whether it's literally by shovel which i showcased in my oxbox project so if you do want to take a look at how i did that check out that video but on a larger scale of grass removal i highly suggest using a sod cutter now this thing is a bit unwieldy but it makes life a lot easier because it perfectly cuts out strips of your grass now this particular saw cutter cuts 12 inch strips and therefore once you do cut them all you have to do is roll them up now if you haven't removed grass before it's surprisingly heavy this yard is approximately 18 by 45 feet long and this was approximately 3 000 pounds of grass and soil that we removed and you have to also consider the fact that this is the dead of summer and this grass is extremely dry so there's no moisture in it as well as the fact that i tried to loosen up as much of the soil as possible on these sod rolls prior to filling up my truck with it oh my oh my that was a long couple of days and as you can see a lot of work goes into just removing the grass and looking oh so beautiful dirt but we did do two loads of the dump we got a third one right here let's get this rocking and rolling and then onto leveling now you can rent a dumpster for soil removal however it's a lot cheaper if you bring the soil directly to a distributor where actually they recycle the soil this yard actually recycles grass and sod into pure soil that they can then sell directly to customers and as you can see i had my truck mate stella today now as for the yard itself it's never going to be perfectly level because the street itself is not level that is the high spot that's the low spot and the way to get around this is that we want to make sure it's as flat as possible which is why i made a little makeshift screed system now this screed system is a perfect way to flatten a large area like this in simplistic terms it's basically dragging on the high spots making them lower as well as at the same time filling in the low spots and that will flatten this yard extremely quickly and easily and if you want another example of this please check out my how to grow grass video because that showcases a much larger version of this same exact usage at this point just to do a quick tidy up i would suggest going over the entire surface with a rake just to clean up all the miscellaneous particles that were left behind that we did not get in the truck now on the north side of my yard there is a large rockery retaining wall however it doesn't go all the way across so i figured taking some extra rock and actually making a divider between my yard and my neighbor's yard is an easy way to transition between the two yards i also did a bit of extra digging right at the edge of the street in order to make sure that no grass is going to be growing on the edges because those are going to be your weak points within the system now on to the next day we get our rock delivery now in my area this is specifically called quarter inch crushed minus rock and it's a perfect rock to drain rain water easily as well as be compacted properly and those will come in handy very soon so now that we have the entire yard fully leveled out at least as much as possible we now need to add some type of weed and grass killer now this is a concentrate this is actually a one to one so you can basically put this into your hopper like so and spray it instantly this stuff you do need to add water too so just note itself on that one let's get to it now for a yard this size you're easily able to use a hand pump sprayer like this to go and coat over the entire surface of the yard now i just want to make sure every single inch gets sprayed because i don't want anything growing up after i apply my weed barrier now comes time for our grass weed barrier now specifically this is a very extremely important step to this project because no matter what throughout the years you don't want any of the weeds to come through the turf and therefore a barrier is very perfect because the water can actually seep through easily with this barrier but it stops weeds and grass from growing and literally the only thing that i've seen this thing can't stop is bamboo now there are multiple different types of wheat berries out there but i strongly suggest trying to find one that's more fabric based there's a lot of plastic versions however the plus ones seem to degrade quickly and don't last as long as these large heavy-duty fabric versions and i will leave links in the description box below on where to actually purchase these ones now i overlapped the seams approximately two to three inches for each row one because it just makes things a little bit easier to tidy up with the spikes two there's less chance of grass and weeds to grow through as for the galvanized spikes i place them three to four feet apart as well as on each end and that suffices plenty for this install and there you have it our beautiful weed block fully installed each seam has a nice little overlap with those stakes and now all i have to do is start with rock now at this point i highly suggest getting someone to give you a helping hand and in my case this is my father so i do apologize for putting them through so much work on this project but definitely came in very handy especially when i have a newborn at home able to get things done a little bit quicker now for this project we have five yards of crushed rock and therefore we have to spread this out evenly and accordingly the number one tool that i always suggest having on hand at this point is a hard faced rake now the rig itself makes quick work of spreading this product evenly consistently because the fork side you're able to move a large amount of the rock however you can use the back side to actually smooth it out consistently all the way across the yard now the directions suggest having two to three inches of crushed rock and if you need a bulk material calculator for this i will leave one in the description box below because you want to ensure that you're ordering the correct amount we didn't because we actually ordered a yard too short and therefore my truck had to do a little bit of extra work [Music] now if the yard isn't perfectly flat at this point it's okay because that's where our screed comes in extra handy because we can now go over the surface again and flatten out it even further just making life a lot easier when trying to flatten a large space like this in a very easy and affordable way now it's time to compact well first we have to water yes i know watering doesn't seem like the normal thing to do at this point but it makes the compacting process a lot easier and it just binds the rock a little bit better the device that i'm using here is specifically called a plate compactor and it's basically just a heavy motor that rests on top of a steel plate and it vibrates yeah it basically continuously vibrates when you turn it on and therefore it compacts the earth below it due to the weight and the vibration now this unit that i'm using is also very nice because the big yellow thing in front is actually a water tank i fill up the water tank and it actually spills out water as you're proceeding forward that way it just makes sure that the material that you're compacting is properly damp [Music] now unfortunately with a project like this a once-over is not going to do the trick i went over this entire yard three times to make sure i had proper compaction over the entire space now this is a very vital step in the process of installing a turf yard because if you don't have a solid proper base then the turf itself just won't feel good and over time it might become extremely lumpy due the fact that you did not compact the base properly and as a side note if you have some funny corners you can't get into thoroughly with play compactor use a sledgehammer it works perfect now look at how nicely compacted this entire space is i went over three times fully with our plate compactor which worked out very nicely took you know an hour or two but we got it done now where's the grass [Music] [Music] and there we go grass finally here and as you can see it's a large roll now this is smart turf and the reason why we went with this product specifically is because it has a micro band product now this is an anti-microbial type aspect to the grass that's built into the grass the antimicrobial is a big deal especially if you have pets which i definitely do as you can see now this is really nice because it's built into the system and therefore you don't have to worry about it being more of a bacteria cesspool over time with other turfs now there's always a number of other different reasons why we're going with this grass and specifically the beauty of this grass and the fact that it's so luscious is pretty amazing for the fact that it's not grass because mainly due to the fact that it's different shapes different sizes different colors it's s shaped it's ribbed everything in between just to make sure it feels good and it looks good so let's get installed now this grass is also made in the united states as well as has a 15-year warranty which is extremely significant in the industry they also manufacture playground athletic turf and even putting greens so please check out their amazing product line through the link in the description box below if you are interested in your turf project now this is definitely another point where you want a helping hand because this roll itself is over 600 pounds and you will need someone to help you finagle these rolls into position now the span that i have across the yard is 18 feet wide so i'm actually cutting the rolls about 18 and a half feet so i know i have plenty of extra waste between the two sides the easiest way to do this in my opinion was to measure out 18 and a half feet mark them with tape then take a straight edge or in my case a level and use a very sharp razor blade to cut through the grass as well as through the tarp underneath it now i would also highly suggest applying some type of backer board to the bottom there because you want something that's more wood based than asphalt base to cut into now as you're dragging these rolls of grass into position you also want to be mindful of the direction the grass is going now there is a specific direction that i would suggest angling the grass towards the grass is slanted slightly due to the fact that it's in a roll and therefore if the turf is angled towards you or towards the house it's a bit darker and a bit more natural if it's angled away from you or in my case towards my rockery it's a little bit lighter and less natural so therefore i want it to be less visible just keep that in mind and no matter what direction it does look beautiful but note to self now you might be asking yourself why did we not just roll out this entire thing all at once well it's because this span as in the yard span is 18 feet wide these rolls only 15 feet wide therefore we'd have to have a really weird narrow section on one side this way we don't have to worry about that and there's a lot less waste with this type of application now is time we actually have to splice them together though because we have them all set in place we actually want to cut a couple rows in and therefore we know for certain that we're not going to screw up any of those rows and we'll have fresh clean rows to splice together so let's get to it now the underside tarp is very easy to cut however just make sure you have a brand new crisp blade in your knife because if you don't it might look a little jagged and you want perfectly crisp lines or at least as crisp as possible at this point the grass rows themselves actually make it very easy for you to cut very straight lines as well because you're just following the direction of the grass and therefore if you're able to cut those rows perfectly as you can see here then it makes it a lot easier to splice together keep in mind that i'm only doing the middle sections because i want to keep the excess at the ends in order to cut those lasts now once we have all middle sections cleanly cut or easily able to drag the sheets of turf together and make sure they butt up appropriately at this point i would just advise and double check that you have excess material on both the house side as well as the street side because those will be cut last but now the fun part are magnum brad common nails which are five inches long and these bad boys are hefty for good reason now as you're cutting the turf end i'm diligent about nailing the turf down every four to six inches that ensures that you have proper support and security over the entire span and it won't be going and moving on you throughout the years i specifically do this to the rock area first because this is going to be the more time consuming intrusive part of this entire project now again making sure you have a very nice sharp razor blade doesn't make quick work of this seam cut but it does make things a little bit easier which i can always appreciate especially with a project of this size now the only other tool that i'm somewhat using throughout this entire space is some heavy duty gardening shears and works perfectly in very tight-knit areas so keep that in mind if you do want something other than just a sharp knife now the next step in this project is to actually apply some seam tape now this is a seam tape roll specifically designed for turf because you want these two seams to never come apart so we're gonna put this tape down then we're going to use this adhesive that's specifically designed for this type of turf and that makes certain that these two seams will never be coming apart anytime soon especially after we stake them in the ground after that now this process is pretty self-explanatory however the one thing i do suggest is actually nailing down the seam tape first because as you roll and apply the adhesive to the seam tape it will definitely move on you if you don't nail it down properly so go ahead and nail it down first then apply your seam adhesive once your seam tape is fully coated i then proceed to rolling over one side of the grass first and then the other just account for the fact that you don't want any of the grass particles to be touching adhesive the only thing that should be touching the adhesive is the bottom of the turf now once all sections of the turf are in place i then stake both sides in place approximately four to six inches apart at this point with both middle sections fully secure and in place i then proceed to the remaining perimeter of the lawn now the rest of this entire span is extremely easy because one it's already straight to the fact that this is the side that we cut previously when it was in a large roll and then as we hit the house side of the lawn we're easily able to cut and transfer the shape of the lawn that we need to because we have a brick perimeter as for the small cute little corner that we have luckily i was able to take the waste from the opposite side and transfer that to that small corner this fit perfectly just make sure you have the grass pointing the same direction as everything else i personally almost pointed it the wrong direction but before i cut i always double check just to ensure the fact that those grass particles were pointing the right direction now three sides down one to go and this of course is the street side of our turf assembly now if you're cutting the grass this direction you just want to make sure that you're cutting in between the grass seams because if you don't cut in between the grass seams then the grass itself is going to become loose and all you're going to see is that black strip at the very edge of your grass which is not wanted but guess what at this point our grass is fully installed however we have one large heavy situation we have to account for at this point now this is our smart fill yes we have to actually now fill our turf with smart fill in order to account for the weight of the soil yes the soil because if you don't put this down then you basically just have a large tarp that has turf on top of it and it's very loose however if you apply a large copious amount of fill on top of your turf then it's going to feel like a natural lawn and that's exactly why we need to be diligent about spreading our turf fill on our turf now as you look more closely at the smart fill it's actually made up of very small plastic looking type beads but the main difference between this product and a normal turf sand is the fact that this also has the antimicrobial aspect to it which reduces odor and urine especially if you have pets around and if you can think of sand being basically just a large kitty box you don't want that just sitting around for years and years now as for spreading this material on i highly suggest using a small walk behind spreader like this one it makes the job a lot easier on your body and two it also spreads the fill out more evenly which is a huge help in the long run because it does take some time to make sure that all these little particles gets worked into the grass evenly now with that said i also add a extra layer on all the outer edges of the turf because i want to make sure that there's a proper amount of fill on these edges as well as the fact that you probably want a little extra weight on those edges in order to ensure that nothing becomes loose over time or at least there's less likelihood of doing so now i just spread close to 1500 pounds of fill on this grass so that shows you how much weight is needed in order for turf to feel like actual grass now a perfect tool to use when trying to get all this infill fully smoothed out as you can see right in there is a hard bristle brush or broom so if you keep on going back and forth like this all those little granules as you can see basically just perfectly smooth out and they completely disappear because it's in film now versus over here we have that section over it a couple times with a broom and voila gone now let's do the rest now the broom really does do an amazing job at dispersing the fill evenly throughout the grass however on more detailed areas especially around the rockery you will definitely have to use your hand as well as potentially a paintbrush which i found very helpful especially in those tight-knit corners around the rocks now this fill is also green so it does make it very easy to blend in evenly with green grass obviously now with the finishing touches all i had to do is readjust my rocks into the grass naturally and in all honesty this was a very easy process and looked amazing and of course the final touch my last watering yes the last watering but guess what after that is complete we are done [Music] my now this project is not only kona proof but apparently neighbor approved as well because every single one of my neighbors has come up to me already and said how incredible this yard looks the transformation is incredible between what it looked like before to what it looks like now it is an amazing transformation and one that not only adds beauty and value to your home but you're also conserving water which is better from the environment as well as saving time because you're not mowing the lawn or pulling weeds for that matter because who likes to do that now if you are considering doing a turf project please check out smart turf because i love working with brands that truly appreciate and love to work with content creators such as myself and that's what they are plus they supply a superior product and as you can see this is one beautiful sexy beast oh yeah

Channel: BYOT

Views: 2,298,403

Keywords: byotools, diy, do it yourself, how to, artificial grass, diy artificial grass, how to install artificial grass, synthetic grass, synthetic turf, turf, diy turf, diy synthetic turf, how to install synthetic turf, artificial grass installation, best artificial grass, fake grass, artificial turf, diy artificial turf, how to install artificial turf, start to finish, home improvement, how to install smartturf, how to install smart turf, turf installation, how to install fake grass

Id: zAQvAUc-dLU

Length: 23min 49sec (1429 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020