Turf on stone and sand

cens2008

Hi,

We are currently having our garden done. The current plan is to have artificial grass put down as we have dogs and felt it would be better. However after looking at a few sites last night I read that in the summer/heat the artificial grass can become a lot hotter than grass and can bubble/shrink. Appreciate there's no guarantee of sun here but wouldn't want to put something down which we then can't let the dogs on in the heat, or the children sit on. 
The stone is down for the artificial grass and we have the sane ready, if we were to change our minds to turf instead could we lay the turf on the stone or would we have to start again and remove the stone?

Any help is appreciated 

Thanks

twopenny

I'd be inclined to remove the stone and put down soil otherwise the turf will dry out immediately.

Nowhere for the roots to go means dog wee will kill the area.

Artificial turf needs cleaning a lot, sweeping (or daily hovering in one ladys case :-) if the dogs soil it you'll need to clean it where when they wee on real turf it vanishes into the soil.

Someone who has this artificial turf will hopefully answer in more detail.

Is it the top quality stuff or cheaper? I think that will make a difference.

cens2008

twopenny said:

I'd be inclined to remove the stone and put down soil otherwise the turf will dry out immediately.

Nowhere for the roots to go means dog wee will kill the area.

Artificial turf needs cleaning a lot, sweeping (or daily hovering in one ladys case :-) if the dogs soil it you'll need to clean it where when they wee on real turf it vanishes into the soil.

Someone who has this artificial turf will hopefully answer in more detail.

Is it the top quality stuff or cheaper? I think that will make a difference.

Thanks for the reply. We would look to put top soil on the stone before the turf would that work? Hoping it would help drainage because that was an issue before.

It was a better quality one that we were looking at which is specifically designed for pets and has some sort of antibacterial backing.....although this could be a bit gimmicky. Thinking it through although dog wee can kill yhe grass if we have to water/clean the artificial then if we were to water the turf it would prevent the grass from dying? Or help it at least

twopenny

My front lawn was turf over stone thanks to the builders.
It's ok but starts to dry to yellow in summer. I can put up with that as it comes back with some decent rain.
Yes, I'd think the anti bacterial is probably life limited.
It would be interesting to do a patch test using the artificial stuff but that's probably not a money saving idea.

[Deleted User]

I have artificial grass and it don't brush it, it is left to look after itself which it does perfectly, it's not an area which is walked on though so nothing gets introduced to the area e.g. muddy paws/foreign objects/etc.

sheramber

Unless your lawn is large dog wee will always be a problem. I fenced off an area in my garden for the dogs to use so children could play on the grass safely. The dogs learned to go in that place just as they learned not go inside. 

Working_Mum

I recently removed half of the artificial grass in my garden - I dug out the sand and then removed the weed membrane which was underneath. I tamped down the sand so it was nice and flat and then turfed over it - the difference in how my dogs use the garden is amazing. It's been cool during the summer heat and they lol all over it!! I've not had an issue with any markings because of wee and collect the solid stuff as I water the garden each evening.

The artifical grass went on to be used as a vertical fence covering for a disabled children's charity - after a good clean it covered up an awful metal fence - I was simply pleased it didn't end up in landfill as artificial grass is toxic to the environment,