# My DIY turf project.



## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

Our front yard has a small patch of lawn (approx. 250 sq. ft.). It's where our dogs go for their business 
in between walks. So the lawn always looks terrible. Not up the TLF standards that's for sure. I did our boulevard with turf a few years ago and it has held up well so I decided to do the front yard.
It's not a hard job but it is manual labour that's for sure. 
I started by hitting it with Roundup a couple months ago to kill the grass and make it easier to dig up. 
Forgot to take some pics of how bad the lawn looked, sorry.
Next step was to rototill it to about 5" dp. to cut down on the grunt work.



After I removed the soil. My neighbour had a nice spot for me to dump it so I saved having to haul it away.



Then I brought in 3 yds. of road base to replace the soil and allow for good drainage. I used a plastic no dig edging to define the area and keep it all neat and tidy. Compacted it with a small plate compactor and left it for a week or so so some rain would help it pack and settle. Put a top 1" layer of sand to make it easier to fine tune things and make it dead flat.





Next was to lay down the turf and prep and glue the seams.



Once the seams were dry, I pegged it down around the perimeter with 6" galv. nails and trimmed it 
to fit the edging. Then using a drop spreader, I spread a granular infill that is specific for pets as it neutralizes the odours and keeps the turf cooler in hot weather. That gets raked in to get it to the bottom and lift the blades upright. 
Heres the finished project. Looks great, dogs seem to love it and NO MORE BROWN SPOTS!





Now all that's left is to redesign the flower beds as we did these beds many years ago and they need a fresh look and something to hide the ugly fence the neighbour is too cheap to help pay replace. 
That's a springtime project.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Nice work!! If my lawn turns to crap I'll be calling you @Shindoman to help me install artificial turf. It looks awesome.


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## Suburban Jungle Life (Mar 1, 2018)

Wow. Looks so neat and clean!


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## ctrav (Aug 18, 2018)

Nicely done and low maintenance...


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## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

That really looks amazing. How difficult was gluing the seams and getting them to blend?


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## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

TN Hawkeye said:


> That really looks amazing. How difficult was gluing the seams and getting them to blend?


It just takes a little patience. They give you a 12" wide strip of backing fabric to lay down. They sell a specific glue 
but it is expensive and I've met professional turf installers on some of my jobsites and they just use a quality construction adhesive in caulking tubes such as PL Premium. You have to take care to lay the turf down with the pattern going in the same direction and make sure the pcs butt together tightly and do not overlap. Spread the glue, lay it down and make sure the blades of grass are not in the way. There are lots of DIY videos on You Tube.


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## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

Shindoman said:


> TN Hawkeye said:
> 
> 
> > That really looks amazing. How difficult was gluing the seams and getting them to blend?
> ...


I tend to watch a lot of you tube videos that have nothing to do with anything I'm doing so I've watched a bunch of artificial turf installs and they always make the seems look easy. I was just curious from a diy guy how difficult they really are. Thanks for the reply.


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## dacoyne (May 27, 2018)

How often do you have to cut it? Congrats on LOTM!


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## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

dacoyne said:


> How often do you have to cut it? Congrats on LOTM!


I keep it doused with PGR. It never seems to grow?


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## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

dacoyne said:


> How often do you have to cut it? Congrats on LOTM!


I keep it doused with PGR. It never seems to grow? Thanks!


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## dacoyne (May 27, 2018)

Shindoman said:


> Shindoman said:
> 
> 
> > dacoyne said:
> ...


That makes sense, I should have known


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## dfw_pilot (Jan 28, 2017)

Looks awesome!


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## Mattsbay_18 (Aug 3, 2018)

Turf looks awesome, great job!

Before you go covering up your fence, it might be worth the money to blast it with a pressure washer and apply some fresh stain. While you're at it, blast those landscape rocks to remove the moss.


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## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

I won't spend any time fixing that fence, it's 20 yrs old. Never use a pressure washer on cedar. It pushes out all the natural oils and makes the fence rot faster. I want to build a new fence to match what I did in the back yard a couple years ago.


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

@Shindoman

Love your wood fence.

What type of fence is that?

Did you build it yourself or can it be purchased?

Also...love the way your lawn and landscape looks....its beautiful!


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## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

ENC_Lawn said:


> @Shindoman
> 
> Love your wood fence.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the compliment. I built the fence myself out of Prime grade Select Tight Knot Cedar. Spent a lot of extra time machining and sanding everything. Put 2 coats of stain on all the boards on all sides before I assembled the fence. I sandwiched the bottom boards so there is no horizontal surface for water to pool on. Did not pre assemble the panels and used screws rather than nails on everything except the 
Small battens. Spent approx. $7000 on material to do 150 ft of fence. I am a carpenter by profession but a fence is a simple project for any DIY'er. Just spend the extra time to do it right.


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

Shindoman said:


> ENC_Lawn said:
> 
> 
> > @Shindoman
> ...


 :thumbup:


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## NJ-lawn (Jun 25, 2018)

How often do you stain the fence to keep it looking like that? Is it deck stain? What do you think of marine varnish?


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