Lawn and landscape
Artificial turf installation cost
Artificial turf runs about $14.40 a square foot installed, and the base underneath is most of it. This counts rolls that cannot be turned round, the compacted base, infill by the pound, and what a dog changes about all three.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-16 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
What are you covering?
12' 6", 12.5 and 12-6 all work
Read as 40' × 24' = 960 ft², 128 ft of perimeter
The default and the cheapest. It weighs the turf down and holds the blades up, and it is porous enough to drain — but it holds odour where a dog uses the same spot.
Blank uses the full perimeter, 128 ft.
Used only to pick a regional labour rate. It stays in your browser.
You need
1,080 ft²
960 ft² of lawn · 3 strips of 24 ft · 13% waste
Running the rolls the other way would cost 120 ft² more
Turf comes in 15 ft rolls and the pile lies one way, so every piece has to run in the same direction and an offcut cannot be turned round to fit. Which way the strips run is the only free decision in an artificial lawn, and it is made before anything is ordered.
Which way the rolls run
Same garden, same product. The pile direction means this cannot be fixed afterwards.
- Strips along the width — cheaper
3 strips of 24 ft · 48 ft of seam1,080 ft²
13% waste - Strips along the length
2 strips of 40 ft · 40 ft of seam1,200 ft²
25% waste
Shopping list
- Turf, 15 ft rolls
3 strips of 24 ft running along the width — 13% waste. The pile lies one way, so no piece can be turned round.1,080 ft² - Compacted base, crusher run
14.2 yd³ loose. Excavate 14.8 yd³ to make room.20.6 tons - Silica sand, 1.5 lb per ft²
The default and the cheapest. It weighs the turf down and holds the blades up, and it is porous enough to drain — but it holds odour where a dog uses the same spot.1,440 lb · 29 bags - Perimeter nailer and spikes
Something solid to fasten the edge to. It is where an artificial lawn fails first.128 ft · 384 spikes - Seam tape and adhesive
2 seams between strips, taped and glued under the backing48 ft - Weed barrier and staples
Barrier under the base, staples through the turf into compacted stone1,056 ft² · 720
60% of this is not turf
It is a patio with grass on top, and the patio is most of the job.
- Turf itself$4,860
- Excavation and base$722
- Infill$202
- Edging$307
- Barrier, seams, fixings$501
- Stripping the old lawn$528
- Labour$6,720
Still deciding? The lawn calculator runs this against real sod and seed over twenty years, water included — and the answer is less flattering to turf than the marketing.
What it costs
National average. Turf, base, infill, edging, fixings, stripping the old lawn and installation.
$14.42 per ft². Over 36 years, with 1 replacement of the turf but not of the base, it comes to $22,933.
Worth knowing
- Sold in 15 ft rolls with the pile lying one way. Every piece has to run in the same direction or the colour changes between them in daylight, which is why offcuts cannot simply be turned to fit. On this lawn that is worth real money: running the strips along the 24 ft side buys 1,080 ft² of turf, and the other way round it is 1,200 — 120 ft² of difference on the same garden.
- What you are buying is mostly not turf. Groundwork — excavation, base, edging and the labour to compact and lay it — is 60% of this figure. Artificial grass is a patio with grass on top, and the patio is the part that decides whether it stays flat.
- The edge is where an artificial lawn fails. Turf shrinks and expands, and without something solid to fasten to along the perimeter — a treated timber nailer or a bender board — it lifts, and once it lifts it never lies flat again.
- There are 48 ft of seam here, across 3 strips. A seam is the detail that separates a professional job from an obvious one: tape and adhesive under the backing, the edges trimmed between the stitch rows so no double row of tufts shows, and the pile blended across the join.
- Rated for about 18 years. It is not permanent, it cannot be patched invisibly, and replacing it means removing several thousand pounds of plastic — though the base underneath survives and does not have to be built twice.
On this page — 9 sections
- 01Fifteen foot rolls with a grain
- 02What you are buying is mostly not grass
- 03The infill decides more than people expect
- 04Edges and seams, which is what people notice
- 05What it is actually good at
- 06What artificial turf installation costs per square foot
- 07Five ways this goes wrong
- 08How the calculator works it out
- 09The words on an artificial grass quote
Fifteen foot rolls with a grain
The short version
- The pile leans. Every piece runs the same way, so an offcut cannot be turned round — which makes the roll direction the only free decision.
- It is a patio with grass on top. Groundwork is most of the bill.
- Infill is not optional. 1.5 lb per ft², or the pile lies flat within a season.
- The edge is where it fails. Something solid to fasten to, all the way round.
Artificial grass is sold by the square foot and delivered in rolls 15 feet wide. That alone would make the waste a question of how the garden divides into fifteen. There is a second constraint that makes it much sharper.
The blades lean. Every one on a roll lies in the same direction, and light catches a piece laid the other way completely differently — two pieces of the same product, facing opposite ways, read as two different colours in daylight. So every piece runs the same way, and a leftover strip cannot be rotated ninety degrees to fill a gap.
What that leaves is one decision, made before anything is ordered: which way the strips run.
purchased ft² = ceil(across ÷ 15) × 15 × along
- across
- the dimension the strips are laid across
- along
- the dimension each strip runs
- 15
- the roll width, 15 ft
Worked through — A 40 × 24 ft garden. Strips along the width: 3 of them, 1,080 ft², 13% waste. Strips the other way: 2, 1,200 ft², 25%. Same garden, same product, 120 ft² of difference — decided by which way the rolls were unrolled.
Synthetic turf manufacturers, Artificial turf installation specifications · checked 2026-09-16
What you are buying is mostly not grass
The commonest mistake in pricing artificial turf is treating it as a covering. It is not a covering — it is a surface laid on a built base, and the base is most of the work.
Under it goes 4 inches of compacted crushed aggregate over a weed barrier, on soil that has been dug out and graded to fall. That is an excavation, a delivery of stone, a plate compactor and several cubic yards of spoil to get rid of before any grass arrives. It is the same base rock a patio needs, priced by the gravel calculator.
Skip it and the turf follows every dip the ground develops, holds water in the low spots, and grows weeds up through the backing from the soil it is lying on.
Under the turf, in order
- Existing grass and soil excavated to the depth of the base plus the turf.
- Sub-grade compacted and graded to fall — turf does not move water sideways.
- Weed barrier over the sub-grade, under the stone.
- 4 in of crusher run in lifts, compacted, ordered loose because it loses about a fifth of its volume.
- A thin screeded layer to take out the last irregularities, exactly as under pavers.
- Perimeter nailer fixed before the turf, not after.
- Turf rolled out all the same way and left in the sun to relax before it is cut.
- Infill brushed in at 1.5 lb per ft², in passes, lifting the pile as you go.
The base is crusher run, ordered by the ton with a compaction allowance. Same stone as a patio, same arithmetic, and it is the larger half of this job.
Gravel calculatorThe infill decides more than people expect
Infill is the sand or granules brushed into the pile after laying. It looks like an afterthought and it is doing three jobs at once: weighing the turf down so it stays flat, holding the blades upright so the lawn does not look trodden, and shielding the backing from ultraviolet.
Where there is a dog it does a fourth, and this is where the choice stops being about money.
| Infill | lb/ft² | Per 1,000 ft² | Dogs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silica sand | 1.5 | $210 | No | The default and the cheapest. It weighs the turf down and holds the blades up, and it is porous enough to drain — but it holds odour where a dog uses the same spot. |
| Acrylic-coated sand | 1.5 | $330 | Yes | Silica with a coating that stops it absorbing. It is the usual answer where there is a dog, and it costs about half as much again. |
| Zeolite | 1.2 | $456 | Yes | A mineral that traps ammonia rather than letting it off as smell. Expensive, lighter than sand, and the only one that addresses dog urine chemically rather than by drainage. |
| Crumb rubber | 2 | $320 | No | Springy underfoot and used on sports pitches. It gets considerably hotter than sand in sun, and it migrates — expect to top it up. |
MaterialsEstimator, Artificial turf material and installation price survey · checked 2026-09-16
Edges and seams, which is what people notice
The edge is where an artificial lawn fails. Turf shrinks and expands, and without something solid to fasten to along the perimeter — a treated timber nailer or a bender board — it lifts, and once it lifts it never lies flat again.
A wall or a kerb gives something to fasten to. An edge that runs out into a bed or a path does not, and it needs a nailer — treated timber or bender board spiked into the base — put in before the turf, because retrofitting one means lifting the edge you are trying to fix.
Seams are the other visible detail. Tape and adhesive under the backing, the edges trimmed between the stitch rows so no double row of tufts meets, and the pile brushed across the join. A seam people can see is almost always two pieces facing different ways rather than a bad join — which is the pile direction again, deciding something else.
15 ft
Roll width
the dimension that matters
1.5 lb
Infill per ft²
brushed in, in passes
3/ft
Spikes in the nailer
around every free edge
18 yr
Service life
the base outlasts it
What it is actually good at
This site has run the twenty-year arithmetic against real grass on the lawn calculator, and the answer is not the one the industry publishes: at normal American water prices artificial turf does not pay for itself inside its own service life. It is worth saying plainly on the page that sells it.
What it is genuinely good at is everything that is not money. It works in dense shade where no grass will grow. It survives a dog run that would be mud by March. It is green in August in Phoenix. And it gives back a couple of hundred hours of mowing over its life, which for many people is the whole argument and a perfectly good one.
| Where it wins | Where it does not | |
|---|---|---|
| Shade | Dense shade, north side, under trees | — |
| Dogs | A run that would otherwise be mud | Unless the infill is wrong, then it smells |
| Water | Nothing, ever | But it never repays the install either |
| Time | No mowing for its whole life | Brushing, and topping up infill |
| Summer | Green in a drought | Hot underfoot in full sun |
| Ground | Small, awkward, steep or paved areas | Large open lawns, where the cost scales badly |
What artificial turf installation costs per square foot
About $14.40 a square foot installed — $13,840 for the 40 × 24 ft lawn this page opens with, with the old grass stripped, the base compacted, the infill brushed in and the edges fixed.
That is five times what sod costs to lay, and the comparison people actually want is over time rather than on the day. Over thirty-six years, replacing the turf once but not the base, this lawn comes to about $22,900 — and whether that beats a living lawn depends almost entirely on what water costs where you are.
The tool above works that out both ways with your own water rate, and it is worth doing before committing, because at ordinary water prices the answer is frequently uncomfortable for artificial turf.
Five ways this goes wrong
01Laying the strips whichever way is convenient
The pile has a direction, so pieces cannot be rotated. Choosing the wrong run can cost a third of the material on a garden that would otherwise waste almost none.
Instead — Check both orientations before ordering. It is the only free decision in an artificial lawn.
02Pricing it as a covering
Most of the cost is excavation, base, edging and labour. Comparing the price per foot of turf tells you almost nothing about the quote.
Instead — Price the groundwork separately and decide on the full figure.
03Plain sand under a dog
Silica holds urine. The smell arrives in the first hot week and the only cure is lifting the turf.
Instead — Coated sand or zeolite, a free-draining top to the base, and a fully perforated backing.
04No nailer at a free edge
Turf moves with temperature, and an unfastened edge lifts. Once it lifts it never lies flat again.
Instead — Treated timber or bender board spiked into the base, all the way round, before the turf goes down.
05Skipping the infill to save money
Infill is what holds the blades up and protects the backing. Without it the lawn looks trodden within a season and degrades faster.
Instead — 1.5 lb per ft², brushed in in passes with the pile lifted as you go.
How the calculator works it out
- 01Measure the area as a rectangleCurves and beds are cut out of straight strips, so what matters is the rectangle the strips have to cover.
- 02Decide which way the strips runDivide each dimension by 15 ft and round up. The orientation with fewer strips wastes less, and the pile direction means it cannot be changed later.
- 03Work out the baseFour inches of compacted aggregate, ordered loose because it loses about a fifth of its volume under the plate.
- 04Add the infill1.5 lb per square foot for sand. A dog run wants a coated or mineral infill instead.
- 05Measure the edge separatelyEvery edge that is not against a wall or kerb needs a nailer to fasten to.
- 06Count the seamsOne fewer than the number of strips, each the full length of the run, taped and glued.
Roll width, pile direction, base depth, infill rate and fastener spacing come from turf manufacturers’ own installation specifications. The base is priced from the same aggregate survey the gravel calculator uses, because it is the same stone, and the drainage layer under a dog run from the clean stone in that survey. Everything is on the sources page, dated.
Two assumptions worth stating. The plan treats the area as a rectangle the strips have to cover, because that is what the roll width constrains — a curved bed is cut out of a straight strip and does not save material. And both roll orientations are calculated and the cheaper one is shown, with the other beside it, because the difference is invisible once the turf is on the ground and irreversible after it is cut.
Nothing you type is sent anywhere — the whole calculation runs in your browser.
The words on an artificial grass quote
Pile direction and face weight are the two that decide the order and the quality. The rest is groundwork.
- Pile direction
- The way the blades lean. Two pieces laid facing opposite ways are visibly different shades in daylight, so every piece runs the same way and an offcut cannot be rotated to fit.
- Face weight
- Ounces of yarn per square yard, excluding the backing. It is the honest measure of how much grass you are buying; total weight includes the backing and flatters a thin product.
- Pile height
- How long the blades are, usually 1¼ to 1¾ inches. Longer looks lush in the showroom and lies flat faster underfoot — for a lawn people walk on, shorter and denser wears better.
- Infill
- Sand or granules brushed in after laying. It weighs the turf down, holds the blades upright and protects the backing from ultraviolet. Turf without it lies flat inside a season.
- Perforated backing
- Drainage holes punched through the backing at intervals. Standard turf drains slowly enough that a dog run needs a fully perforated backing rather than a standard one.
- Seam
- The join between two strips, made with tape and adhesive under the backing. The edges are trimmed between the stitch rows so no double row of tufts shows.
- Nailer board
- Treated timber or bender board around the perimeter, spiked into the base, giving the turf edge something solid to fasten to. The edge is where an artificial lawn fails.
- Sub-base
- The compacted crushed aggregate under the turf — the same base a patio needs, for the same reason. It carries the load and lets water through.
- Zeolite
- A mineral infill that traps ammonia chemically rather than letting it evaporate as smell. It is the only infill here that addresses dog urine directly.
- Oil canning of turf
- Visible ripples and lifted edges, almost always from a base that was not flat or an edge that was not fastened. Once it lifts it does not lie flat again.
- Roll width
- 15 ft on almost everything sold in the United States. The garden dimension that matters is how it divides into that, not its area.
- Service life
- Around 18 years before the pile lies down permanently and the colour goes. It is not permanent and it cannot be patched invisibly, though the base underneath survives a replacement.
Common questions
- How much artificial turf do I need?
- Divide the shorter dimension by the 15 ft roll width, round up for the number of strips, and multiply by the length of the run. A 40 × 24 ft garden takes 3 strips of 24 ft — 1,080 ft² of turf for a 960 ft² lawn. Run them the other way and it is 1,200 ft².
- Why can't artificial turf offcuts be rotated?
- Because the pile leans. All the blades on a roll lie in the same direction, and light catches a piece laid the other way completely differently — the two read as different colours in daylight even though they are the same product. So every piece runs the same way, and a leftover cannot be turned ninety degrees to fill a gap.
- How much does artificial turf cost installed?
- Usually $10 to $20 per square foot. The turf itself is a minority of that: excavation, the compacted base, edging and the labour to lay and compact it are most of the bill. Pricing artificial grass as a covering rather than as groundwork is why quotes come in so far above what the turf costs per foot.
- What goes under artificial turf?
- 4 inches of compacted crushed aggregate over a weed barrier, on ground excavated and graded to fall. It is the same build-up a patio needs and for the same reasons — a uniform bearing surface and somewhere for water to go. Skip it and the turf follows every hollow the ground develops.
- How much infill does artificial turf need?
- About 1.5 lb per square foot of silica sand, brushed in in passes while lifting the pile. It weighs the turf down, holds the blades upright and shields the backing from ultraviolet. Turf laid without infill lies flat within a season and the backing degrades faster.
- What is the best infill for dogs?
- Acrylic-coated sand or zeolite. Plain silica holds urine and the smell arrives in the first hot week; coated sand does not absorb, and zeolite traps ammonia chemically rather than letting it off as odour. A dog run wants the water gone fast, so the top of the base is clean angular stone rather than screenings, and the turf itself has a perforated backing. Get that wrong and the smell arrives in the first hot week and never leaves.
- Does artificial grass drain?
- Through a perforated backing into the stone beneath, yes — which is why the base has to be free-draining aggregate rather than compacted fines or soil. For a dog run the top of the base is clean angular stone and the turf has a fully perforated backing rather than the usual spaced holes.
- How long does artificial turf last?
- Around 18 years before the pile lies down permanently and the colour fades. The backing and the seams often go first. Replacing it means lifting and disposing of several thousand pounds of plastic — though the base underneath survives, so the second installation is considerably cheaper than the first.
- Does artificial grass get hot?
- Considerably hotter than living grass — a dark turf in full sun can be uncomfortable to stand on barefoot. Crumb rubber infill makes it worse and sand makes it better; a lighter colour and shorter pile help; and hosing it down cools it for an hour or so. It is the complaint people do not anticipate.
- Can artificial turf be laid over concrete?
- Yes, and it is one of the few places the groundwork gets cheap — a shock pad or a thin drainage layer over a slab that already falls to a drain, then the turf glued or fastened at the perimeter. The slab has to drain, though: turf over a flat slab holds water underneath it and smells.
- How do you hide the seams?
- Tape and adhesive under the backing, the edges trimmed between the stitch rows so no double row of tufts meets, the pile brushed across the join, and both pieces running the same way. A visible seam is almost always two pieces facing different directions rather than a bad join.
- Is artificial turf cheaper than a real lawn?
- Not on money, at normal American water prices — the honest arithmetic is on the lawn calculator, and turf does not pay back inside its own service life. What it buys is the mowing, and a surface that works in shade where no grass will grow. Those are good reasons; saving money is not one of them.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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