Artificial Grass Tacoma, Washington. Synthetic Turf.

In the past decade, the use of "new generation" artificial turf has become quite common throughout the United States. Synthetic grass applications that not related to sport fields are getting really popular in western states such as California, Arizona and Nevada. Such states are areas where outdoor water use is restricted or low maintenance is desired. Common applications include veterinary clinics, animal shelters, golf practice ranges, school yards, residential lawns, and low water use landscapes.

The market of residential lawns has been growing at an average annual rate of thirty five percent even during the economy downturns. As market grows, prices are coming down dramatically which in turn to fuel further market growth! Alvin Balahadia used to work for an artificial grass installation company in San Jose, California, he remembers how the selling of synthetic grass for residential lawn applications fifteen years ago: You walked in a house as a salesman, the first question to the homeowners was: "Do you know the artificial grass is a luxury thing, only the top ten percent of the household can afford it?" This might sound humiliating but true. Fifteen years ago, the turn key price for installing artificial grass in San Francisco Bay Area was between $22.00 and $26.00 per square foot, while today's price range is between $8.00 and $14.00 per square foot. Such price range is still much higher than natural grass. "The normal life expectancy of artificial grass is about 15 years. If you can get your investment back within first five years by saving money on water and maintenance, then you enjoy the beautiful lawn for the next 10 years without any water bills and the hassles of mowing and trimming, will you do it? I know I will." Said Alvin Balahadia :"It is a great investment on your house as houses with synthetic grass lawns are considered with upgraded premium options here in San Francisco Bay Area and other dry states like Arizona and Nevada."

On average, a household in San Francisco Bay Area can save between $600.00 and $1,200.00 annually on water bill along if they get rid of the natural grass lawns.

More than 80 percent of those who want to know more about artificial grass are dog owners! Why? Most dogs could have a place in the lawn that dog owners decide when they relieve themselves, that may destroy the nature grass to use, and creating nasty appearing brown spots there's virtually no actual alternatives because of this issue. Artificial turf in general, empties well and pet wrecks can be cleaned up readily. Such premium products are becoming the surfacing choice that was perfect for vet practices, and kennels, dog boarding and pet facilities, dog parks, both inside and outside. Most of the petgrass installers that are professional will propose to use safe Zeofill and organic on to the artificial grass as the pets waste neutralizer that will minimize the dog smell naturally. Such products can be found through such artificial grass businesses as Global Syn-Turf, Inc..

To keep your pet's place clean and scent-free, a properly installed under-drain system is really critical.

Such foundation surface should be as level as possible with a minimal grade for drainage that is optimal. "We all adore our dogs, supply them with the greatest: low care and long lasting artificial grass!"

Backyard putting greens are fantastic way of bringing together friends and family to enjoy the outdoors. Its kind of like having a pool table. When you have people over, theres always something to do, says Richard Stoltz of New Mexico Synthetic Turf in Albuquerque, NM. I the past, people have been trying to install real grass putting greens in their backyards, turned out that no matter how hard you try, it is just impossible to maintain it! Today, most backyard putting greens are created with artificial turf, mounds, sand pits, and interesting shapes can be easily created and maintained. Artificial turf also has an even surface thats ideal for putting. Synthetic greens are virtually maintenance free. They're able to withstand hot or cold temperatures, as well as wet conditions, and are just about always ready for play.

A backyard putting green has such a great social element to it that youll use it a lot more if its close to patios or other entertaining areas. A flat one-hole putting green gets boring fast. However, if you make it challenging, friends and family will enjoy the putting green for years to come. Using a few undulations, mounds, a sand pit, and about three holes will help to keep it interesting and more playable. With the pressures of school, work, and other activities, oftentimes family members dont get home until after dark. Incorporate low-voltage landscape lighting into backyard putting greens to extend the number of hours each day that people can use it, in a nice mood.

Climate changes such as longer, colder winters and raining seasons have made the demand for indoor sport facilities skyrocketing! Mega sized indoor sports facilities normally over 300,000 sf., are being built throughout the country. Most of these facilities are designed for multiple sports applications and to create the flexibility of switching among different sport applications can be a very challenging task. "People want to play soccer in these facilities while the weather is not permitting outside" said Dave Maronic, Vice President of Global Syn-Turf, Inc., a synthetic grass manufacturer based in Hayward, California, "But we can't grow grass lawns in these indoor facilities, artificial grass surface becomes the only solution for this demand." Most of the artificial grass for sports applications are designed for outdoor fields which are tall blades and require a lot of infills of rubber and sand mix. Such systems are permanent and won't work for an indoor application.

The indoor sport facilities owners want to maximize the use of their facilities: for example, a facility owner would like to has his facility to play soccer for 3 month, ice hockey 3 for two month, baseball for 3 month and football for 3 month, or simply play a few hours of each sport during a day. In order to meet such demands, companies like Global Syn-Turf, has developed artificial grass products can be just that flexible. Their Trainers Turf is a shorter and thicker product which doesn't require any infills when installed indoors. The indoor installations of Trainers Turf will require certain form pad under the turf to provide proper cushioning to prevent injuries, such pads are available through Global Syn-Turf as well. Velcro to be used in such installations which make the install and removal of both the turf and pads very easy. For smaller areas, using 2'x2' interlocked artificial grass pads will be ideal: this product is just like any other interlocked sports surfaces, in artificial grass. The soccer team can come in right after a basket ball practices, and put these pads together themselves, a few minutes later, a hard surface becomes soccer field!

Artificial grass is not only for commercial indoor sports facilities, but also for residential or personal applications. Some people choose to decorate internal areas to transform their space into an indoor oasis others like to create soccer or other sporty themes for their childrens bedrooms, and these can be really quite effective!

Artificial grass is more durable than organic grass and may be used without the rest intervals that organic lawn requires to maintain the grass healthy. The New York Department of Parks and Recreation (NYCDPR) quotes that on an annual basis, let use (hours per year) for synthetic turf sports fields is 28-percent greater than for grass fields that are natural. Synthetic turf's care prices will change depending on the use and design of the field, but are normally believed to be lower compared to the maintenance costs of organic grass. Normal grass requires fertilizer application, standard cutting, insect control and potentially sprinkling. Artificial grass needs repairing stitches replacing in-fill materials and eliminating weeds and moss moss. Specialized equipment, which may or may not be contained in the purchase cost of the area, is needed for these activities.

With regards to the synthetic grass fields installations, most of installers have now been using crumb rubber along with silica sands as the principal infills. The blades of sport field artificial lawn products are at least 2-1/4" tall which supply room enough for infills. The aim of having infills insport fields is to provide enough cushioning for the fields hence to reduce the risks of human anatomy harms. Sand combination and crumb rubber can serve such purpose very well. Crumb rubber is made by grinding used wheels. Steel and fiber fatigue parts are eliminated during the procedure and the rubber pellets are sorted by size. Pellet sizes starting from about one sixteenth to one quarter inch in size are applied to synthetic turf. Crumb rubber is commonly applied at a rate of 2-3 pounds per square foot of area surface. Studies have already been conducted from the California Environment Protection Agency Office of Environmental Health Hazard Evaluation and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health to assess the potential for consumption exposure to the chemicals in crumb rubber by youngsters playing on synthetic turf. Both studies concluded that health hazards to children resulting from the ingestion of crumb rubber are not high.

Nevertheless, there continue to be a lot people do not enjoy the notion to make use of the crumb rubber in synthetic grass sport areas, it may get real popular to amounts of discomfort, in addition to the rubber may get on people's body and travel on and off the area. Several parents have complained their kids were covered with black rubbers after playing on the fields. Again, although the available info on crumb rubber and crumb rubber in-filled turf fields indicates that intake, skin or inhalation exposures to compounds in or discharged from crumb rubber do not introduce a significant public health concern, leading artificial grass businesses including Global Syn-Turf, Inc. was operating on new technologies and methods to get rid of the rubbers and take the synthetic grass sport areas applications to a new "All Green" level.

Most synthetic turf products require infills which to be installed onto the grass between blades to help the blades of grass stand up and also hold the turf down. In addition, it protects the grass backing from ultraviolet rays that could cause damage and void guarantees. Some artificial grass infill options are ZeoFill, Green sand, Copper slag, Silica Sand and Rubber. Among all, ZeoFill is the choice for synthetic turf infill for playgrounds and pet owners. Dog owners with artificial grass lawns have been struggled with urine smells for years.. Many individuals want to water down their turf one time a week to get rid of the smell but never worked correctly because water from a hose does not have enough force to shove bacteria deep into the earth. ZeoFill is made out of a natural resource from the earth that is a negatively charged honey combed molecular structure that prevents the ammonia from forming a gas to become smelly and absorbs the urine. ZeoFill pulls any gases towards itself and hold it until sodium ion (Na ) in rain water releases the magnetivity and the force of heavy rainfall will flush out the bacteria, compelling it through the turf into the earth making your turf virtually new again. The sodium forces the calcium ions out and recharges the ZeoFill when dry. Nevertheless, ZeoFill will not remove bacteria that are poor. To remove poor bacteria, Global Syn-Turf, Inc. recommends nits very own Synthetic Grass Pet Odor Neutralizer, this enzyme products will not just neutralize the pet odor, but also remove poor bacteria and clean the turf, using this along with Zeofill will realize the best possible results on pet's odor control!

The ZeoFill granule will hold the ammonia water until it is cleaned out the ZeoFill with the enzyme solution or significant rainwater flushes. The ZeoFill granules will be trapped inside the turf system and contains a 5 year warranty on deterioration.

As artificial grass getting popular now days, more and more people who consider to replace their natural grass lawns with synthetic grass ask: "What are the pros of artificial grass?" To answer such question, let's take a look at the "No More List".

No more watering, say "bye-bye" to expensive water bills.

No more mowing, either you are lazy or you want to spend more time with your kids and family, throw away your lawn mower, lay back and have fun.

No more chemicals, chemicals such as fertilizers for natural lawn will eventually end up in our soil and underground water, present great health threats to human life.

No more air pollution, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a new gas powered lawn mower produces volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides emissions air pollution in in in one hour of operation as 11 new cars each being driven for one hour.

No neighbor lawn envy (at least for you!)

No more unnecessary noise

No pet urine spots

No moles or gophers

Certainly, both the economy and environmental issues work in artificial grasss favor.. Though still more expensive than real grass to buy and install it can cost up to several times as much as natural turf, or roughly $6,000 to $8,000 for a typical lawn but the lifetime savings add up. In drought-prone regions, municipalities like Los Angeles County have even provided tax rebates for residents who remove areas of natural lawn.