Artificial Turf installation is undeniably an art form. Look at a job from someone who doesn’t understand that and you’ll see all kinds of subtle design discrepancies, consciously or not, that disturb your view of the job. Curves, spaces, symmetry and asymmetry, all things that left neglected can leave an install in ruins. With that being said, turf installation is a science too. If the science behind an installation isn’t understood, the art doesn’t matter because the job will just be crap either way.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that the most important part of a turf installation is the base. I want to share what I have found after 3+ years in turf installation with regards to the base beneath your turf. What materials are used? How will those materials impact the finished product? There is not really one right and one wrong answer here but a huge spectrum that account for so many factors and changes based on the location and purpose of the project.
What is turf Base
Turf base is the layer underneath the turf. In general we spend about 66% – 75% of a turf job working on the base, usually (that includes excavation). It really is one of the most critical parts of a successful job. If the turf base fails, the turf on top will fail as well. How does base fail? It settles, causes depressions, maybe isn’t compacted enough, smoothed enough, leveled out properly, etc. This is such a huge topic, I could likely write a book – a series of blog posts at least. I am going to focus this post on the most common base we use for residential landscape turf installs: crushed concrete fines.
I was inspired to write this post after we did a turf repair job for a customer who burnt their turf with a firepit. We removed the burnt turf to put in porcelain tiles; in the process we ended up excavating about a 5×5 area of base that we had installed about 5 months prior. It was solid as a rock. We had to use hammers to break it up in order to dig it out with our shovels. While it was a pain in the ass, I was damn proud of the crew for the quality of base! Let the quality of our work speak for its self – check out some recent jobs here: https://turfit.com/completed-jobs/
What is Crushed Concrete
Crushed concrete fines are a bi-product of the construction and landscaping industries. When old buildings / patios / roads are demolished, builders and contractors dump their concrete waste for free at companies that crush, grind, grade and sort the concrete into useable products. It’s a completely recycled, sustainable, reusable process! They are readily available and inexpensive when compared to other raw stone products. The quality varies greatly between producers based on what machinery they have and how they use it; it’s important to know how the different producers in your area make their product to know which ones will work for your project and which ones will not. Some are too pebbly, some don’t hold compaction. With that being said, because it is a product made from recycled concrete waste, the composition varies from batch to batch even from the same producer. It takes experience to know when a batch will wok for you and when the occasional bit will need to be scrapped or used for other purposes.
How do we use it to make turf base?
Once the topsoil is excavated, we add a 4”+ layer of crushed concrete, grade it as needed, and compact it. After that we grade and compact it again. The result is a super solid base layer made of compacted crushed concrete.
While it does have drainage, it is at a very slow rate. That means water won’t run through it easily. This comes with a lot of pros and cons, which I will discuss in a future blog post. But, at the end of the day, when done properly, will create the perfect base for turf. Just enough percolation to stay moist and solid, keeping plants and the ground water table healthy, without allowing the base to be washed out or eroded over time.
Your installer should always have an intimate knowledge of what materials they are using and why. Don’t accept vague answers or BULL! By the way, check out the VLOG portion of this post on my @turfing.it page on instagram!