artificial lawn, yay or nay?

im trying to find a solution to the growing mud patch right outside the back door.

i saw an ad for artificial lawn and requested a sample from them. it looks great and is a lot cheaper than i expected. it wont need to be mowed and it should also be easy to clean as it says it can be hosed down. the other bonus is it wont turn to mud with 4 crazies tearing round on it!!!

im just curious as to whether anybody has tried it before, and if they have whether they had any bad experiences.the only other option i can think of is to fence off the lawn but it makes the garden a lot smaller and with 4 dogs i need as much room as possible

heres hoping somewhere out there can answer this question

Wow thats sounds like a fab idea! Might do my entire garden

Never used it (often wished for something like it!) but a couple of potential problems if the dogs are allowed on it are:-

Cleaning/drainage - if you dog pees/poos on it, how easy is it to clean up - presumably pee won't just soak in like it would on real grass?

skin burns - some of this artificial stuff can give nasty burns if you skid across it - if you have dogs that often skid to a stop (e.g. chasing a ball), I would be worried about potential injuries.

hard surface? - what is it laid on? if it needs hardcore/solid base (i.e. rather than earth) it could be a bit hard on you dogs' legs.

I could well be wrong, but I imagine that this sort of stuff is more to look at than to play on.

My memory of artificial turf is from playing footy on it... nightmare, legs would be ripped to shreds.. but otherwise sounds like an OK idea, certainly worth considering

well cleaning should be easier because i wont have to pull clumps of grass out when things are a bit soft. there is drainage and so it should hose down with something like trigene that we use on the run.

it says that the lawn is laid on top of a sand base after your existing garden has been levelled

as far as the skin burns i know from playing football on astro turf when i was younger that it rips the skin off but apparently it because they use sand and rubber to make the blades stand up better

as i said reading through the material it looks like a good idea but i just wanted to double check before splashing out

Would be interested in hearing how you get on then - if it really is that good I would certainly be interested!

ill keep you posted

i just had another quick look on their site just to make sure everything i said was actually correct and, well i do feel silly for missing this but, they've only got a big page showing the agility arena at crufts as an example of their work!!!

has anybody here been in that arena? im curious to what you thought of it if you have?

although if i was in the agility arena at crufts i wouldnt have my mind on the floor, bladder control maybe but definately not the floor

I would be exactly the same.

Since reading your thread I have been on to have a look at the various websites and must admit it does look really appealing, seems to have come on so much over the years. Mind you I think the dogs would miss us cutting the lawn - Kip loves pushing his football in my way when I'm doing it!

that sounds just like my four, they do the same with their toys when we hoover the house

dont think it would be the same if they sat on the couch with their feet up though

well ill check back soon and see if there are any bad points raised, if not then ill set about ordering the new lawn and digging up the garden thats there to get it all level, weather permitting of course.

(hang on a sec, i dont think ive thought this through properly, it was supposed to make life easier not create more work , damn it the things i do for my dogs!!)

i looked at an artificial lawn when we were doing our yard.
i asked an estate agent what they thought and they said it was a big no no especially on a re-sale point of view.
hard landscaping looks and last better, and its easier to clean.