Ever since AstroTurf was first laid at Houston’s famed Astrodome in 1966, decorators have looked to artificial turf as a means of providing the unique sensation of bare feet on grass where natural grass would not survive – at least, not without an unreasonable amount of maintenance. For homeowners who lack the ideal soil depth of 60 centimetres for a verdant lawn – or even the minimum soil depth of 10 centimetres for the barest of grass cover, we listed our top five picks of artificial turf providers here in order to facilitate the transformation of some unexpected spaces into lawns.
Image Credit: Eco Outdoor
Not content with just being a supplier of artificial turf, Eco Outdoor has taken on the complete range of considerations that go into any landscaping initiative – and their impressive project portfolio is evidence of that mindset, with the inclusion of several large-scale commercial projects as well as residences. In addition to providing the world’s finest quality of synthetic lawns from the Netherlands’ Royal Grass, Eco Outdoor also takes a keen interest in laying water-permeable hardscapes, designing rainwater harvesting solutions, and other architectural concerns.
Image Credit: Inspire Grass
With ready-cut, one-metre-wide rolls shipped to your doorstep, Inspire Grass is the source for homeowners already possessed by a vision of the landscape they want to create. Among Inspire Grass’ offerings is the thinnest-available putting green turf measuring at just 12 millimetres in thickness – the “Le Clubio”, which mimics the scraggly and freshly-cut blades of the kind of creeping bentgrass that dominates golf courses in temperate climates.
Image Credit: Panda Eco Grass
Panda Grass has applied more than 618,000 square feet of artificial turf – equivalent to 85 world-standard football fields, over the course of its eight years of operating in Malaysia. With Panda Grass, one gets access to FIFA-approved football turf and other qualities of artificial grass made from affordable and SIRIM-tested polypropylene or polyethylene fibres, which have been further strengthened and waterproofed with coatings of Styrene-Butadiene rubber. Their range includes 13mm thick putting green turf for avid golfers, 20mm to 40mm thick layers for landscaping, or 30mm to 60mm high-pile grass with shock-absorbing and waterproofing under-layers for sports fields.
Image Credit: Paramount Grass
As a landscape architecture firm with a focus on artificial turf, Paramount Grass does more than supply synthetic grass in a range of qualities to suit various circumstances – they also provide the complete suite of consultation and application services. Paramount Grass is mindful of considerations such as ensuring that a substrate is flat and imperceptibly canted to prevent water ponding issues, in addition to a host of other factors to ensure that their turf endures a minimum of eight years without any discernible discoloration or degradation.
Image Credit: Royal Grass
It takes a rare kind of dedication to study grass – and few have been doing it as purposefully as Royal Grass has in their effort to make artificial lawns indistinguishable from – if not better looking than – natural grass cover. In 2005, Royal Grass was among the first to manufacture camouflaging details into each individual blade of grass: with ‘v’-shaped profiles to mimic the folds in natural foliage, lines of “Micro Nerve Technology” running down the length of each fibre to reduce the glare of sunlight, and “Realistic Directional Yarn” to emulate the random splaying of true grass. Royal Grass’ offerings range in thickness from 20 millimetres to 37 millimetres, and all feature a buffer layer containing fibres that simulate grass blades in various stages of their life cycles.
* Brands are listed alphabetically
