After asking friends about artificial grass I decided to get some of the used stuff from a company on craigslist. They have a small pickup facility off Grand. They tear out used college, pro, and highschool fields and resell them. These places need to replace the fields often due to concussion regulations. The field I got is from the University of Utah. It was .95 per sq foot and I started with a 15x40 roll.

You can go down to their yard and pick out the roll you want but you gotta decide while it is rolled up.
It is hard to tell if you are going to get any white lines in it, mine had a few hashmarks which I think look cool. I also got the arrow and “3” from the 30 yard line which is also interesting so I won’t be painting over it. But you can paint over it with acrylic based paint. The grass is quite a bit longer than most of the store grass I have seen which means it takes more infill to make it look shorter. The place I got it from was very cool, I recommend them. If you need some call Jacob at 714-975-4013.

I called around to landscaping places and searched the internet a lot learning about how to install it. I borrowed my dad’s bobcat and plate compactor. First I removed all my existing rock; probably 4 tons worth. Some of it I just moved around the yard, the rest I dumped at my neighbors because he needed fill dirt.

For my base layer I went with 7 tons of 3/8” minus from West Valley Rock because Joe knows the owner. The owner was cool to me and gave me lots of advice. It was about $130 for the base layer. I spread it out with the tractor and shovel, then tried to level it with a long 2x4 then wet it and compacted it. It takes two people to roll out the grass because its heavy. I used a 50 pound box of 6” 60D nails from Home Depot for $50 to nail it in place.

I worked on it after work and half a day Friday and Saturday. To fully prep and install 600 sq feet I have about 16 hours in it plus 7 hours of combined help from Joe and a laborer I know. I still need to get 1-3 tons of sand to put in the turf, you can google it but it is necessary. Everyone recommends silica sand or ground up rubber but the silica sand is $15 for 50 pounds. You can get mortar sand from any landscaping place for under $20 per ton, that is what I am doing. You can’t use “play” sand as it will clump when wet. Most places recommend 1.5 pounds per sq foot with one place telling me I need 7 pounds per sq foot. I will start with 2 tons and go from there.

I got some of the cheap 5” black rubber edging material from home depot to separate the grass from the rock.
Turf = $600
Base Layer = $130
Infill Sand = $40
60D Nails = $50
Black edging = $30
Labor help with the grass = $45

Total = $895
Dumping old dirt = Free
Rake, Shovel, Hammer, Compactor, Tractor = owned or borrowed

My friend Jeff had some professionally installed for $7 per sq foot which would have cost me $3500. I would say that is a fair price considering all the hassle with prepping the area, dumping the dirt, etc.
Next I had my friend Chad from Pool Guard install the netted removable pool fencing in the front and back. Now Ryken can run around in both yards. I needed about 120 linear feet of fence and two gates which came out to $2400 fully installed. I could have borrowed more crazy tools from my dad and installed this myself but I wanted it done by a pro with a warranty.