Are you wondering how long it’ll take to install artificial grass in your garden?
If you’re anything like many of my customers, you may be worried about the possibility of having to deal with prolonged upheaval. Or perhaps you’re concerned about having to take extra time off work.
The length of time it can take to complete an artificial grass installation can really depend on a number of different factors. However, in most cases, you shouldn’t have to be home for your grass to be installed (only if you want to be!).
As an experienced artificial grass installer, let me explain a little more on the subject, so you can get a better idea of what to expect from your installation.
The average installation time for artificial grass
On average, artificial grass installations take roughly 1 – 2 days to install in a typical garden. However, the biggest factor to consider when working out your installation time is the size of your garden.
For example, if your garden is between 30 – 40 square metres, the work can usually be completed within a day (provided if everything is running smoothly e.g. materials on-site, and it’s a grass installation only).
However, for larger gardens of say, 100sqm, your artificial lawn would usually take 3 days to install.
My rule of thumb is this: the bigger the area, the more square metres you can cover in a shorter time period. Because of this, we’ve managed to carry out a 250sqm job in just 4.5 days, as access was particularly good. It also helped that it was summer, so the nights were longer.
The installation was carried out by a three-man team. We had started on a Monday, but knew it had to be completed by Saturday for a child’s outdoor birthday party, complete with bouncy castles and games.
However, before you can determine how long your lawn might take, there’s also the factors below to consider.
3 factors that can affect your installation time
The three other main factors that can affect the time it takes to install your artificial lawn are:
1. Access to your garden
If the access to your garden is fairly straightforward, the above installation times can be fairly accurate. However, if the only way to your garden includes going up and down a lot of stairs, a 30 square metre garden could easily take an extra day, plus increased labour charges to complete.
Access through your house to the garden, plus several flights of stairs can easily minimise our daily square metre limit to just 15 – 20sqm per day.
TIP: Unfortunately if the only way to gain access to your garden is through your house, you will need to be home for the installation.
NOTE: Don’t worry if your garden has particularly bad access – there’s usually a way to adapt and get the work done without too much fuss.
2. Your choice of edging
Curved, detailed edging is a little more complex than simply installing straight edges, so this could also add a little time onto your installation if you prefer a curved look to your lawn.
Curved edges also require additional materials such as aluminium edging or brickwork to create the curves, which can add to the overall cost.
3. Installing a putting green
Finally, adding a putting green to your lawn requires a lot of extra time and preparation, as it means installing a curved fringe, and adding putting cups. This will also mean additional labour costs along with time spent on your lawn.
Advice from an experienced installer
The best advice I can give you is to ensure you contact installers in plenty of time, especially if you have an upcoming event or deadline you need your artificial lawn completed by. This will help to ensure the company can have the dates available, and avoid disappointment.
The busiest months tend to be spring and summer, although a good installer should be able to manage up to 30 square metres of artificial lawn per day (allowing 3 – 4 days for 100sqm).
When you think about it, it really isn’t a vast amount of time – but bear in mind we can be booked up to six weeks in advance!
Conclusion
I hope this blog has helped shed a light on how long artificial grass takes to install. It’s good to know what to expect – especially if you want to take time off work (although in most cases it shouldn’t be necessary).
However, if you have a tight deadline, I’d always recommend contacting a company a few weeks in advance. In busy months especially, I’d advise contacting them at least a few weeks ahead!
Got any questions about how long artificial grass takes to install? Feel free to leave a comment below, or get in touch with me directly. I’m always happy to help!