There term ‘quality’ is bandied about quite a lot in the artificial grass industry. And for a customer it’s exactly the kind of word you want to see. If you’re going to make the investment and install artificial grass you want to make sure it’s the kind that will last for many years to come. In many people’s minds artificial grass is the bright, crunchy green stuff in the green grocers’ window, so most domestic grasses can be considered ‘quality’ in comparison! But that’s quite a low standard to compete against if you think about it. In order to make sure you’re fully up to speed, take a look at this guide…
Feel & Appearance
Feel and appearance are always first port of call when it comes to indicators of quality. Can you imagine it in your garden? What’s it like to walk on? Will it flatten after a week?
Guarantees
What are the guarantees? For example, all of our grasses are stabilised against UV fading. How long is the manufacturing guarantee, 3 years, 5 years? 8 years? 10 years? If you are having it fitted, is there any guarantee on the workmanship?
Technical Talk
- Another thing to understand is the yarn type. Our grasses are made of two different types of plastic, Polyethylene and Polypropylene. Grasses that have Polyethylene have greater ‘bounce back’ ability, so it’s a good one to look out for.
- Another great way to check quality is to look at the backing and check the stitch rate. For example, turn a sample over and see how many stitches there are in 10cm. Times that by 10 and you will have how many stitches in a metre. All of our products have a 1cm gap between stitch lines, or 100 stitch lines per square metre. So times the number of stitches by 100 and you will have the stitch rate of a square metre.
E.g Trulawn Luxury has 16 stitches per 10cm = 16,000 stitches per sqm.
(Although bear in mind that some yarns are thicker than others which will effect this.)
- You can also look at how many strands are in a stitch. For example, in Trulawn Luxury there is an average of 28 strands per stitch! This comprises the realistic thatch and the ‘blades’, which together give it that naturalistic look and the soft, cushiony feel underfoot.
There is a lot of artificial grass out there. Whilst price might be the leading factor when thinking about your installation, don’t overlook the importance of quality too!
