Artificial grass accessories
A lawn is the visible part of an installation. The rest is a short list of unglamorous items that decide whether the joins hold, whether weeds come through and whether the edges stay tight after two winters.
This page explains what each item is for and what to check when choosing one. Any accessory we stock is listed below with its live price and availability from our catalogue; where nothing is listed, we say so rather than quoting a figure.
Accessories in our catalogue
Prices and availability below are read from the product catalogue, so they reflect what can be ordered today.
No accessories are listed online yet
Our catalogue currently holds lawns only, so we are not showing prices for accessories we cannot yet sell online. Joining tape, adhesive, membrane, infill, edging and fixings can be arranged with the grass order by phone.
020 8567 5021Joining tape
Joining tape is laid under the seam between two strips of grass and provides the surface the adhesive bonds to. It is a non-woven fabric strip, usually supplied in rolls, and it has to be wide enough to sit under both edges of the join.
A join with no tape, or with tape that is too narrow, opens as soon as the lawn is brushed or walked on.
- Wide enough to support both edges of the seam
- Laid flat on the sub-base, not on loose material
- One continuous strip along the whole join
- Cut cleanly, with no frayed edge showing at the ends
Joining adhesive
Adhesive bonds the two grass edges to the tape. It is a two-part or single-part polyurethane made for synthetic turf, applied to the tape and both edges, then held while it cures.
Curing needs a dry surface and a reasonable temperature. Adhesive applied to a wet base or on a cold day will fail, which is why joins are the part of an installation most affected by the weather.
- Made for synthetic turf, not a general purpose contact adhesive
- Applied to a dry, clean base
- Not walked on until cured
- Enough for the full length of every join, with a little spare
Royal Grass geotextile
The geotextile, or weed membrane, sits between the sub-base and the grass. It stops weed growth and stops fine particles rising into the pile, while still allowing water through.
It is the cheapest item on the list and the one most often skipped. Laying grass straight onto soil or aggregate is what produces weeds pushing through a year later and a lawn that never quite sits flat.
- Permeable, not a plastic sheet
- Laid with overlaps between runs
- Brought up the edges and fixed there
- Not punctured unnecessarily during laying
Silica sand infill
Silica sand is brushed into the pile to weigh the blades down and support them upright. It helps a taller lawn stand up, adds a little ballast and reduces the flattening that comes from constant traffic.
It is not required on every lawn, and more is not better. Over-filled, the pile stiffens and the lawn holds moisture; under-filled, the blades flatten. The right quantity depends on the pile height and the manufacturer's guidance for that lawn.
- Kiln-dried silica sand, not building sand
- Applied in light passes and brushed in
- Topped up as it settles over the first year
- Not used to hide an uneven sub-base
Edging systems
Edging holds the shape of the lawn and stops the edges moving. It can be a timber batten, a recycled plastic edge, steel or aluminium, or a fixed kerb where the lawn meets paving.
The edge is where most lawns fail first, because it takes the load when someone steps off the grass and the running load of a dog turning at the boundary.
- Fixed to the ground, not just laid alongside
- Set slightly below the finished grass height, so the pile hides the top
- Continuous, with joints that cannot open
- Deep enough to hold the sub-base as well as the grass
Fixing materials
Grass is held in place by its weight and its edges, supplemented by galvanised nails or staples through the perimeter and at joins. Fixings matter most on slopes, on roof terraces and where the lawn has a raised edge.
Decorative or heavy borders can be used instead of edge fixings where the design allows it, but the perimeter still has to be restrained.
- Galvanised, so they do not rust through the backing
- Spaced along the perimeter, closer together on a slope
- Driven through the backing, not through the pile face
- Never left proud of the surface
Brushes
A stiff garden broom is the single most useful accessory you will own. Brushing lifts flattened pile, works infill into the base of the blades and clears debris.
For a large lawn, a powered brush saves real effort, particularly where infill has to be worked in across the whole area.
- Stiff but not wire: wire bristles pull at the yarn
- Brush against the pile direction
- Monthly in normal use, more often in traffic routes
- Powered brushes are worth it above roughly 60m² of infilled lawn
Installation tools
Most of an installation is done with tools a competent DIYer already owns, plus a few that make the difference between a neat finish and a visible seam.
The non-obvious ones are a sharp hook blade for cutting grass, a straight edge long enough to cut a clean seam line, and something solid to beat the sub-base flat.
- Hook blades or a sharp utility knife for cutting pile
- A long straight edge, clamped, for seam cuts
- A plate compactor or heavy hand tamper for the base
- A soft brush and a watering can for working infill in
- Knee pads, gloves and a wheelbarrow for moving aggregate
Work out how much you need
Tape and adhesive are bought per join, membrane per square metre of base, and edging per linear metre of perimeter. Our measuring guide covers the strip count, and the calculator returns the roll configuration for your garden.