SAN JOSE — When choosing an artificial turf product, most people focus on the look and feel, but another important aspect that often gets overlooked is what’s below the turf: the base. Unlike a natural lawn, an artificial turf lawn requires a strong base underneath to provide support. The base also needs to be permeable in order to facilitate proper drainage. It’s recommended for most artificial turf installations to have a base that’s at least three inches thick.
In addition to a basic rock infill, there are several specialty options available for the base of your artificial lawn, including:
AirDrain
This cellular drainage grid creates a 1-inch separation between the artificial grass and the substrate below. It’s excellent for drainage, especially when it comes to pet urine, as it minimizes odors and prevents buildup of bacteria beneath the installation.
Gopher Guard
This wire mesh product is installed directly beneath the turf to protect against damage caused by gophers and other subterranean pests.
PDS Tile
This product is designed to allow for proper drainage with turf that’s installed above nonpermeable surfaces like concrete, asphalt and wood.

Base Options for Artificial Turf

Explore expert insights on choosing the best base options for artificial turf, from crushed rock to decomposed granite, for a quality installation.

Base Options for Artificial Turf by Troy Scott

Video: Base Options for Artificial Turf

Hey guys, so most of the time when you're choosing your artificial grass, you think that it's over. You've gotten the look and feel that you're after. But what you have to consider is actually the base, and a lot of people call it the sub-base. But a lot of different options take place underneath the turf that people don't consider. So here we're looking at the base from a profile, and you can see that we have about three inches. We recommend three inches because it's actually your drainage. There's other items in here such as air drain, and there's other materials that you need to consider as the base components.

Also considered underneath the turf are elements like this, which is gopher guard commonly used to protect your yard from being torn up by, of course, gophers. Another base item is something called PDS tile. This is used to form a layer in between the turf and the rooftops so that you have a usable area in large high rises and so forth. And then finally, there's alternatives to base, such as air pave or air drain. This is designed to carry weight, like we did in the installation in front of Chase Center where trucks have to drive over it. It's also used in another way to help with air drainage for dog urine.

As you can see, there are other items to choose below the turf, including base and the other options that are available to you.

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