Artificial Grass Installation in Sydney

The method, in order

1. Excavate. The existing lawn and roughly 75–100mm of soil come out (closer to 100mm if the area will see vehicle traffic). Any sprinkler heads in the area get capped off rather than left live under the new surface.
2. Weed membrane. A permeable membrane goes down over the exposed base to suppress weed growth pushing up through the turf later. Practice varies a little between installers here, so it's worth confirming it's included.
3. Base layer. Road base or crushed rock goes in, wet down and plate-compacted, then screeded level with crusher dust and screeded a second time to get an even fall toward drainage points and clean lines against kerbs and garden borders.
4. Compaction, twice over. The base gets compacted at least twice, as firm as it can reasonably be made. This is the step that determines whether the lawn stays flat or starts to dip and pool water within a couple of years.
5. Lay with consistent grain. Rolls go down running the same direction so the pile catches the light consistently rather than showing seams. Joins are trimmed along two stitch lines, taped underneath with synthetic joining tape, and the fibres brushed off the glue line so it disappears.
6. Secure the edges. On soil, turf is pegged at roughly 30–40cm intervals around the perimeter and joins. On concrete or pavers, adhesive and a foam underlay are used instead of pegs.
7. Infill. Sand infill (typically 10–15kg/m²) is power-broomed into the pile to keep the fibres standing upright, add weight against wind lift, and help drainage.

Why DIY most often fails right here, at the base

Laying the actual turf isn't the hard part. Most reasonably capable DIYers can manage cutting, joining and dressing a small area. Where it goes wrong is the base: renting a plate compactor and doing one pass instead of two, guessing at the depth of road base instead of measuring it, or skipping the weed membrane to save a step. None of that looks wrong on install day. It shows up twelve to eighteen months later as low spots that pool water, edges that lift, or a surface that feels spongy underfoot instead of firm: the exact failure pattern CHOICE and Australian installation guides both flag as the main reason professional installs outlast DIY ones.

What a proper itemised quote includes

A quote worth comparing against others breaks out excavation and old-lawn disposal, base materials and compaction, the turf product (by tier, see our artificial turf cost breakdown for Sydney), joins and edging, infill, and labour as separate lines. A single "$X per square metre, all-in" figure isn't necessarily a bad deal, but it's harder to check what's actually included; ask the installer to itemise it before you compare two quotes side by side.

How long will it actually take?

There's no honest generic answer here: a small courtyard and a large sloped backyard are different jobs, and access (can machinery get to the area, or does it need to be barrowed in) matters as much as square metreage. A proper quote comes with a firm timeframe attached once the installer has actually seen the site, rather than a "usually X days" line pulled from a marketing page.

Sydney-specific notes

Two things come up often on Sydney jobs specifically. First, a lot of newer builds sit on smaller, more tightly landscaped blocks than the Sydney of a generation ago. Narrow side-access courtyards and small rear yards are common, and installers who work these blocks regularly tend to quote them more accurately than a generalist. Second, soil varies a lot across the metro area (sandstone in parts of the north and east, heavier clay further west), and that variability affects how deep the excavation needs to go and how drainage falls are set out. It's a good question to ask a prospective installer directly: have they worked your specific suburb's ground conditions before?

Three worked examples of what that means in practice. Sandy coastal ground drains freely but settles if it is not compacted properly, which is the main thing to get right for synthetic turf in Randwick and the beaches around it. Established inner-north streets bring a different problem entirely, mature trees and the roots that come with them, so fake grass in Ryde often needs the base set out around root zones rather than straight through them. Out in the Hills the ground is heavier clay that holds water, and a job like turf installation in Castle Hill lives or dies on the drainage falls set during excavation. Same method, three different base builds.

If you're deciding between a full professional install and a DIY roll from a hardware store, our DIY-vs-professional comparison walks through where each approach genuinely makes sense. And if pets are part of the picture, our guide to artificial grass for dogs in Sydney covers the extra considerations for a dog-friendly install. Not sure where to start? Our overview of artificial grass quotes across Sydney walks through what you get at each price tier.

Related reading

• Synthetic turf across the Hornsby Shire
• Balcony and rooftop turf in Sydney
• Laying a synthetic lawn: the full build sequence
• Synthetic turf across Sydney
• Sydney artificial grass prices per square metre
• Hardware store artificial grass in Sydney
• Pet-friendly synthetic turf Sydney
• Fixing turf to concrete, pavers and balconies without pegs
• Judging a synthetic lawn's quality yourself