Turf built on 3 to 4 inches of compacted base by a Boerne crew, for the shaded side yards, dog runs and back yards where grass keeps failing. Rated 5.0 by 74 homeowners.
We are a design and installation company that also lays real sod, so we have no reason to talk you into turf. Four situations make it the right call in this market.
Shade under mature live oaks. Under about 4 hours of direct sun, no grass sold in San Antonio will hold. Not Raleigh St. Augustine, not Zoysia. If a side yard or the north face of the house has failed as lawn two or three times, that is not a maintenance problem, it is a light problem, and turf solves it permanently.
Dogs. A dog run in real grass is dirt by the second month. Turf takes the traffic and the urine, provided the base drains and you rinse it.
The water rules. SAWS and the City of Boerne both sit at one day a week. A lawn that only gets watered on Wednesday between 7 and 11 is a lawn under stress every August. Turf takes that decision off the table.
Small, awkward areas. Courtyards, strips between a driveway and a fence, the patch inside a circle drive. These are the places where running a whole irrigation zone for 200 square feet of grass never made sense.
Turf gets hot. On a July afternoon in full sun it runs well above the air temperature, hotter than concrete. If the area is where your kids play barefoot at 4 p.m. in August, we will say so before you sign. Shade, a sail, or a different material is the honest answer.
At 1,500 square feet and up in full sun, the cost of turf against the cost of Bermuda sod plus water stops being obvious, and a large expanse of synthetic grass in a front yard reads as synthetic from the street. We would rather sod it.
Turf under a heavy live oak still needs blowing off, and oak catkins in spring will sit in the pile. It is lower maintenance, not no maintenance, and anyone who tells you otherwise has not maintained one.
Turf laid over ground that already holds water will hold water under the turf. If your yard ponds, the drainage gets fixed first, or the turf job includes the drain. We will not pave over it.
Boerne is a stronger turf market than the city, and for reasons that are specific to the ground here.
Deer. Nothing eats turf. On a Boerne lot where the deer have already taken out two rounds of planting, a turf lawn plus a deer resistant bed of Texas sage, salvia and Mexican feather grass is a plan that survives.
Rock. Out here you hit limestone at 4 to 8 inches. That is bad news for grass roots and good news for a turf base, because the base wants to sit on something firm and compacted. What it changes is the drainage: water that used to run across the surface has to be given somewhere to go, so turf jobs on rock lots often include a drain line under the base tied out to daylight or a catch basin.
Heat. Hill Country summers are the real durability test. Cheap turf goes flat and shiny in the first two summers. The fiber and the backing matter more here than they do in a mild climate.
Dog runs and putting greens. These are the two most requested turf jobs we get in Boerne and Fair Oaks Ranch. A putting green is a different build from a lawn: shorter pile, a much more precisely graded and compacted base, and cups set before the turf goes down.
We strip the existing grass and soil to a depth of 3 to 4 inches, more if the area needs to sit flush with a patio or a walkway. On a caliche lot this is where we find out whether we are digging or cutting.
If water was already sitting anywhere in that area, the drain goes in now, under what will become the base: a perforated line in gravel, tied to daylight or a catch basin. Fixing it later means pulling the turf up.
3 to 4 inches of crushed road base goes in, graded to fall away from the house, then wet and compacted with a plate compactor in lifts. Compaction is the step that separates a turf lawn that is still flat in year eight from one that ripples and holds puddles by year two. A putting green gets a finer top layer and a lot more time on the grade.
Geotextile weed barrier over the compacted base, then the turf rolled out and left to relax in the sun so it lies flat before it is cut in. Seams are glued and taped, not just butted together, and the perimeter is nailed every 4 to 6 inches into the base. Every roll on a job runs the same direction, because turf has a grain and mismatched panels show up as a colour change in afternoon light.
Silica sand infill is brushed into the pile to hold the blades upright, ballast the turf and let it drain. Dog areas get an antimicrobial infill instead. Then it gets power broomed. Infill is the step budget installers skip, and turf without enough of it goes flat and starts to wrinkle.
These are typical installed ranges for this market, not a quote. Turf is priced by the square foot and almost all of the variation is in the base and the access, not the grass itself.
Two things worth knowing. Small areas cost more per square foot than large ones, because the setup, the delivery and the compactor cost the same for 200 square feet as for 2,000. And a quote under about $8 per square foot in this market is almost always leaving out the base, the infill, or both. That is the part you cannot see and the part that decides whether the lawn is flat in five years.
Good turf lasts 15 to 25 years. Compare it against sod plus twenty years of water under a one day a week restriction and the arithmetic usually works, but we will run it honestly with you rather than assume it does.
Everybody asks and most installers dodge it. Artificial turf in direct San Antonio sun in July gets hot enough to be uncomfortable on bare feet, hotter than a wood deck and hotter than the air. Cooling infills and lighter coloured fibres help at the margin. They do not make it feel like grass.
What actually works: put turf where there is shade for part of the day, or where the use is a dog run, a play structure area, or a putting green rather than a barefoot lounging area. A hose rinse drops the surface temperature quickly. If the spot you have in mind is full sun and barefoot, we will tell you before you spend the money, not after.
Yes, through perforations in the backing and down through the compacted base, which is why the base matters so much. On a limestone lot where the water has nowhere to go once it is through the base, we add a drain line under it.
Not up through the backing if the weed barrier and base are done properly. What does happen is that seed blows in, lands in the infill and germinates on top, particularly along edges and seams. It pulls out by hand or spot treats. Anyone promising zero weeds forever has not maintained turf in Texas.
15 to 25 years for good turf that was installed on a proper base. The base is what fails first on a bad install, not the grass.
Yes, and it holds up better than grass in a run. Use an antimicrobial infill rather than plain silica, keep the base draining, and rinse it down. Solid waste gets picked up the same as on grass.
Yes, with a drainage layer and a pad, as long as the concrete already drains somewhere. It is a common fix for a hot, ugly patio slab.
Blow or rake off leaf drop, brush the pile up in high traffic areas once or twice a year, top up infill every few years, and rinse dog areas. That is it. No mowing, no watering, no fertiliser.
We build them. Different turf, a finer and more precisely graded base, cups set before the turf goes down, and a fringe of a longer pile around the outside. Price per square foot is higher than a lawn because the grade tolerance is much tighter.
Quality turf is UV stabilised and holds colour for well over a decade in this sun. Cheap turf goes shiny and grey. This is one of the places where the price difference is real.
If the yard has the sun for it, real grass is often the better answer.
Water under a turf base has to have somewhere to go.
Deer, rock, shade and one day a week watering.
No charge and no salesperson. Someone comes out, looks at the yard, and tells you what it needs. We work in Boerne, Fair Oaks Ranch, Helotes and northwest San Antonio, Monday to Friday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
28991 IH-10 W, Suite 104, Boerne, TX 78006
travislandscapingtx@gmail.com
