Artificial lawn sources (Canada)

[el_steak]

We're going to go ahead with a big landscaping project around the pool soon. Not too far from the pool (outside the fence) there will be a play area for our kids.

After seeing it a the kid's daycare, I tought that using synthetic grass for that area would be a good idea. I haven't shopped around much, but on the web I found a company called Synlawn (http://www.synlawn.ca) that sells the stuff. However, the price they quote on their site (5-7$ a square feet) is higher than the price of the hardwood floors in my house...

Does anybody know another source in Canada (preferreably around Ottawa) that would have a good product at a reasonable price ?

 

[Molson]

Have you thought about EcoLawn? It it actually grass, but a different species that requires little to no cutting and is apparently soft like carpet.

 

[Rob]

One caution on artificial grass.

It's still early, but they've found really high lead levels associated with certain types of it recently. I realize in this day and age, everything is bad for you, just raising this up there

 

[el_steak]

It's still early, but they've found really high lead levels associated with certain types of it recently.

Yep, I've read that. It seems to be associated with the higher-end Nylon type and not the Polyethylene type.

 

[EskimoPie]

I have Synlawn in my yard... I'll have to get around to taking some pictures... I don't think the pictures I've posted before had the lawn installed yet. We have two little boys (1.5 and 2.5) so we wanted a 'grass' surface in the yard for them to run around and play on.

We wanted a synthetic lawn for several reasons... I don't want to waste my time mowing and weed-whacking several times a week. When I had a lawn in NY it was always a pain to keep it looking perfect. I don't want to have to fertalize, or re-seed it every year... Basically I just didn't want the hassle the comes with a lawn.

Because we wanted a play structure for the boys we ended up getting the SynPlay product. It's their high-end turf with a foam backing so that it's rated for 8 foot falls without serious head injury (hopefully).

Anyway, we're really happy with it. The main down-side is heat. In the hot arizona sun it gets HOT... I'm talking hotter than concrete in the sun hot. It's not a deal breaker for us since it's really only crazy hot in the mid-day sun and you don't really want to be running around in Tucson in the mid-day either.

In a nut-shell we'd recommend it highly.