Costs for a properly installed lawn will include site preparation, soil cultivation and amendments, trenching for irrigation, an irrigation system and drainage (pipes, fittings, controllers, values, electric, etc.), the sod or seed, the labor to prepare the site and install the new lawn materials.
Of course renovation will include the removal of older systems, sod, roots, etc and the hauling and dumping fees to get rid of all the old materials. If you are going to do a complete cost analysis for your prospect — include all the above for the “natural lawn” area.
Other “natural lawn” long term costs include:
- Equipment for maintenance
- Fertilizers, seed and other treatments
- Water and electricity to run systems
- Replacement and repairs
For busy prospects, using lawn care companies is quite popular. On the west coast, monthly service fees for 1000 square feet of lawn might run between $50 to $65 for mowing and cleanup. Other lawn care services are charged separately.
If you don’t provide these services, you can easily determine what a local professional’s charges are by doing your own cost comparison.
What about the unknown costs? How many times will the area have to be re-sod? How often will weeds and other pests need to be treated? How will activities, traffic and animals affect the lawn and create other maintenance issues or costs? What about the time and energy that a do-it-yourselfer invests in the care of the lawn? What about the totally subjective issue of “drive-by appeal”?
Water costs for maintaining a lawn in somewhat arid areas (Northern California) can range from a low of $18 per month to over $300 per month. The difference is based upon the communities’ water costs and delivery systems.
You can find out your water costs by calling your local water company offices. They may also have studies you can use to determine local use and lawn watering recommendations. Of course, any Master Gardener group can provide you information about local recommendations on lawn care, including installation requirements for a healthy lawn.
Water studies, based upon a typical 4 person household, show that a home with 1000 SF of irrigated lawn area will use 60% of a typical summer water bill on the cost of watering the lawn. That is why, during drought, most communities will ask owners to stop watering lawns first!
Other than the intangible values of the smell of a newly mowed lawn or the thrill some do-it-yourselfers get from the hum of their electric edge-trimmers — synthetic grasses and artificial turf solve a whole bunch of issues that not only show an awesome return on your investment, in a properly prepared cost analysis, they are the only solution for many problems encountered using “natural lawn”.
Synthetic grass and artificial turf is easily cleaned and maintained with minimal equipment, has the durability, flexibility and safety factors built in to stand up to the demands of high traffic and aggressive play and can provide a beautiful, lush green area where natural lawn products may not thrive or are impossible to grow.
That’s Priceless!
